Zoom in or crop?

[lsisaxon]

Another side effect is perspective. 18mm gives a different perspective from 105mm. Hence, the answer may not always be that simple.

If the shot is taken at the same place, zooming in or cropping will give you the same perspective except that details will be lost for cropping.

 

[vince123123]

Ah yes I think you are correct, that is why you're the man for technical stuffs and not me haha

If the shot is taken at the same place, zooming in or cropping will give you the same perspective except that details will be lost for cropping.

 

[two200]

optical zoom = using a lens to magnify a subject. All the megapixel used for the frame

digital zoom aka crop = using magnifying glass to enlarge a photo. Effect like using magnifying glass to look at newspaper - image enlarged but so is pixel (hence less megapixel/length => poor IQ)

To see effect of zoom on perspective may try this site by Tamron. This site actually shows the zoom ability of Tamron lens but you can appreciate the change in perspective as well