Smartphone Photography Tip of the Week -- Beware Digital Zoom

What is digital zoom? It's a way to artificially "zoom in" on a distant subject before you take the photo. You can do this two ways. The most common is to pinch and spread the image on your screen. The more you spread your fingers apart, the larger your subject appears in the image. You can also "zoom in" by pressing and holding on the lens icons on the screen. After a second or two, a scale appears and you can drag left or right to change the amount of zoom on your subject.

Left -- Telephoto lens
Right -- Maximum digital zoom

But there's a drawback to this "extra" telephoto effect. The camera is actually cropping and enlarging the center of the original image. Then it creates more pixels (the color squares that make your digital photo) to fill in the spaces around your enlarged subject.

The results are usually of poor quality. When you enlarge the photo, you notice that details are smudged and crisp edges disappear. The more you zoom in beyond what your telephoto lens can capture, the more your picture loses detail and sharpness.

Left -- Telephoto lens
Right -- Maximum digital zoom

Even though the deer is smaller in the left picture, above, the overall sharpness is much better than in the larger deer in the photo on the right.

You can use a little digital zoom when necessary. Just be aware that the more digital zoom you apply, the more the quality of the picture suffers. For the best quality pictures (detailed and sharp), avoid using any digital zoom at all.

Because most phone cameras don't have very long telephoto lenses and digital zoom produces such poor results, phone cameras are not suitable for far away wildlife or birds. A traditional camera with a longer lens provides much clearer results.

Left -- Traditional camera with telephoto lens
Right -- Smartphone camera with maximum digital zoom