Can a drone camera zoom?
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In short, yes some drone cameras can zoom and most old drones camera do not have that option by which you could get the image you wanted. But, there are some differences in zoom options available in drone cameras. To know details I reviewed various drones with zoom and without zoom options.
Drones have widely been introduced in the market where almost everyone would love to use these drones especially new vloggers, photographers, YouTubers, event managers, and others. To make these events and experiences outstanding, mostly you have to capture some close shots where you need to zoom.
Because drones are flying objects that fly in the air and sometimes you have to capture some shots without losing or damaging your drone propellers. Mostly the users don’t have the idea how close drone is to a mountain, wall, tree or any other object like buildings, etc and they get hit which results damaging the propellers of drones and sometimes the whole drone.
In that case, drone lovers need to be careful and avoid such incidents. So, they need zoom options available for the drones and then a question arises in the mind that can a drone camera zoom?
The drone camera can zoom with two different options available. I mean to say that digital zoom and optical zoom. Well, when the drones were built it was not expected that these technologies would be used so widely and will need such enhancements and improvements. And at the start, most of the drones didn’t have the option of zoom or with digital zoom available or optical zoom.
What is the Digital Zoom and Optical Zoom in Drones?
Digital Zoom Option in Drone Camera:
It is the built-in option available in the software or application of drone camera where you the camera with digital zoom enlarges and brings the frame of your photo closer cutting the edges and fitting it your frame.
Digital zoom is the enlargement of the photo/video frames which decreases the resolution and quality of image and video. Consequently images and video quality suffer. Most of the drones have the digital zoom option which is not a zoom but enlarging the frames and lowering the quality of image and video.
Optical Zoom Option in Drone Camera:
Optical zoom in drone camera allows you to zoom in and out without lowering the image and video quality. Optical zoom is concerned with the lenses of the camera which is hardware property rather than software. Optical zoom lenses in drones provide closer shots without sacrificing quality and resolution.
It is the optical zoom that enhances the experiment of your aerial view and drone photography. Optical zoom uses the lens to get closer and zoom in and out in real. And drone camera users may opt for those drones which have optical zoom option rather than digital zoom option.
Now you have learned the basics of two available options for zooming in a drone camera. It is best suggested that you may go for the drone that has an optical zoom option rather than a digital zoom option.
If you are looking for the best drone camera with an optical zoom option so you can get DJI Mavic 2 Zoom and other brands as well. But, be sure to have an optical zoom camera feature available in drone rather than digital zoom.
Can you zoom with a drone camera now?
It depends on your drone camera either it has a feature of zooming or not. Is it digital or optical zoom. Older drones may not have the zoom option so you can not zoom with those drone cameras however, with new drones, you can zoom perfectly without losing the quality and resolution of image or video.
Why have the zoom option in Drone Camera?
It is not important to have a zoom option available in drone cameras if you have the best lens in your camera and you don’t want to get a closer shot. If you are flying in forests, mountains (near to mountains) and in between tall buildings, you may not need a zoom feature. However, there are two main reasons for having a zoom option.
- Safety of drone
- More close shots
Safety of Drone:
The main reason behind having the zoom option for a drone camera is to get closer and nearer shots of your desired area without damaging the drone or propellers. When drones fly higher in forests or mountains, it is hard to judge the exact colliding positions of propellers/drones with other objects which results in accidents and you lose your control over drones by damaging propellers.
So, the zoom option provides you the safety and satisfaction where you can get the view and shot with zooming the objects either it is the bird on the tallest tree in the forest or any creature crawling on mountain rocks.
Closer Shots
The second main reason behind zoom options in a drone camera is that professional photographers or vloggers want to get a close shot of the object. More likely some areas where drones can’t get a closer view, zoom option allows users to take advantage of this option.
Want to know The Best Camera for Wildlife Photographers? Check Here
However, occasionally you want to capture a moment but, the drone reaches to the flying limit, for example, 400ft and you can’t move forward or change your position to get the desired result mostly up high on mountains edges and forests, in that case, the zoom is the only option available for you. You can zoom the camera to capture the moment/frame without moving your drone out of range.
We hope that now you have a clear idea about the drone camera that can zoom and the drones that can not zoom by learning optical and digital zoom options. If it interests you and you want to check for the drones with an optical zoom camera option, please check here.