To digital zoom or not to digital zoom ...

[Virgil]

As in my first thread here stated i´m a very happy camper when it comes to the digital zoom capabilities of my Samsung NV11. Although i was skeptical first as i´ve learned that digital-zoom is a no-no. But the Samsung NV11 does a very good job if you use the digital-zoom moderately.

What is your experience with the digital-zoom of your Samsung Camera?

Please share your experience along with shots for illustration. I´m looking forward to your comments.

Cheers
Virgil

[David Metsky]

All digital zoom is doing is cropping the image. You can do that with more control and better quality on the computer, but it requires a bit more time and effort. Since I post process all my photos, it's not a big deal for me. If you don't like to do that then a moderate use of digital zoom is fine. The problem is usually when people overdo digital zoom - image quality degrades pretty quickly.

[Beowulff]

I totally agree with David's opinion on digital zooming — do it on your PC.

In my humble opinion, advertising "digital zoom" on a camera is pure, unadulterated marketing hype, and if I had my way (which I won't LOL) I'd totally ban the inclusion of a digital zooming facility on all cameras.

You'll be much happier with the end result using your PC's more powerful imaging software, rather than the Mickey Mouse firmware in your camera.

Cheers :)

[Virgil]

Thanks for the comments so far - hope others chime in as well.

Cheers
Virgil

[Xoote]

i love digital zooming

[Beowulff]

i love digital zoomingDigital zooming is okay (maybe!) if you're absolutely desperate to get a shot that you can't quite frame properly with the naked eye, but bear in mind that all your camera is doing is cropping and resizing the image. This causes interpolation of the pixels (or signals from the sensor's photo-receptors) which in turn causes excessive "noise" in the finished image.

If you need to "zoom", you're much better off doing so with a dedicated graphics program (such as Photoshop) on your PC.

Cheers :)

[sw2cam]

DigitalZoom is in the off position on every camera I own that has OFF as an option.

[Turn]

I hate digital zoom, its an abomination to Photographers society and a spit in the face for all those who use it


really...use your PC to crop

[Virgil]

Giving a general statements as "you're much better off doing so with a dedicated graphics program" or ban it with the rather harsh argument "its an abomination to Photographers society" is something we should be carefull with.

Nowadays we see cameras doing things which have been unthinkable some months or years back. For example - in-camera noise-reduction - Fuji demonstrated with their P&S cameras or - most recently - Nikon in their pro-DSLR´s D3 / D300. Same goes for any other in-camera feature usually handled in post-processing.

So we should be open minded and welcome every new feature without banning it in general. At least until we thoroughly tested it against the traditional way and found that it yields worse results in comparison!

Cheers
Virgil

[Beowulff]

Sorry, but you're still missing the point that so-called "digital zooming" isn't in reality zooming. You can only "zoom" an image by physically shifting elements in the camera's lenses — there's simply no other way to truly "zoom".

And, "digital zooming" demonstrably degrades your image quality. Whereas the noise reduction you mention — as an example of in-camera image improvement in Fuji's cameras — actually works, but for several vastly different, and more sophisticated, technical reasons.

Digital zooming is actually a very primitive technology that uses cropping and interpolation to create an apparently larger image.

This site explains it a lot more clearly than I ever could:

CamridgeInColour (http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/image-interpolation.htm)

Hope this helps to clarify it. :)