Quote:
Originally Posted by SeaKing
She kept getting in my face while taking pictures and I wondered why. I found out the iPhone didn't have an optical zoom, only a digital zoom, though it did have 8MP.
I am told that essentially is equivalent to a 8MP/9 (about 1MP) 3x optical zoom camera at a distance. (I am waiting for someone here to explain why that is true or not true. I am not sure.)
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Digital zoom is a total waste of time. What it does is crop the centre of the image (so instead of 8MP you get 5, or 3 or less, depending on how much you zoom in), and then later that tiny image is extrapolated to the optical resolution of the lens (so 8MP in your sister's case) via software. Basically each pixel becomes several pixels and some algorithm tries to figure out what those other pixels are supposed to be based on the neighbouring pixels. An analogy would be to cover a photograph which a checker-board (where half the boxes are transparent, the other half opaque), and then generating the full picture from the half you can see.