We’ve all done it. Saw an opportunity for a cracking photo, grabbed the phone, launched the camera app, pointed, and then being so far away, tapped to zoom in to get a clearer shot of something in the distance. It works great for digital photography, but try to print a photo, you’ll notice obvious snags in the quality of the print. The reason is that phones don’t yet, all have optical zoom technology. It’s coming, but until then, you need to know what you’re working with.
The Difference Between Digital Zoom and Optical Zoom
Your smartphone comes with a list of features. If you don’t have the packaging, look up the model online to see what you’re working with in terms of the megapixels of the camera lens and the technology behind them. All ‘smart’ phones now have digital zoom technology. Not all have optical zoom. Digital zoom is a double-edged sword. It uses software in your phone to crop into an image making it appear closer than it is. It can lose some precious details that don’t become obvious until printed. Then you’ll notice pixelation and blurriness.
Optical zoom is more sophisticated, and it doesn’t rely on software alone for editing. Instead, the zoom function is done with the camera lens. Not all smartphones have optical zoom, but those that do, have presets. They don’t work like DSLR cameras that can have continuous and variable zoom. Instead, you’ll get features like the Galaxy S23 Ultra which has 2 lenses with optical zoom. One is the 70mm telephoto lens, and the other is the periscope lens with a 10x optical zoom. They magnify shots to the specified amount (3x or 10x), but outside of those exact ranges, digital zoom creeps in.
Digital zoom is essentially a workaround because with phones being designed to fit in your pocket and to be lightweight for carrying around, it’s impractical to have multiple lenses. That’s why professional photographers need bags to carry their kits. Different lenses have different functions.
Every digital camera has technology integrated. Variable zoom uses presets which is what we’re seeing on newer phones. 3x and 10x magnification. Digital zoom is computational. That’s where the pixels can become blurry because a computational edit is done on the fly.
How to maintain quality when shooting with the zoom feature on your phone
When shooting photos intended to print and frame for a personalised wall display, it’s best to use your camera's preset functions. If that’s 3x optical zoom, that’s the limit. If it’s 10x, shoot at that magnification. Optical zoom maintains pixel integrity resulting in a sharper print quality. For devices that don’t have optical zoom, instead relying on digital zoom only, you can still get clear images, but there may be some pre-editing required. This is where the megapixel count of your camera lens comes into the equation. The higher the megapixel of your camera lens, the bigger the canvas you have to work with when editing.
The more megapixels the camera has, the larger the image you can print. It’s also worth mentioning that the higher the megapixels, the more detailed the images are, and the higher the sensitivity becomes for motion blur. As an example, shooting with a 12 mp lens can create great stills, but up that to a 36 mp camera lens and the slightest motion can result in blurriness. That’s when phone accessories like tripods and the like become advantageous for getting quality personal prints.