Compensation of optical zoom by higher resolution (Megapix) ?

[Roland willems]

I want to by a camera with at least 5x optical zoom and 3 Mpix resolution.
I have seen a demo from the Sony cybershot V3, which is unfortunately 'only' 4x optical zoom (+2x digital zoom).
My question is if the high 7 Mpix resolution compensates the quality of the (normal sized) picture when put on the digital zoom.
Meaning, if I take a normal (no zoom) picture at 3MePix, and compare this with a picture taken at 7 MePix and 3x opt + 1 (or 2x) digi zoom (of course taken from a distance to get the same picture), can you see a big difference in quality in both (normal sized) pictures ?
If not, I would go for higher pixelsize else I need higher optical zoom.
Many thanks, Roland, Belgium

[Balrog]

IIRC, using Sony's 'smart' digital zoom, if you used the V3 to take pictures at 3MP output size, you could get up to about 1.52X digital zoom without any quality loss, which would be about 6X total.
However, if the res isn't so important to you, and the zoom is, why not check out some of the "super zoom" class of digital cameras? The Panasonic FZ5, for example, is a compact yet full-featured 5MP camera with 12X optical zoom. Others you could check out are the Konica Minolta Z5, Fuji S5100, Olympus C765, etc. If it's gotta be a Sony, then I think they'll be releasing their own 12X zoom camera pretty soon, the DSC-H1.

[Newbie]

Well, first of all, there is 1 thing that we need to know... You want 5x zoom(or the equivalent), but 5 times what ?

For example, if you take the Olympus C8080, you get 5x zoom, but the lens goes from 28mm to 140mm. Compare this to your V3, it starts at 34 and goes up to 136mm... The difference between those 2 cameras at telephoto is marginal. But if you compare it to a camera such as the Casio Ex-P505, which is also a 5x zoom camera, the lens starts at 38mm and goes up to 190mm at telephoto; in that case you'll such a much bigger difference than in the previous example.

Now, assuming you want to get to the equivalent of 200mm... Then you'd have to use digital zoom of 1.47x OR to crop to get the same result. In that case you'd end up with a picture the equivalent of a 3.2mp camera. Of course it would be much bigger in size, but when printed you'd be able to consider it as tho it was a 3.2mp picture.

So that is the answer to your question.... of course there are many other possibilities, such as move closer, buy another camera, use an adapter, etc.
I simply wouldn't suggest buying the camera if you plan on ALWAYS using digital zoom, I consider that its a good thing to have for this time when you need it.

[gary_hendricks]

I agree with Balrog... I would go with Sony. They offer a very high quality camera that offers exactly what you're looking for!

[Roland willems]

Thanks for your replies.
I might wait for the new sony H1 but there's no time. I'm in the US (I'm Belgian) the end of April so...
Maybe I might consider the new Panasonic Lumix LZ2 which has 5 mega and 6 optical zoom.
Good choice ?

[Balrog]

LZ2 is a great camera, 6X optical with a stabilizer so you can get sharp pictures .. however it doesn't have full manual controls (aperture priority, etc), so if that's important to you, maybe you should go with something else.

[Roland willems]

I'm not sure about the aperture. I don/t know much about cameras.
It will be used mostly for photographing children in and outside doors.
The most important thing is that the cam has to be fast (low shutter lag), high opt zoom (>4) and LCD at least 1.8".
And of course give me some nice (normal size) pictures.

[speaklightly]

Roland-

You might also want to consider that the LZ-1/2 also have no optical viewfinder. Therefore, all of those pictures of fast moving children both outdoors and indoors are going to have to be framed using the LCD>

Sarah Joyce