Check out the Dell Store on CNET
Digital cameras: Why provide/buy digital zoom ?
Does digital zoom allow you to alter the brightness better?
by Gleaner87 - 11/11/05 12:15 PM In reply to: Why provide/buy digital zoom ? by mutchkrDigital Zoom is worthless, unless you are going to print directly to a photo printer and bypass a computer all together. And even some of those printers allow you to do some cropping and enlarging. But what about exposure?
If you have an area with a wide variation is brightness, does going into digital zoom mode allow you to alter settings for the particular area you are interested in more accurately than staring at a tiny area of the camera's display and guessing?
Sometimes its better than nothing!
by im2late - 11/11/05 12:34 PM In reply to: Why provide/buy digital zoom ? by mutchkrThe ONE AND ONLY time I found digital zoom useful on my old 2x camera was at an Elton John concert I attended in Radio City where the stage was sooooo far away and the usual projection screens were available for viewing the performance.
I tried taking some shots of the images on the projector screen but we were too far away from the screens to get a decent sized image on my old Canon S10 2x 2mp camera. 2mp images do not take very kindly to enlargement so I used a MODERATE amount of digital zoom and captured an image that was of acceptable size and quality.
Digital zoom can be useful
by icepop4who - 11/11/05 2:31 PM In reply to: Why provide/buy digital zoom ? by mutchkrThe digital zoom feature used in cameras and cellphone is a crucial part of digital photography. Digital zoom allow cellphone camera to remain pea-sized, while in cameras, it provide the extra push you need when you are on the go. You may notice some digital cameras do not allow digital zoom on the highest resolution due to the firmware's limitations, but the digital zoom use the real-time image sensor to mix the pixels providing much better results from jpg file.
Who are you trying to please?
by beeser - 11/11/05 8:47 PM In reply to: Why provide/buy digital zoom ? by mutchkrLike anything in life, if the ultimate final product suits you, than it’s just fine. That said, most advanced and professional photographers choose to shoot with their camera in RAW mode. This is basically a dump of the image sensor’s contents to flash memory. No “in-camera” processing (digital zoom, compression, sharpening, saturation, etc) is done. It is essentially a digital negative. In this mode, one only has to concentrate on the subject, composition, exposure and focus. Final adjustments are relegated to the digital darkroom via software such as Photoshop.
If you are a serious photographer and can afford it, get a digital SLR (which doesn’t even provide a digital zoom). Otherwise get the most optical zoom and resolution you can afford. Digital zoom is a marketing gimmick best suited for ultra-compact/low resolution image capturing devices like a cell phone where the form factor cannot accommodate the space requirements of an optical zoom.
Digital zoom. Different standards.
by Papa Echo - 11/12/05 12:21 AM In reply to: Why provide/buy digital zoom ? by mutchkrInteresting discussion.
Digital zoom is useful if you need it, and you need it if you want that once-in -a-lifetime, never to be missed far far away shot. Ok, the results will be imperfect, but imperfect only because it is compared with the standards of optical zoom, and that is a wrong standard to be compared with. Think of ''digital zoom'' as a different ''product'' from ''optical zoom'' - a different product with different standards and characteristics of its owm. We should be comparing digital zooms of different cameras, or with the ''digital zoom'' produced by photo editing programs. Surely, they are not all exactly the same ?
The focus is therefore on ''Need''. Need to get a far away object in focus, although the result will be ''imperfect'', it will be acceptable; but I will say the result may well be perfect if compared to the ''digital zoom'''s own standards. There are digital cameras with 12X optical zoom and digital zoom extends that to 48X. How big an optical zoom lens would that be ? At what cost ?
If you can imagine a photography competition limited to using ''digital zoom'' only, you will be judging ''imperfect'' photographs, and one of these ''imperfect'' photographs will win first price, but that same photograph may well be rejected if compared to the standards of optical zoom.
So, do not dismiss digital zoom. Switch it off if you have no use of it, but do not condemn it. For others, it is a welcome tool.
Digital Zoom sensitivity
by wasnot - 11/12/05 9:53 AM In reply to: Digital zoom. Different standards. by Papa EchoYes, we must be sensitive to digital zooms feelings.
Yeah
by Ed-duh-win - 11/12/05 9:10 PM In reply to: Why provide/buy digital zoom ? by mutchkrYeah. What is exactly a digital zoom? Its useless...they should put more optical zoom into my Minolta 5MP camera. It only has 3X optical, and its not enough! We at least need somewhere between 6X and 8X of optical to make sense, since you're trying to zoom. 3X is crap. Digital zoom is a piece of sh*t, it doesnt to any good. Please tell me, electronic freak if you're reading this, what a digital zoom really is?
A digital zoom really is....
by Papa Echo - 11/13/05 1:22 AM In reply to: Yeah by Ed-duh-win...what it says it is - zoom created electronically, or if you like, ''magnification'' by electronic means.
• Electronic zoom is an extension of optical zoom,by magnifying further the highest magnification obtained by optical zoom within the same lens.
• It is entirely different from optical zoom
• Do not compare them - it serves no purpose to do so.
• You may, however, contrast them, so as to bring out the differences, so you know when to or not to use it.
• Electronic zoom is used for situations when optical zoom is not available- a better-than-non situation. It is for a different purpose.
• Electronic zoom does not replace optical zoom. You won't find for sale a camera with only electronic zoom.
• To obtain the magnification of an electronic zoom, an ''optical zoom only'' lens would be bulky, heavy and expensive.
• If the need arises to use electronic zoom, then its ''imperfections'' and ''short comings'' would be accepted by the compromising users.
• Etc.
There is no magnification in digital zoom. There is nothing
by Kiddpeat - 11/13/05 7:27 PM In reply to: A digital zoom really is.... by Papa Echoto magnify with. It simply makes pixels larger so that a small portion of the image is 'enlarged'. When it does this, it throws away pixels that the camera's sensor is capturing. All of this can be done in software after the image is recorded without throwing pixels away.
oom and magnification...
by Papa Echo - 11/13/05 8:25 PM In reply to: There is no magnification in digital zoom. There is nothing by Kiddpeata small portion of the image is 'enlarged'.
I read "enlarged" that as magnification.
All of this can be done in software after the image is recorded without throwing pixels away.
Not all can afford "software". If a small portion of the image is "enlarged" by software after being "recorded", then the dpi or in digital photography, ppi suffers. Pixels are not "thrown away" ? But they are seperated more...., i.e.the resolution suffers. If one can afford "software" to zoom, then one can afford the software to reduce the noise from a digital photograph. So, it is that user's choice on how to zoom.....
Software which enlarges an image may do so without changing
by Kiddpeat - 11/13/05 11:53 PM In reply to: oom and magnification... by Papa Echothe pixel count, or it may maintain the pixel density, or it may strike a balance between the two. Digital zoom cannot do this. The resolution suffers far less than it does in the camera which has, at best, limited programming to handle this issue.
I don't know how noise got into the discussion. Perhaps you should elaborate on this comment. Noise generally results from low light. Are you saying that digital zoom adds noise?
PS: Magnification is not done by enlarging pixels.
by Kiddpeat - 11/13/05 11:57 PM In reply to: Software which enlarges an image may do so without changing by KiddpeatMagnification adds detail. Larger pixels do not add detail. They may even obscure the detail.
details cannot be ''created'' by digital zoom, only by optic
by GoodTimeCharlie - 11/16/05 12:06 PM In reply to: PS: Magnification is not done by enlarging pixels. by KiddpeatIf the detail is not captured at the time of the 'shutter' being clicked (ie: an 8 megapixel -vs- 2 megapixel camera with a quality glass lens -vs- a cheap plastic lens) the details will never exist (in the raw original pictures file).
Digital "smart" zooming (if enlarging past the optical zooming max) may attempt to ''create'' new pixels (not new details) by averaging the colors of the surrounding pixels. This effectively blurs the image a bit more each time the image is digitally zoomed (verses just cropped).
You can see this by shrinking an image by making it a jpeg/gif ... pixels are cut/deleted and the image becomes smaller but loses detail. If you then re-expand an image that was saved in the shrunken format you will not end up with the original picture by any ''smart/digital zoom'' function.
Go for a quality optical zoom lens when making your purchase ... digital zoom should only be thought of as a quick (and dirty) ''cropping'' tool.
Happy snapping ....
| Forum legend: | |
 |
Locked thread |
 |
Moderator |
 |
CNET staff |
 |
Samsung staff |
 |
Norton Authorized Support team |
 |
AVG staff |
 |
Windows Outreach team |
 |
Dell staff |
 |
Intel staff |
