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Optical Zoom Coming to a Cameraphone Near You

by Tim Stevens on December 19, 2007 at 05:47 PM

SO905iCS The ubiquitous 3x optical (using lenses instead of digital processing) zoom has become standard fare on your point-and-shoot digital camera. But, the little lenses found on the backs of cameraphones tend to be fixed, meaning there's no zooming or focusing offered. For quick snaps of that chick or dude you met at the bar last night this isn't usually a problem, but if you're the type looking to take some serious shots with your phone, that little piece of plastic just won't do. Good news, then, that optical zooming lenses are set to become standard fare on higher-end cameraphones.

Many cameraphones offer what's called a "digital zoom," which does succeed in making a certain part of the picture bigger. But, this is more like cropping, ignoring the portion of the picture on the edges and blowing up the rest so that the overall image is the same size. This does horrible things to quality. An optical zoom, on the other hand, uses a moving lens to change the image that's projected onto the camera sensor. With optical zoom, you don't lose any quality and your pictures stay sharp as you move in.

As cameraphone sensors creep out of the two-megapixel region and start to move toward five megapixels (like the Nokia N96), optical zoom lenses will be installed as well to ensure that the sensors get all the light they need. But should you care? Well, that depends on what you want it to do. If you're okay with your phone just being a phone, then a better zoom probably won't do much for ya. But, if you carry a pocket digital camera and a phone with you wherever you go, this is definitely a feature you will want to look for in your next camera.

From DigiTimes

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Tags: Camera, Cell Phone, CellPhone, Optical Zoom, OpticalZoom

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