whats better in flash camcorders, a higher number of optical zooms or a higher number digital zoom?

Q. Thinking of buying a panasonic flash camcorder with 70x optical zoom and 3500 digital zoom. Is this any good?

A. Higher optical zoom is better. Optical zoom is the only true zoom. Digital only crops the image and then enlarges it, so you lose image quality.

Original Question

Digital versus optical zoom in camcorders: How do they work side by side?

Q. I understand that a high optical zoom (when used) delivers a clear picture while a high digital zoom (when used) delivers an unclear picture. What I want to know is, do these 2 different features work dependantly or independantly from each other? Are there camcorders that come with both high optical zooms and low digital zooms at the same time? Or does having a high optical zoom inevitably impose the camera with a high digital zoom? And, if this is the sad but true case, can the digital zoom be deactivated during shooting, leaving active only the optical zoom, so that zooming is done optically instead of digitally, for the sake of capturing a clear and well defined picture, instead of a fuzzy, pixelated image? By the same token, just for knowledge purposes, can the optical zoom be deactivated while leaving active only the digital zoom?

A. Typically, the optical zoom would be used 1st until it has reached the upper limit, then the digital zoom takes over at that point. Therefore, the digital zoom is more of a supplement to the optical zoom.

Here's a good explanation of digital zoom:
http://www.dpreview.com/learn/?/Glossary/Digital_Imaging/Digital_zoom_01.htm

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