Camera Digital Zoom

Is it better to use in-camera digital zoom or crop and resample with software?
By. Sue Chastain

Question: Is it better to use in-camera digital zoom or crop and resample with software?

Answer: Do me a favor. If your digital camera offers a digital zoom option, go get your camera right now and turn this option off! Don't use it... ever!

Digital zoom does not capture any additional detail than the maximum optical zoom of your camera. Instead it uses interpolation to make a portion of the image larger by adding extra pixels. Just as your photo-editing software does when you resample, the camera has to "guess" at how the new pixels should be added to give the illusion of increased detail. But detail that was never there to begin with cannot be recreated.

Now you may be thinking, "If it's the same as using software to resample, I'll save myself the extra step and go ahead and use digital zoom."

Not so fast!

Whether you are using optical or digital zoom, the closer you zoom in on a subject, the harder it is to get correct focus and exposure. Also, problems created by camera shake are intensified. So an image that is captured with digital zoom is more likely to turn out worse than one captured at maximum optical zoom then cropped and resampled in your photo editing software. If you still don't believe me, go take some test shots and compare.

Another advantage of using photo editing software to resample is that many software programs have a variety of resampling algorithms to choose from. Some methods can give better results than others depending on the subject matter of the photo.

A higher megapixel camera will give you more freedom to crop and still get good quality prints, but if you really like to shoot close-ups, you should invest in higher optical zoom or a telephoto add-on lens.