Digital Zoom vs TC

[MichaelLee]

I am thinking of 3 options to overcome the limited X3 zooming power of C5050z.

a) Shoot at full optical and digital zoom at highest resolution.
b) Shoot at full optical zoom at highest resolution and do all the cropping+enlarging in PS.
c) use a TC

If I am correct, a TC gives the best quality. However, if the final print out at most will only be 5R, is there any diference of image quality among the 3 solution that I can think off ?

your suggestion and advice are of course most welcomed.

thanks

 

[meng]

Editted: made a careless mistake...

ranking from best to worst:
c>b>a

Originally posted by wong_se
I am thinking of 3 options to overcome the limited X3 zooming power of C5050z.

a) Shoot at full optical and digital zoom at highest resolution.
b) Shoot at full optical zoom at highest resolution and do all the cropping+enlarging in PS.
c) use a TC

If I am correct, a TC gives the best quality. However, if the final print out at most will only be 5R, is there any diference of image quality among the 3 solution that I can think off ?

your suggestion and advice are of course most welcomed.

thanks

 

[sehsuan]

no idea how much a TC would cost, but i'd shoot at the highest resolution first, because i'll have the most optical details to work with before i chop away the unnecessary bits

and it's the most cost effective, too.

 

[Tweek]

your best option will be B. If your largest print size is 5R, then option B lets you have the best 2.5X teleconverter, at no cost at all. I'm saying this cos a 2MP image is enough to give you a sharp and good 5R print, and cropping a 5MP to a 2MP one will give you aproximately 2.5X "magnification".

second best option is C.

the worst is option A.

 

[sehsuan]

i guess most of us are supporters of Optical Image information rather than Interpolated Image information...

 

[mpenza]

Originally posted by Tweek
your best option will be B. If your largest print size is 5R, then option B lets you have the best 2.5X teleconverter, at no cost at all. I'm saying this cos a 2MP image is enough to give you a sharp and good 5R print, and cropping a 5MP to a 2MP one will give you aproximately 2.5X "magnification".

second best option is C.

the worst is option A.

hmm... not exactly true. cropping 5MP to 2MP actually is only 1.6x. Zoom/teleconverter is measured in terms of a single dimension of length and not area.

 

[Tweek]

Oh ya hor...I keep getting confused at that. Thanks for the correction mpenza.

I still advocate option B though.

 

[mpenza]

how abt changing your camera? lack of zoom was one of the chief reasons for me upgrading from my first (Kodak Palmpix) and second (Fujifilm 4700Z) digital cameras.