Zoom

What Is Zooming In Smartphone Cameras? Close-Up of Smartphone Camera Lens. In smartphone photography, zooming is simply a way to magnify ...

It is about how much your camera can adjust its focal length and the power of the underlying software that can help it improve image magnification beyond its optical abilities. Digital zoom is a software-powered attempt to replicate the results of optical zooming. Nonetheless, optical zoom is the "true form of zooming" and offers similar results as you'd get if you moved closer to the subject. In traditional photography, one of the ways you can zoom in is by swapping your lens to one with your preferred focal length. Say you have a smartphone with a 20MP camera and want to do a 2x digital zoom. Instead, when you want to use a 2X zoom, your smartphone will switch to another camera that matches the focal length needed to achieve that zooming power. Before getting excited about zooming power, you need to ask yourself: "How many of it is actual optical zoom?" Unlike in DSLR cameras, optical zoom in smartphone cameras isn't achieved by the actual movement of mechanical parts to adjust the focal length. Whether it is a DSLR-type camera or your smartphone camera, zooming is achieved by varying or adjusting the focal length of your camera. Unfortunately, zoom lenses that can adjust their focal length aren't a thing yet on smartphones, so optical zoom in smartphones is achieved by alternating between cameras of different focal lengths. In smartphone photography, zooming is simply a way to magnify an object of interest in front of the camera or make it appear closer. Of course, in a more general definition, zooming also covers a way to de-magnify the appearance of an object to make it appear further than it actually is.