See my comment in your 4K/X thread about digital zoom.
This isn't Hollywood. Digital zoom only works in TV and at the movies. You may get away with a little digital zoom, but not much.
If you want to IDENTIFY things at distance, you need the optical zoom to capture that distance. Optical zoom is more important than MP.
All three cameras I linked have autotracking and because it optically zooms in, you don't get the blur you get when you digital zoom a fixed lens camera.
Here is a great example of two images taken at the same time (early AM while still dark out) of the same person 60 feet away from just slightly different angles - one from the 5442-ZE 4MP set to 3.6mm that I digitally zoomed to make the person about the same size as the person in the 2MP varifocal optically zoomed.
In case someone cannot figure it out, the 4MP that is
digitally zoomed in is the B&W picture and the 2MP varifocal
optically zoomed in is the color picture LOL.
I think most would agree that the
optically zoomed 2MP picture beats the
digitally zoomed 4MP picture - you can make out details and read some of the signage and make out bolts, etc. that are just a blur on the 4MP, which is being benefited by the same light the 2MP camera is getting plus the IR.
See this thread on the importance of focal length, along with examples comparing a digital zoom to an optical zoom.
At the urging of several folks here, I created a thread to show the importance of focal length and how focal length can be more important than megapixels (MP). I mentioned some of this in the post regarding The Hookup’s latest video demonstrating different cameras, including one sold from a...
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