Do I need optical zoom??

[no_tech_skills]

Is it even worth buying a camera that does not have optical zoom? I'm not huge on pictures...I will use it a lot for selling items online. I was looking at something simple: Vivitar 6150s Silver 6 MP Digital Camera.

Some specs:

Aperture: F3.5
Digital Zoom: 4X
Dimensions: 3.6" x 2.2" x 0.95"
Focal Length: 6.7mm (35mm Equivalent: 40mm)
Image Sensor: CCD
Resolution: 2612 x 2122
Sensitivity: Auto (50~200)

I don't even know what "aperture" is; I know digital zoom is nothing compared to optical zoom; and I don't know if the focal length, image sensor and sensitivity are any good. I appreciate anyone's knowledge.

[BonjiB]

I've never used this particular camera but digital zoom is basically cropping the edges off the picture inside the camera. It decreases resolution. I'd try not to use the digital zoom unless you really had to because usually better results can be obtained from even a basic piece of image editing software. If you don't NEED an optical zoom, don't pay for it. If all you're doing is taking snapshots of stuff you're selling this camera will suit your needs well. If you want to use it personally for taking pictures of friends, family, or some other "artsy" type stuff then i'd say it's not all that great of a camera. But as with any camera purchase, buy what suits you. There are lots of alternatives in the 100-150 price range that i personally think would be a better choice.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=425438&is=REG&addedTroughType=categoryNavigation

I have an a410 and it's a great little camera. It has a good image sensor and a good lens on it. Don't let the megapixel marketing scam fool you. I'd rather have a 4 megapixel camera with a good quality clean sensor than an 8 megapixel with a crappy noisy grainy sensor. That's why the 6 megapixel canon 10d takes far better pictures than the 8 megapixel fz30. I just has a better cleaner (and granted larger) sensor. With that being said i leave it to you. Good luck.

[Sintares]

Well for taking shots of items to sell online I suppose digital is alright since you can always just move closer, but still , a little extra money and you would have a decent camera for all round use.

Digital zoom is basically cropping the center of the pic and then enlarging it to fill the full area of the pic. And since the crop has less data, the camera needs to add data to fill in the space, to the missing data is interpolated (estimated) by the camera and the space filled with this phantom data.

Think of newsprint, look at a picture from far away and it looks quite smooth, look at it closely and you see the dots with space surrounding it.

Basic digital zoom (not the so called Smart Digital Zoom) , crops the image by taking the centre of the image ,that only has a small amount of data (dots) and fits it into the same area occupied by the normal sized picture. So the picture is now a small number of dots in a large area, very obvious , so the camera interpolates, guesses what the missing dots are and fills them in to fill up the space .

So your picture becomes blurred, smeary and looks poor.

Spend a little extra and get a quality camera, even a simple 3megapixel camera is fine for printing up to A4 size (8inx11in)

[no_tech_skills]

I'd rather have a 4 megapixel camera with a good quality clean sensor than an 8 megapixel with a crappy noisy grainy sensor.

How do I know if it has a "good quality clean sensor" or a crappy one? The Vivitar I was looking at has a CCD, and your a410 has a 1/3.2" CCD. What's the difference? Thanks.