Digital Zoom Pitfalls

There are many cheap digital video cameras on the market now following the success of the Flip. Be very careful checking the specifications of these cameras before buying. Most of the one's I have seen offer only digital zoom.

Optical zoom is what you should look for, as this works like a telephoto lens and actually magnifies the image without loss of quality.

Digital zoom only gets you closer by magnifying the original optical view electronically.

In layman's terms, it just uses a portion of the picture by magnifying the pixels, and the result is a grainy, unsharp video.

I'm not saying don't buy one of these camera's - they are great and easy to use. I have one myself. Just don't rely on the digital zoom to get closer. Use your feet and physically just walk closer to your subject.

You'll get a much better result, and a sharper video!