Question from a camera novice

I'm of the just point and shoot camp. I don't know anything about iso or any of that stuff. I just like taking pictures of my kids and pets. :D

So, I've been using a HP 5mp camera. It has a 3x optical zoom and an additional 5x digital zoom. I know the digital zoom works by just increasing the size of the pixels. I don't use it much because the pictures tend to get grainy looking. Now, I've just purchased a 10mp camera. It also has a 3x optical zoom and digital zoom.

My question is, with the higher megapixel camera, will I still get the grainy look when I use the digital zoom? My novice thinking is that since there are more megapixels to work with, hopefully I'll still end up with some nice pictures even when I have the use the digital zoom to get in close enough.

Does this even make sense? :D

Thanks for any help and/or tips and pointers.

in theory, yes

try it out is the only way to know

When I got an Olympus C700 years ago, it had a 10x zoom and some kind of large digital zoom beyond that. I took lots of shots with the digital zoom, thinking how cool it was to be able to zoom in that far. Like you, I found that the pictures came out choppy.

A zoom lens in and of itself is a compromise. A zoom lens cannot maintain a completely sharp picture throughout the range of the zoom. Typically, when the lens is zoomed either all the way in or all the way out, the picture quality is not as good as you'd get by zooming somewhere in the middle. With each zoom lens, there's a "sweet spot". This is why on better zoom lenses, you'll see a smaller zoom range than you might expect. For example, the Canon 24-70L lens is large and impressive-looking, and many people upon seeing such a lens assume you can resolve the moon landing sites with it. Not true; it only has a focal length range of less than 3x. But the picture quality is amazing. On the other side of the coin, I think zoom lens engineering is better than it ever has been. I shoot mostly with a lens that would be considered something like 11x. And yes, there are the compromises I mentioned, but if you're not shooting for National Geographic, no one is going to notice. I bring all of this up just to point out that having a zoom lens in the first place is something of a compromise, and I don't think you'll want to use digital zoom, because it degrades the image pretty severely, in my opinion.

I'd go with the 3x optical zoom and crop pictures when necessary to make the subject larger in the final picture--the 10MP camera sensor will lend itself to fairly major cropping. Use the digital zoom for the non-artistic have-to-get-the-shot situations, such as newsworthy but distant events.

Enjoy the camera.

thank you for the detailed explanation.

With the 3x zoom, I either use no zoom at all, or I zoom it all the way out to the 3x, just before it hits digital zoom. I'm going to experiment with using something in the middle. Maybe I can get some better shots!

I really am a camera novice, but I do enjoy getting those really good shots of my kids. Where the eyes are so clear and the faces look so sweet. Although the older they get, most of the time I hear "Mom! please, no more pictures!" :D

I don't want to leave you with the wrong impression about either end of the optical zoom range being "less perfect" than the middle of the zoom range. While this is true, the effects are barely noticeable to normal people like you and me. It's the pixel peepers, the gearheads and the high end pros who notice these small deficiencies. The digital zoom, on the other hand, shows pixellation and other bad stuff that's very noticeable to you, me, and anyone else who looks at the pictures. So please do use the entire optical 3x range you have--I think you'll be happy with the results. But be wary of redlining into the digital zoom range--the picture quality will get worse rapidly through that part of the zoom. Sorry if I didn't communicate that as clearly as I should have before.

Regarding my kids and pictures...I like to zoom in on them from a distance (optical only!) in an attempt to get a more candid shot. Of course, they're acclimatized--I often have a camera around my neck and I think they mostly ignore me now.

Digital zooms will always reduce your clarity.