this post was submitted on 10 Sep 2026
158 points (95.4% liked)
Technology
87980 readers
2372 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related news or articles.
- Be excellent to each other!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
- Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.
Approved Bots
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Well, it's why we distinguish "optical zoom" and "digital zoom". In its broader meaning, "zoom" means magnification and nothing more. I do agree with you that optical zoom is superior in every way, but if you shoot a 2x digital zoom image on a binning sensor its resolution will not be an upscaled "lie" as is the case for digital zoom generally.
I am not trying to defend marketing deceptions or pretend that optical and digital zoom are alike. I just wanted to mention this piece of technical information so that someone that cares can know that if you do want to zoom beyond the optical capabilities of your phone (provided it has a binning sensor, basically every "50MP" phone does*), exactly 2x is the way to go, as it is indeed higher quality than shooting at 1x and cropping to 2x afterwards.
*Admittedly this point is kind of moot because most phones have a dedicated telephoto camera that uses a different, smaller sensor when you switch to 2x. This only applies if your tele is 3x or higher or you have a single lens with a sensor >>12.5MP
If you are going to split hairs on it not being a lie then I am going to split hairs on it not being magnification.
Please do, I'll gladly read your argument.
No you won’t. Just like you didn’t read it in the other thread.
It's pretty hard to read something that was never written, all your arguments seem to remain in your head. You've yet to articulate anything at all, what exactly did I not read? If you did explain to some length how and why you think that posting anything that is not OC is harmful, then I do admit to missing it and would appreciate a link. But that's fully besides this discussion.
I am actually serious, I am curious and eager to read the argument for digital zoom not being zoom at all you said you're going to make and will read it with full attention. I commented because I like photography and sharing accurate information, not because I have a bone to pick with you.
I’ll say it again… Lemmy does not need to be a copy of Reddit. If you disagree with that then disagree with it. But acting like it’s not a valid point is just ignoring my argument.
I also already made my point here. Zoom requires a zoom lens not just a focusing lens and not less pixels. No matter what tricks you played 35mm is never going to be zoomed in full format and the same is true for digital.
This is the last time I repeat myself for you.