While researching digital camcorders, I noticed that the product descriptions always play up the optical and digital zoom. But what’s the difference between the two types? Is one more important than the other?

From Cnet:

“As with digital still cameras, the optical zoom of a camcorder determines the number of times a camera can magnify an image through its lenses. Take note that this is different from digital zoom which simply takes a portion of an image and enlarges it, resulting in a loss of quality. Optically zoomed images enlarge the picture without sacrificing quality.

Bearing this in mind, it is important to look at the optical zoom power rather than the digital zoom rating on the camcorder to determine the actual amount of zoom you need. In fact, we don’t even recommend using digital zoom since it affects the quality of the video capture. Instead, look out for at least a 10x optical zoom lens which is commonly found on most camcorders today and would generally be more than sufficient for most users.”

Well, it looks like the optical zoom seems to be the most important. Optical zoom refers to the ability to preserve the image, while digital zoom is just the basic zoom capability of the device without regard to image quality.

Most camcorders have a optical zoom between 10x and 42x. And even better, many affordable camcorders have high zoom capabilities. Take this Sony DCR-DVD610 for example. It has a 40x optical zoom, while only costing around $294 - $352 bucks.