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Digital camera/camcorder zoom vs resolution question

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Danny Kewl
Posted: Tue Nov 30, 2004 5:27 am
Guest
Hi, I'm looking to buy a decent digital camera, and perhaps a camcorder
also. It seems to me, maybe I'm wrong, that the ones that offer better
resolution (more megapixels) do not have as high an optical zoom factor as
lower resolution models. So, for example if I got a 6 MP camera that only
had a 3X optical zoom, would this get a closer and cleaner shot than a 2 MP
camera with maybe a 6X optical zoom? The 6 MP is taking a much larger image?
On digital camcorders, seems like the slightly better consumer grade ones
only have 10X optical zoom, but maybe more pixels in resolution vs. some
less expensive models that have 18X or even 20X optical zoom, but somewhat
less pixels in the resolution. Is there a relationship? Thanks in advance.

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Crunchy Doodle
Posted: Wed Dec 01, 2004 9:13 am
Guest
Generally, optical zoom factor does not degrade the image quality. That
is, my Canon S1 IS is a 3.2MP camera with an image stabilized 10X
optical zoom. There is no degradation of the image at 10X zoom. Then
there is digital zoom. This is maybe what you are talking about. A high
MP camera with 3X optical zoom, can use digital zoom (image cropping)
to compensate for the lack of high optical zoom factor. It's a
trade-off of image quality verses zoom.

Camcorders are a little different. With DV camcorders, you are kind of
stuck with 720x480 resolution, no matter what the internal CCD
resolution is or what the optical zoom is. So all you get is optical
zoom for good image quality. My Panasonic PV-GS400 has three CCD
sensors that are over 1MP each. This does not yield clean high quality
digital zoom. It's still stuck with 720x480 resolution. The extra MP
yield 4.1MP stills and quite good electronic image stabilization in
addition to its good optical image stabilization.

Bye.
 
dannykewl
Posted: Tue Dec 07, 2004 5:52 pm
Guest
Thanks much for the help.

DannyKewl

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"Crunchy Doodle" <CrunchyDoodle@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1101903182.657801.68520@c13g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
Quote:
Generally, optical zoom factor does not degrade the image quality. That
is, my Canon S1 IS is a 3.2MP camera with an image stabilized 10X
optical zoom. There is no degradation of the image at 10X zoom. Then
there is digital zoom. This is maybe what you are talking about. A high
MP camera with 3X optical zoom, can use digital zoom (image cropping)
to compensate for the lack of high optical zoom factor. It's a
trade-off of image quality verses zoom.

Camcorders are a little different. With DV camcorders, you are kind of
stuck with 720x480 resolution, no matter what the internal CCD
resolution is or what the optical zoom is. So all you get is optical
zoom for good image quality. My Panasonic PV-GS400 has three CCD
sensors that are over 1MP each. This does not yield clean high quality
digital zoom. It's still stuck with 720x480 resolution. The extra MP
yield 4.1MP stills and quite good electronic image stabilization in
addition to its good optical image stabilization.

Bye.
 
 
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