G15 digital zoom quality.

New owner here as I should be getting the new G15 this week (upgrading from a very old G2). One of the concerns I had was the limited optical zoom of 5x but really wanted the fast lens and night shooting abilities the G15 boasts. That said, I'm hoping to use the digital zoom some figuring the superior image processing, 12MP, and image stabilization should help with pic quality at zoom (need to get @ around 300mm equivalent at times)

Opinions and thoughts on digital limits??

Thanks!
Kevin

I do not have a G15, but I have used the digital tele-converter feature on occasion with my G9 and G11. The G15 offers a 2.0x digital tele-converter option that will take you to the equivalent of 280mm, but you cannot shoot RAW images with that option, only JPEG. If the lighting is good, your digital 280mm shots will be so-so, not perfect, but not horrible.

I only use the digital zoom option as a last resort. I have a Canon 2.0x optical tele converter lens that I also have used with my G9 and G11, but I don't always carry it with me. As an experiment, I have used the 2..0x optical lens AND the 2.0x digital tele converter feature of my G9 to reach an equivalent 840mm (210mm native zoom x 2.0 optical x 2.0 digital). Here's the result, shot across a pond at a gaggle of cormorants. I also cropped it slightly, so maybe equal to about 1,000mm?

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/picsdennis/7018​473121/

Thank you Dennis, that shot looks pretty darn clean to me, especially considering the total zoom factor. I still have a 2.0 Vision Optics tele lens from my G2 that was rarely used. To be honest, I find myself wanting the zoom more sporadically and often when I don't have the 2.0. Also the G15 maxes out optical at 140mm so it's more limited then your G11 in that aspect. I've been using an automatic Olympus the last few years with the same zoom as my G15 with a not so great digital 3x, so no matter what I've upgraded from that capability.

This camera has me excited about photography again...looking forward to playing with it!

My thoughts and experiments with the G1X probably are valid for the G15:
http://lightdescriptio​n.blogspot.com …-zoom-and-resolution.html

Verndog wrote in post #16106103
Thank you Dennis, that shot looks pretty darn clean to me, especially considering the total zoom factor. I still have a 2.0 Vision Optics tele lens from my G2 that was rarely used. To be honest, I find myself wanting the zoom more sporadically and often when I don't have the 2.0. Also the G15 maxes out optical at 140mm so it's more limited then your G11 in that aspect. I've been using an automatic Olympus the last few years with the same zoom as my G15 with a not so great digital 3x, so no matter what I've upgraded from that capability.

This camera has me excited about photography again...looking forward to playing with it!

The G11 has the same zoom range as the G15 - 28-140mm. My G9 is 35-210mm. Enjoy your new camera.

Dennis

As I understand it--and my understanding is limited--unless you use a teleconverter, once you reach the maximum optical zoom available, which is 5x on the G15 (= about 150 mm), you may as well stop. Digital zoom only gives you bigger pixels. You won't get more clarity/detail.

You should carefully read the instructions for digital zoom (pg 63) and digital tele-converter (pg 144) in the user guide. The camera will show you white, yellow, and blue colors as you zoom out. White and yellow are "good" ranges, while blue is the "bad" range for that resolution setting (see page 81). Instructions for my G9 and G11 suggest changing to a lower resolution to allow maximum zoom and minimum impact on the resulting image. This is implied, but not explicitly stated at the bottom of page 63 for your camera.

If you reduce your resolution to M1 or M2, then you can use the digital zoom, and digital tele-converter, at greater zoom ranges with supposedly less degradation of the image quality. Try using these features in the three main resolution settings (L, M1, M2) to see when the zoom indicator turns blue. You generally want to avoid the blue indicator.

Dennis

denncald wrote in post #16107625
If you reduce your resolution to M1 or M2, then you can use the digital zoom, and digital tele-converter, at greater zoom ranges with supposedly less degradation of the image quality.

Doesn't using M1 or M2 degrade image quality in the first place, compared with L?

OhLook wrote in post #16107845
Doesn't using M1 or M2 degrade image quality in the first place, compared with L?

L = 12 MP
M1 = 6 MP
M2 = 2 MP
(see page 305)

You can see that changing from L to M1 cuts resolution (recording pixels) in half. Obviously that means loss of data/details. And, moving from M1 to M2 is losing even more data/details.

My preference over digital zoom is to shoot Jpeg + RAW. Then, if I want to zoom in on something I will process the RAW to TIFF and crop that to the zoom range I want. It will often give me cleaner results. However, I have taken some "good enough" digital tele-converter shots to not have to do that original process. It can be convenient, and lets me get better focus and exposure on the area of interest.

Edit: Something I forgot to mention earlier about using an external optical tele converter lens...it will block the optical/tunnel viewfinder of your G15 (as it does with my G9 and G11). Using the digital zoom options will allow you to use the viewfinder if necessary, while at the same time blocking the use of RAW shooting. It's a trade off.

Dennis

I always turn off digital zoom, it degrades IQ as it simply crops then enlarges the image. I also suggest to family and friends to turn it off too. Often you'll get a better result by just cropping an image and leaving it at that. Cameras have sufficient resolution to not need enlarging after cropping.

I don't use digital zoom. I don't like the quality it produces. You are better off just cropping the photo.

Agree with VAS. Crop in post processing gives a much cleaner image.

Agree with vas and travis. I've turned off digital zoom.

I turned mine off too.....but I DO love my G15!!!