Want to get closer? Then it's optical zoom vs digital zoom. But what are they and which is best to use? When it comes to smartphone photography, zoom is something you really want to use carefully ...

All zoom lenses in film cameras and digital single lens reflex (DSLR) cameras are optical zoom. Digital point-and-shoot cameras as well as consumer and prosumer video camcorders have optical zoom ...

The optical zoom is the real resolution of the lenses. The digital zoom is an interpolated resolution computed by software. The higher the optical number, the better. A 10x optical is far superior ...

If your phone has 3X optical zoom, everything below 3x (2.9x, 2x, etc.) will be digital zoom or hybrid zoom. The only exception is perhaps the Sony Xperia 1 V, which integrates a movable periscope ...

After taking more than 4,000 photos with the Galaxy S25 Ultra in the past four months, here's what Samsung's camera powerhouse does well and badly.