Camcorder zooms

[claire]

Do camcorders have optical and digital zoom? What’s the difference between the two?

[Constantine]

Yeah! Just like digital cameras, it does have two types of zoom, the optical and digital zoom. Optical zoom ranges from 2x to 20x magnification while the digital zoom ranges from 20x to 800x magnification. In optical zoom, there is a need of a physical movement of the lens but digital zoom enlarges the size of the pixel to increase the size of one section of a picture resulting in a significant reduction in the picture quality. Well, if you plan to buy a camcorder, you need to check it first if it has the two types of zoom, not all camcorders have.