njqt, I have to join the rest of the chorus - your tech friends misled you. Here's a simplified explanation. The optical zoom is in the optics (lens) of the camera, and basically works like adding a telescope to your lens. It magnifies the image
before the camera records it. The digital zoom is in the electronics of the camera, and basically functions like an image editing program -
after you record the image, it enlarges it and crops the edges. So, with the optical zoom, you get the enlarged image recorded on the full number of pixels of the optical sensor in the camera; with the digital zoom, you are only getting the resolution of the cropped image, possibly half the full resolution your camera is capable of.
So its worth getting the highest pixel resolution you can?
Thanks, that's very informative. I'll keep looking ^_^
Cool. Also, I've seen this new popular brand called Megxon, sometimes Tekxon.
It SAYS its 12MP but it says the CMOS is only 7MP...so does it really only enlarge the image to 12MP resolution and not have 12MP quality? Just 12MP size...
I was thinking of buying it but not sure since it sounds a bit suspect.
I'll have a look around. I've been using a Lumix camera at work and its amazing. Even at 1MP it takes good quality pics. I think they're a bit expensive though?
That's it, in a nutshell, SLB. The advice of several on here to read side-by-side reviews is essential. Some cameras with higher advertised resolution only interpolate that higher resolution. Some cameras with a higher actual resolution don't produce as good an image as other cameras, due to inferior optics or optical sensors. You just have to do a lot of homework, decide which features are most important to you, then decide which camera delivers the most value for you per pound spent.
(My partner and I use a Canon PowerShot S2 IS. It does great stuff, most of the time!)
