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The term zoom comes from the English verbzoom, which in literal translation means "enlarge the image." When choosing a camera, many are guided by the number of pixels of the matrix, although this indicator is not the main one. Like dozens of years ago, the main factor in image quality is still optics.

Optical zoom

Optical zoom is a method of approaching an objectusing a lens system, which is why it's called that. Optical zoom in photographic equipment has existed for more than half a century, and a high-quality image enhancement effect is achieved with a special device called zoom, which is a complex optical system with the ability to change focus with multiple lenses. Increasing the subject by means of the zoom lens helps to get an image at the output without loss of quality. The zoom can be of two types: with manual mechanical focusing or with automatic focus adjustment, which is convenient for amateur photography, but it is useless when creating a professional picture, for example, in macro mode. Autofocus does not provide high sharpness at multiple optical approach of a photographed object. In a word, in cameras with automatic focusing, the magnification is usually not more than three times, whereas when using a mechanical zoom it is possible to approximate the object by more than ten times. Among the disadvantages of cameras with manual adjustment of sharpness and approximation (optical zoom), there is often a risk of dust entering the lens.

When choosing photographic equipment with digital zoomyou need a golden mean between the number of megapixels of the matrix and zoom zoom, because even with zero and five times the zoom, the image is fixed on the same number of megapixels.

Digital zoom

The definition of digital zoom appeared together withdistribution of compact digital cameras, which in the people were nicknamed "soap boxes". The digital zoom is not associated with the approach of the object, since the image displayed on the display is only stretched using the camera's matrix, being a framing method with a significant loss of quality.

In advertising cameras or gadgets with a camerayou can often see a mention of a three or fivefold digital zoom. Paradox, but this function is most often useless, because a five-time digital zoom reduces sharpness several times.

With digital zoom, the picture loses its sharpness, soas the focusing in this case is simply absent, because focusing and sharpening can be only if the camera has an additional optical system. As a rule, the use of digital zoom is justified for increasing the object by no more than 40-50%, because with greater scaling the sharpness of the picture will be very low.