The lens or the manual should state what the zoom actually is on a camera stating "XX ZOOM!!!" everywhere. For example, my camera is 10x zoom. But you can read in the manual that the lens is 38-380 mm. The "10x zoom" only means that it is 10 times the widest angle, which is 38 mm.
My first digital camera was strictly point and shoot, no manual settings. It was 3x optical/5x digital, bought in 2002. I wasn't into photography, only wanted to take digital pictures back then, but the first think I read was never to use the digital zoom for the reasons posted already.
After reading a bit about photography and more than simple snapshot photo taking right before my daughter had her Christmas program at school, I found it quite comical seeing all the people holding their cameras out at arms length and being able to see on their screens, moving into the digital zoom range, as well as using a flash 200 feet from where the kids were performing.
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Mike
No dSLR for me. Just a little Fuji S700 and a cheap Walmart tripod.
Feel free to edit anything I post on DPS for repost on DPS.
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