Digital zoom is a method of zooming on a digital camera either by increasing the size of the pixels in the image or by interpolating between them. The image doesn't physically get any closer and no extra information is collected, as the optics on the camera stay in place.

The process on some cameras is equivalent to cropping the image: Only data from the centre of the available image is stored, meaning the resolution or megapixel rating of the photograph is reduced, with a corresponding decrease in file size. The resulting image is identical to a photograph taken with no zoom, except that the unwanted edges of the image are discarded.

Digital zoom works in a similar way to the resize tool in software such as Adobe Photoshop. It can reduce the quality of images significantly, and as such, is not recommended if the picture is destined to be printed out. Most digital cameras on the market today carry this feature and some rely entirely on this zooming technique, lacking any optical zoom capabilities.

Smart Zoom

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A new type of digital zoom currently exclusively availabe in Sony's consumer digital cameras does not degrade photo quality but is only available at resolutions below the camera's maximum. It works by taking a lower resolution crop of a higher resolution view. For instance, while shooting in 3MP mode on a 6MP camera, you would be able to smart zoom into a 3MP window out of the total 6MP capabilty of your camera.

External links

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• Understanding Digital Zoom: Explanation in the context of image interpolation, in addition to a visual example
• What is Smart Zoom?

Digital photography