While the best camera phones keep getting better, it's important to consider the optical zoom vs digital zoom question. Let’s start with the arguably better choice: optical zoom.

Modern phones with optical zoom usually have lenses with 3x-10x optical zoom. Trying to zoom in further than that should result in loss of quality, as you would technically be using digital zoom.

Optical zoom works by using lenses to magnify a far off image, filling the entirety of the image sensor. You’ll see lots of cameras and zoom lenses listed by their zoom ratio, say 3x, 10x, 20x ...

Take a look at the zoom lenses available to SLR owners. In comparison to the retractable zooms on compact cameras, they’re not only much bigger, but also much more expensive. There are a number ...

This is why digital zoom never provides results that are as crisp and clear as an optical zoom image – it really should only be used in a worst case (no other options) scenario – that is if ...

Late last year Panavision introduced a new lens line, the Primo 70. These lenses are specifically designed for use on larger sensor digital cameras and, according to Panavision, cannot be used on film ...

Anticipating this exciting evolution in digital acquisition guided Canon's developments of a new optical platform in recent years to meet the current and future imaging needs of high-resolution camera ...

Shoot at 1x instead of digital 2x. In all the conditions noted above in which you know a 2x digital zoom will be used instead of the 2x optical, you can opt to set magnification to 1x and then ...