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General discussion

How much Video Actual Res,Optical, Digital zoom is good?

Mar 26, 2005 10:44PM PST

I am planning to a Mini-DV camcorder. I was comparing SONY's two models. HC32 and HC42. In HC32 Video resolution is 340K Pixels; 20x Optical and 800x digital zoom. In HC42: video resolution is 690K Pixels; 12x Optical and 480x digital zoom.
I am comparing only on these parameters. Please suggest which one is better choice for Home and vacations use only.

Discussion is locked

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How much Video Actual Res,Optical, Digital zoom is good?
Mar 28, 2005 6:17AM PST

The higher the optical zoom the better. Even small amounts of digitial zoom can look bad. John

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digital zoom
Mar 29, 2005 2:41AM PST

You shouldn't care about digital zoom parameters. Optical zoom is very important. If you are using a tripod, then go for the largest optical zoom. If you are shooting hand-held, you don't want to zoom too much anyway, so it should not matter. Digital zoom, as you will see, is not very useful..