Optical Zoom: The ability to magnify a subject for close-ups, by adjusting the camera's lens assembly (thus the name 'optical'). Most current digital cameras include an optical zoom lens of some kind. The amount of zoom commonly varies between 3X and 20X, 3X being less range and 20X being considerably more. Although optical zoom specifications may look low compared to digital zoom specifications, remember that optical zoom is the way to go, since it won't result in image degradation.

 

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Optical Zoom: The ability to magnify a subject for close-ups, by adjusting the camera's lens assembly (thus the name 'optical'). Most current digital cameras include an optical zoom lens of some kind. The . . . View Full Definition

Digital Zoom: The ability to magnify an optical image digitally, using interpolation. Digital cameras can come with quite high levels of digital zoom, but the image quality suffers noticeably as more digi . . . View Full Definition

Zoom Control: Zooms the display in on the area around the cursor or between the cursor and the display center to enhance the view of a target area.

Zoom In Or Zoom Out: A function of the zoom lens wherein the focal length is varied from wide angle to telephoto (zoom in), thereby magnifying the object as the angle of view is narrowed--or vice versa (zoom out).