Editing Digital zoom (section)

{{Short description|Magnification of a digital image}}
{{More citations needed|date=July 2020}}[[File:Zoom.gif|thumb|Zooming]]
[[Image: Digital zoom example.png|thumb|right|Digital zoom has been used to create the middle photo from within the top photo. The image quality has been lost. No quality is lost however, with the lens zoomed-in optically for the bottom photo. Typically, the digital zoom is not available until the optical zoom has been exhausted.]]

'''Digital zoom''' is a method of decreasing the precise [[angle of view]] of a [[Digital photography|digital photograph]] or [[Video|video image]]. It is accomplished by [[Cropping (image)|cropping]] an image down to an area with the same [[aspect ratio (image)|aspect ratio]] as the original, and [[Scaling (geometry)|scaling]] the image up to the dimensions of the original. The camera's optics are not adjusted. It is accomplished electronically, so no [[optical resolution]] is gained.{{Citation needed|date=August 2021}} Digital zooming may be enhanced by computationally expensive algorithms which sometimes involves artificial intelligence.<ref>{{cite web |
url=https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/8500290/keywords#keywords |title= Image Zooming Using Corner Matching |access-date=May 5, 2018}}</ref>

In cameras that perform [[lossy compression]], digital zoom is preferred to enlargement in post-processing, as the zooming may be applied before detail is lost to compression. In cameras that save in a lossless format, resizing in post-production yields results equal or superior to digital zoom.{{Citation needed|date=August 2021}}

Lower-end [[camera phone]]s use only digital zoom and do not have optical zoom, while many higher-end phones have [[Smartphone#Cameras|additional rear cameras]], including fixed telephoto lenses that allow for the simulation of optical zoom. Full-sized cameras generally have an [[optical zoom]] lens, but some apply digital zoom automatically once the longest optical [[focal length]] possible has been reached. Professional cameras generally do not feature digital zoom.{{Citation needed|date=August 2021}}