Can you set/reduce/disable digital zoom?

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

kombi45@yahoo.com wrote:
> Ron Hunter wrote:
>
>>Since pictures taken with a digital camera are essentially free, I
>>sometimes use the digital zoom to zoom in on things I see in the
>>distance to identify them. Usually this works well enough to
>
> identify
>
>>the object. So, in that sense, it isn't quite useless, but the
>
> quality
>
>>of the picture inevitably suffers when using digital zoom. Some
>
> digital
>
>>zoom cameras have these 'enhanced' modes, others don't. It can be
>>useful to the overall appearance of the picture, but it is no
>
> substitute
>
>>for a good optical zoom, and can often be done better by computer
>
> software.
>
> Thanks, Ron. Typically, I end touching up ~80% of all my digi photos
> in Photoshop in one way or another anyhow, so this makes sense. So I
> will probably look for a midrange digicam with a strong optical zoom
> and reasonably high MP - probably 8/4 or so.
>
> Ben
>
Something in the range of the Kodak DX7590 would probably suit you.
Unless you are willing to spend in the neighborhood of %1000, you should
stay below the 8mp range to avoid really bad noise problems with low light.
--
Ron Hunter rphunter@charter.net