Is digital zoom useful, or is it the same as cropping later?
Asked 5/28/2011
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What does digital zoom actually do compared with using optical zoom and then cropping the image afterward? If I take the same photo without digital zoom and crop to the same area later, will the result be the same? Are there any real advantages to cameras offering high digital zoom?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
15y ago
2 Answers
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No, it does not have much use.
Digital zoom is a restricted form of cropping:
- It is always done around the center.
- It is constrained to certain fixed increments.
- It is limited in quality by the firmware of the camera.
On the other hand, cropping can:
- Be of arbitrary size.
- Be taken from any part of the image.
- Be processed using a variety of state-of-the-art algorithms designed to produce higher-quality results than your camera can.
- Is reversible if you use a non-destructive editing software such as Lightroom or Bibble.
Originally by user1620. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user1620
15y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Digital zoom is usually just an in-camera crop of the image, so in many cases the result is effectively the same as taking the full image and cropping later.
Compared with cropping afterward, digital zoom is more limited: it usually crops only from the center, offers fixed zoom steps, and relies on the camera’s firmware for any resizing or processing. Cropping later is more flexible because you can choose any part of the frame, any crop size, use better software, and keep the original image if you edit non-destructively.
Its main advantage is convenience. It lets you frame tighter in-camera and get a ready-to-share JPEG without needing computer editing. That can save time if you’re shooting lots of images and want immediate results.
One caveat: if you are recording reduced-resolution JPEGs rather than full-resolution files, in-camera digital zoom may preserve more useful pixels in the saved file than cropping that smaller file later.
So, for best quality and flexibility, optical zoom or cropping afterward is usually preferable. Digital zoom is mainly useful for speed and convenience.
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