It can take up 400x digital zoom, so basically you can take pictures from far away, and zoom them further on the computer, or even on the camera afterwards. It's kinda weird, but I know I'm getting a better picture than what I'm seeing on the tiny screen. When I move it to computer; I see details that I couldn't see. Which is great (I think they kept the optical zoom down because they tried to make the camera really small, which means the screen on the back isn't very big. (Mostly it's all screen back there, but on a very small camera -- well that's still a small screen.)
It also has this setting for close-ups, and major closeups. Like if you are doing a tiny flower, and want to see every detail. . . I love this feature, and truly I set it for most of my portrait shots since it really catches the details.
I wanted a higher opitcal zoom, but what was very important was the digital zoom (since that is the picture you will end up with.) My mother has a digital camera with a higher opitical zoom than digital. Well you think you are taking these great detailed pictures, then move it to the computer and they are further away than you thought and grainy. So I said "Nope, either the optical and digital match, or the digital needs to be higher than the optical zoom."
I hope this makes sense; I'm afraid I'm writing this quickly before I have to go pick my kids up. |