Camera ads no longer listing digital zoom?

[Dai]

For the longest time, I had been seeing camera ads, whether in a Best Buy or Fry's, that listed both the optical and digital zoom abilities. Now, I seem to just see optical listed. Anyone else notice this?

[MaxTheLimit]

I'm no good at photography, but I find when I used digital zoom it made pictures look like crap. I'm betting it has something to do with taking input and stretching it or something.

[Skrying]

That's a good thing. Digital zoom is simply cropping the image. It should never be used, you'd get superior results simply doing your own cropping later.

[Thrashdog]

Yeah, if I had to hazard a guess, it would be that the segment of the consumer market that comparison shops by reading the big shiny numbers on the box has finally clued in on the fact that "digital zoom" is marketing-speak for "crop and upscale."

[Flying Fox]

That's a good thing. Digital zoom is simply cropping the image. It should never be used, you'd get superior results simply doing your own cropping later.

Actually digital zoom on most consumer cams are crop and bitmap stretched, which is even worse than just crop.

[SPOOFE]

I recall "Digital Zoom" being phased out with the advent of consumer super-zooms. When "15x Optical Zoom" started popping up on affordable cameras, people started wondering why they'd bother with a "Digital Zoom" at all.

[Flying Fox]

I recall "Digital Zoom" being phased out with the advent of consumer super-zooms. When "15x Optical Zoom" started popping up on affordable cameras, people started wondering why they'd bother with a "Digital Zoom" at all.

It is still there, just buried in the menus and not advertised as much. The media and blogosphere have done a great job in discrediting the scam that is digital zoom. Of course, we still have it in cell phone cameras but there are a couple of optical zoom cell phone cameras popped up already.