Digital Zoom Versus Optical Zoom – Digital Cameras
Digital Zoom Versus Optical Zoom
Jakob Jelling
The digital camera is but a technological advancement of the conventional analog camera. And thus every component of the analog camera must have been upgraded or changed to bring in some improvisations. This discussion is an effort to unravel alteration and make one comparison between what was and what is! This discussion is thereby focused upon a very critical component of a camera analog as well as digital, the zoom!
Before making a comparison it is important to discuss the significance of the subject matter, in this case the zoom. Well a zoom lens has more than a few portable glass components inside it. By adjusting these components, the focal length of the lens can be altered. Modifying the focal length alters the view distance as well as reduces the field of view, thereby making the projected image to appear larger.
It must me noted that both the optical zoom and the digital zoom are components that are used to magnify an image, but they work in fundamentally different principles and acquiesces drastically different results. In general, optical zooms always produce a far finer and advanced image than digital zoom.
Looking at the functions of these zooms, in digital cameras that offer optical zooms function the same way similar to a zoom lens of a conventional analog camera. A conventional lens works by accumulating light rays that are projected over a portion of a film, and in this case of a digital camera optical sensor. The distance of the lens from the focus point where all of the light rays converge is known as the focal length of the lens. Unlike the optical zoom, the digital zoom works by ranging the pixels in the ultimate image after the image has been captured. The fact remains that the same number of pixels are collected when the photograph is magnified. The only thing that alters is the light rays that are projected over the optical sensors to figure out those pixels.
It is a common intuition that optical lenses are far better than the digital zooms. The reason is that the digital camera zooms are more prone towards computer applications in them rather than mostly human interactions and expertise. Yet, it also remains a fact that beginner photographers find it more useful to handle a digital zoom and also its computer friendly nature. There the computer does the intricate tasks of finding some levelheaded approximation of colors that pixel might take up as it had captured the images or photographs. Many algorithms are existent in this area, but perhaps the most abundantly used algorithm involves looking at the pixels that are quite nearly like neighbors and come up with a kind of an average. Anyways the process remains too complicated and its end result is what the digital zoom users are interested in.
Thus the ultimate truth remains that it is useless to compare digital zooms with optical zooms. Perhaps it is more logical to compare optical zoom with optical zoom and digital zoom with digital zoom. Both these two types of zooms, the optical as well as the digital, have some good and bad qualities. Both of them have some extra features and preferences over the other. And thus it is not wise to compare them, even though a comparison may exist. The efforts would then perhaps look like comparing oranges with apples!
By Jakob Jelling
http://www.snapjunky.com
About The Author
Jakob Jelling is the founder of http://www.snapjunky.com. Visit his digital camera guide and learn how to take better pictures with your digicam.
Identity Theft Scams – Digital Cameras
Identity Theft Scams
James H. Dimmitt
Identity Theft scams continue to flourish on the web. One that you need to be aware of and beware of is any site that seems to be selling high-demand items digital cameras for instance at a much lower almost unbelievable price than you can find on other sites or the manufacturer
Using Photos As Graphics In Marketing Your Business – Digital Cameras
Using Photos As Graphics In Marketing Your Business
Valerie Siple
More and more businesses are seeing the value of photography in marketing their business. Websites, html emails, business cards, banners. Scanners and other digital equipment is HOT! What do you need to know about the subject of photography to take advantage of photos in your business
Many memorable moments would be lost and long forgotten without photography. The most important thing to photography is light. The camera is a precise instrument for capturing light. The word "camera" in Latin means room. The name camera comes from the first invention towards capturing the world on film, the camera obscura or dark room.
This invention came about in the 14th century and was used by such artists as Da Vinci and Michelangelo to more accurately draw their subjects onto paper. The invention of this box made way for more advancements in cameras and photography.
There are five essential items in cameras that make photography possible. They are exposure, refraction, plane of focus, angle of view and aperture. Exposure is the amount of time a camera lets film be exposed to light. Refraction is the bending of light through the lenses of a camera. Plane of focus is the area where light reforms an image in the film. Angle of view is the angle created on a lens when you take the two outermost points you can see through a lens and diverge them to the exact center of the lens. The angle created will be the angle at which the camera can take pictures at. Aperture is the amount of light a lens allows into the camera.
The camera obscura, as mentioned previously, was a large room with a small hole where light could pass through. The development of the camera obscura took two tracks. One of these led to the portable box device that was a drawing tool. In the 17th and 18th century, many artists were aided by the use of the camera obscura.
By the beginning of the 19th century, the camera obscura was ready with little or no modification to accept a sheet of light sensitive material to become the photographic camera. The other track became the camera obscura room, a combination of education and entertainment.
In the 19th century, with improved lenses that could cast larger and sharper images, the camera obscura flourished at the seaside and in areas of scenic beauty.
Of course now there are much more practical ways to take photographs. From the traditional 35mm cameras to the newest cellular phones equipped with digital cameras. Big ones, small ones, and anything else you can think of. There is a camera to fit your needs and lifestyle, or even your color preference. The world of photography has certainly grown a lot over the years. Taking into consideration your usage when purchasing is key to investing in the proper equipment.
About The Author
Valerie Sipple is the webmaster of:
http://www.rgphotography.com
a great resource for everything about photography.