Digital Zoom Comparisons
Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2006 5:55 pm
Sparked from a conversation in chat, here is a comparison of built-in digital zoom quality.
The moss photo was taken using full digital zoom; my camera has a total zoom capability of 36x.
Using full digital zoom at about a 15 foot shoot distance; notice that the photo has retained a high pixel quality.
In comparison, this photo of the eagle was taken at about 1/4 mile shoot distance also using full digital zoom. This is why, if you're going to do alot of outdoor photography it is best to have a DSLR camera which will allow for the use of telephoto lenses. I've included both a resized and original size version of the picture.
800x600 version:
full 1200 x 1600 version:
The main reason for image quality loss is that when you use digital zoom, the camera is trying to focus on one part of the whole picture and enlarge it, in this case it's taking the eagle and trying to add in the right pixels so that it is 36x bigger than what the sensor actually sees. Due to the camera's attempt at pixel matching, it loses all of the smaller detail pixels such as the eagle's beak and eyes, because the pixels for the eagle's white feathers are greater in number, making the sensor match those pixels to fill in the areas it can't "see" clearly. Cameras with a higher total zoom will probably take a better quality photo, but that is not guaranteed as it is effected by many things such as distance, image detail and lighting.
The moss photo was taken using full digital zoom; my camera has a total zoom capability of 36x.
Using full digital zoom at about a 15 foot shoot distance; notice that the photo has retained a high pixel quality.
In comparison, this photo of the eagle was taken at about 1/4 mile shoot distance also using full digital zoom. This is why, if you're going to do alot of outdoor photography it is best to have a DSLR camera which will allow for the use of telephoto lenses. I've included both a resized and original size version of the picture.
800x600 version:
full 1200 x 1600 version:
The main reason for image quality loss is that when you use digital zoom, the camera is trying to focus on one part of the whole picture and enlarge it, in this case it's taking the eagle and trying to add in the right pixels so that it is 36x bigger than what the sensor actually sees. Due to the camera's attempt at pixel matching, it loses all of the smaller detail pixels such as the eagle's beak and eyes, because the pixels for the eagle's white feathers are greater in number, making the sensor match those pixels to fill in the areas it can't "see" clearly. Cameras with a higher total zoom will probably take a better quality photo, but that is not guaranteed as it is effected by many things such as distance, image detail and lighting.