What is the difference between advanced zoom and optical zoom in a camcorder?

Answer 1

In any sort of camera, you can magnify a scene by increasing the focal length of the lens (the distance between the lens and the film or CCD). An optical zoom lens is a single lens unit that lets you change this focal length, so you can move from one magnification to a closer magnification. A zoom range tells you the maximum and minimum magnification. To make the zoom function easier to use, most camcorders have an attached motor that adjusts the zoom lens in response to a simple toggle control on the grip. One advantage of this is that you can operate the zoom easily, without using your free hand. The other advantage is that the motor adjusts the lens at a steady speed, making zooms more fluid. The disadvantage of using the grip control is that the motor drains battery power. Some camcorders also have something called a digital zoom. This doesn't involve the camera's lenses at all; it simply zooms in on part of the total picture captured by the CCD, magnifying the pixels. Digital zooms stabilize magnified pictures a little better than optical zooms, but you sacrifice resolution quality because you end up using only a portion of the available photosites on the CCD. The loss of resolution makes the image fuzzy.