You might have heard of smartphones with large zoom capabilities. But there is a catch to it. One type of zoom is camera zoom, and the other is a software-based zoom.
So, optical zoom zooms into the frame before capturing an image. Digital zoom zooms in after taking an image.
In an optical zoom camera lens, parts move to achieve the zoom facility. Digital zoom enlarges the selected parts of the captured image. But in the second option (Digital zoom), there is a loss of clarity.
Let’s take an example of the OnePlus 13, which has an optical zoom of 3x and a digital zoom of 30x
The reason for deformity in zooming in digital zoom mode is that pixels are fixed, but you are zooming in, which makes the density of pixels less on the same screen and image a little blur as the zoom increases.