How important is the optical zoom in a camcorder ?

Hello Neeraj.
I am sure you know by now that optical zoom is the only zoom, anything else does not exist or shouldn't exist.

Optical is the true zoom ratio from the widest to the closest focal length. Digital zoom crops the image to simulate a longer zoom, but in actual fact you are not left with much video data, and it defeats the purpose of buying a camcorder for best picture quality. Digital zoom is a feature that should have never been invented in any camera.

I have to give Canon credit for offering a second digital zoom option that allowed only to use 10% of the digital zoom use in combination to the optical zoom. This would make a 20x optical zoom to around a 30x-80x digital zoom. The 10% digital zoom would only slightly degrade the picture quality, but not really be enough to destroy the original video resolution that the camcorder is capable of.

In-conclusion: You are far better off using coversion lenses to increase optical zoom ratios than using the worst method of digital zoom. That goes for any digital device with a lens.

Happy shopping and good luck!


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Then why are camcorders with less optical zoom more expensive than camcorders with more optical zoom?