Q: What is the difference between optical zoom and digital zoom?

A: Optical zoom is similar to what you find in a regular 35 mm camera. When you press the button to zoom in or out, physical lens elements move inside the camera to achieve the desired effect.

Digital zoom responds to the zoom button, but instead of moving parts, the camera uses its "electronic brain" to "see" the image, and then digitally zoom in, usually two or three times closer. The problem with digital zoom is that you lose image quality. The images tend to be more pixelated than the same image taken with an optical zoom camera. This is due to the interpolation that the camera uses, which is how the camera interprets how the picture should look while zoomed in.