Camcorders have optical zoom more then 30x. digital cams 7x. which is a better option to buy for photography ?

Question

Is buying a digital cam a better option or a camcorder which has more optical and digital zoom ?

Answer 1

If you're very particular on still picture quality, get a photo camera - Nikon, Canon, Sony brands are up, DSLRs, that's what these cameras are designed to do.

Most video camcorders do shoot stills too but would never equal the quality. Likewise, a digicam would possibly shoot better stills , but may not equal vcams on video.

For DSLR, try this link:

http://www.dpreview.com/

For camcorders, try this link:

http://www.camcorderinfo.com/ratings.php

Answer 2

You can ignore the digital zoom figures - they don't mean anything!  Optical zoom is more useful, but you need to consider things like the quality of the zoomed image, is it bright enough, how are you going to hold the camcorder steady etc?  A camcorder probably won't give you the same control over aperture and shutter speed as you'd get with a stills camera.