Is My Camera Optical or Digital Zoom

[Glossyshots]

Hello Everyone,

I have a EOS Digital Rebel Camera purchased in 2003. After all these years I am just getting around to learning about photography, and my camera. I am wondering if it is optical or digital zoom. I've downloaded the specs from the website but nothing specifically says so, so I am wondering if anyone out there may know. I would appreciate anyones help.
Thanks so much.

[kuvahmagh]

All DSLRs are Optical Zoom.

Digital "Zoom" is just the camera cropping the photo down so it seems more zoomed in, tha its why they pixilate so much faster.

[BCampbell]

The above is pretty much right. The truth is, it depends on your lens.

A prime lens (for example, the 50mm f/1.8) has no zoom; it's fixed at one focal length.

The 18-55mm lens that came with the camera is a 3x zoom (55/18=~3). Yes, this is optical.

Some lenses can give you "more zoom". A 28-200mm lens would be ~7x zoom. But, in the DSLR world this is not a term that comes out often. We're more concerned with focal length, which is that mm number. You could have a 5x zoom of any focal length -- 10-50mm and 50-250mm are both 5x -- but the absolute focal length tells you just what your field of view will be (combined with crop factor, but don't worry about that for now).

Good luck with your Digital Rebel "300D". It's old, but a very capable camera, I have one too. It'll be great to learn on, mainly because it's a bit more restrictive than newer models. If you run into model-sepcific issues, feel free to send me a PM or find my email. Once you get a handle on the controls, you'll want a better lens, the kit lens leaves something to be desired; even the newer 18-55mm IS lens that comes as the kit lens with newer Rebels is a big improvement, for less than $100.

[Glossyshots]

Thank you so much for the information. I see I have plenty to learn. I am taking it slow learning first about focal length. Thanks again!