How do i use the digital zoom on the SP570 camera?

Question

i know how to use the optical zoom but i can't figure out how to get to/use the digital zoom on my camera. i have the SP570 olympus digital cam. please help! :)

Answer 1

Go through the camera setup menus and look for digital zoom option. It may have several settings, for example "20x", "100x" and "off". Set it to "off".

Then take your pictures using optical zoom only. Upload them to your computer and use any image editing software (of course Photoshop is the best, but even windows paint should do, or download a great free utility called irfanview). Crop out the portion of the image you want to digitally zoom to and save the file under different name.

Let me explain why I told you to turn it off in the camera. The reason is, that when you use digital zoom in camera, what your camera essentially does, is same thing as I described above with image editing software. It crops out the center of the image, then resizes it to look as if it was a full size image. That ruins the image quality and irreversibly throws away the cropped out part.

Digital zoom is a marketing gimmick that allows manufacturers to put a larger number on a camera box. This is not a camera function. Your computer software will be able to process the image much better than the camera. Plus you keep your original. Never ever use digital zoom in camera. It won't close up on a subject, it will just crop your image. You can do it on a computer.

LEM.