Zooming

[mag]

I've noticed that most digital cameras only come with a 3x zoom. Don't know why that is but I'm assuming that if I need to get closer I can use my photo editor to crop the picture, right? Maybe that's the reason?

[BOBinsane]

Well that is a solution if you want a closer looking shot. But the primary reason probably is the cost/quality of the lens that a camera can be manuafactured for. There's a lot of average consumers who are desperate for "zoom" and sometimes will settle for a model with a big zoom, but poor the "zoom" lens usually matches it's pricetag. Issues such as blurry corners and the overall clarity depends on that. I'd must rather prefer a super high quality small lens over a larger incapable one.

And another issue I guess is because the average consumer is pretty dumb (not always lol sorry), and they'll usually end up getting blurry shots shooting images at 10x and blaming it on the camera and the manufacturer since they are naive of requirements for shooting with extra long focal points, with tripods, higher ISO speeds, or well a steady hand. But I really don't know. This is my 99 cents.

[nosquare2003]

3x zoom (e.g. 35-105mm in 35mm format) is usually sufficient for average user -- family shots. As BOBinsane said, big zoom will need bigger money.

Well, the quality of cropping is poor compared to optical zoom. But it may be the last resort if your lens is not long enough...