#MissionSamsung Optical Zoom 101

There are a couple of functions we've been tasked to play around with for our first mission. While my official "Mission Post" is currently under construction, I thought I'd focus on the Samsung K Zoom's glorious 10X optical zoom. As a photographer, I have often had friends and family asking for advice on a good camera to buy, and I often return their question with another question: what is the level of expectation of the camera they are after. So... this post is addressed to people looking to get a great camera without the great expense simply by comparing the optical zoom and digital zoom values.

Off the bat it may not be known to everyone that optical zoom is hands down so much better than digital zoom. This is important for the layman who can't afford an expensive DSLR and fancy interchangeable lenses but wants to get a small digital camera that takes beautiful photos while still being light and user-friendly. Without being too technical, optical zoom is the physical lens zoom and is also referred to as "true zoom" whilst digital zoom is actually a whole lot of in-camera processing which "recomposes" an image digitally to an enlarged view!

If you know the difference between optical and digital zoom when you're next shopping for a good digital camera, or a phone with a good camera, you won't make a mistake basing the quality of the images that cameras output on the optical zoom value.

The Samsung K Zoom boasts a magnificent 10X optical zoom (24 to 240mm equivalent). Considering the optical zoom and the hefty 20.7MP resolution, this puts the Samsung K Zoom as a camera phone in a league of its own.

I've taken a few shots demonstrating several stages of optical zoom with the Samsung K Zoom and the quality it maintains. I've also thrown a photograph of the same subject into the mix but using my Samsung Galaxy S4 camera to demonstrate a digital zoom comparison. I also went ahead and stretched into the Samsung K Zoom's 20X digital zoom to see how much the image resolution compresses. It's all in the name of fun and being creative.

This is my starter image with the Samsung K Zoom. I have zoomed in slightly to get a good enough overall image without other nonsense distracting from the background.

Here I am zooming in optically to demonstrate the maintenance of clarity in the image.

Beautiful image clarity at 8.1 optical zoom on the Samsung K Zoom

I even went in so far as to the additional digital zoom the Samsung K Zoom has to offer and boy, it doesn't disappoint even though it's a digitally enlarged image.

At the Samsung K Zooms additional digital zoom of 20X, it still holds the bulk of its quality in tact. Only a slight degradation is noticeable.

I then whipped out my trusty Samsung Galaxy S4 to test its digital zoom in comparison.

If you compare the digitally zoomed in output of the Samsung S4 with the optically zoomed in image below (taken with the Samsung K Zoom) you will notice the difference in image compression. Obviously the digitally zoomed in image is not as crisp or near enough as good quality as the Samsung K Zoom's image below.

One amazing photography companion! I am in love with the Samsung K Zoom.