Can some one please explain the finer points of Zoom to me

Am i right in thinking optical zoom is better the digital ??

Ive notice most lower priced cameras have x2/x3/x4 digital zooms while the more expensive models have x3 opitical x5 digital zoom.

Do i need both ? or is optical zoom enough ??

Englander

Yes optical is more important. You can also get max "zoom" by taking photos at full resolution and cropping them. But the amount of zoom is dependent on the type of photos you take. For a small camera the new Olympus C 750 looks interesting, 10x optical 4x digital.

I've got an Olympus something, and it has 8x optical 3x digital zoom, and then there's the fiddling one can do with computer to further enhance it. I love it, and yes, you need that kind of zoom power for great shots.

Frans

Englander,

Forget about digital zoom. It is a mere advertising trick, and should never be used in normal photography.

I suggest you stick to optical zoom, at the highest resolution you can take.

You can play all sorts of tricks with your photos aftewards on the computer - including adding digital zoom.

Another interesting camera is the Panasonic FZ-1. A Panasonic body with a fine Leica zoom lens which also has a stabilzer, the lens speed is the same throughout the magnification range ! An excellent price and don't be put off by the 2 megapixels The megapixel race is mostly hype.

I have the olympus c-730 with 10x optical zoom.It works very well and battery life is much better than other digitals that I have used.