Tip: when digitalzoom is worth it and when not

I heard that the use of a digital zoom is nonsense. Concerns the statement of telephones telephones?

Basically, a motif only cuts digital zoom, according to the selected section.

This leads to a visible loss of quality compared to a telephoto lens, which optically obtains the focal length. The first choice should therefore be the use of a suitable lens. In the Pro-iPhone, the 3 ×-or 5 × teles (depending on the model) delivers significantly better recordings than the main camera with a comparable digital zoom.

As a rule, you do not need to worry about it: The iOS camera automatically uses this module for the respective recording (in contrast to some third-party app). If the optical tele is not enough for you, you have two options:

1. You also use a digital zoom by pulling the preview image apart with two fingers. With the iOS camera of an iPhone 16 Pro you can zoom in up to 25 times.

2. You do not use the digital zoom and instead cut the image itself afterwards.

Four reasons speak for the digital zoom: First, the iPhone adapts the exposure and the focus on the selected image section.

Second, internal image processing optimizes the recording specifically on the enlarged section. Third, the result is automatically scaled to 12 megapixels, which can be an advantage for the presentation and further processing. In our tests, digitally zoomed recordings regularly achieved better or at least equivalent results compared to the subsequent trim. Fourth, they save the rework.

A special feature offer iPhones with 48 megapixel sensor if you have photos saved with 12 or 24 megapixels: for light zoom levels, the main camera accesses a smaller area of ​​the sensor, which, thanks to the pixel reserves, still enables a picture with 24 megapixels (up to focal length 35 millimeters) or at least 12 megapixels (with 48 millimeters)- Without any interpolation.

In contrast, a subsequent cut of a 12-megapixel image on image section would reduce the effective resolution to about 3 megapixels. In summary, use the digital zoom with your iPhone if you absolutely need a larger focal length.