Camcorders: HD vs. SD optical zoom?

Question

I'm looking into purchasing a digital camcorder and I noticed that the optical zoom on standard def camcorders goes up to 40x, whereas high def camcorders only have 10x optical zoom. Why is this?

note: I'm aware that they also have the digital zoom, but there is a generally a loss in picture quality when digital zoom is used.

Answer 1

Good question! Many retailers will try to tell you that the higher the optical zoom, the better. This is a misconception. On the contrary, when you zoom in 30X or 40X, your picture will become uncontrollably shaky, and the picture quality will be worse quality at 40X (it is not as noticeable with optical zoom, but it is still there). Sure, optical zoom is important, but in most cases, you will probably not need more than 10X or 12X. It is true that many cheap consumer camcorders have optical zooms at 30 or 40X, but most professional camcorders have optical zooms of 12X! In conclusion, do not let optical zoom turn away from a camcorder you like. Hope that helps!