How to zoom on a phone camera without losing quality

Are your photos going soft or poorer quality when you zoom in on your phone?

If you’re using the familiar pinch-to-zoom gesture, that could be exactly why.

It’s something I see all the time in my workshops - and people are always surprised when they realise there’s a much better way to zoom that keeps your images sharp and high quality.

In this post, I’ll show you exactly what’s happening - and what to do instead.

(This applies to all phone brands)

Your phone camera probably has at least two lenses, if not 3 or 4. This is fantastic news because they let you get closer to the subject.

BUT… I bet, like me, you’ve not been getting the most out of the amazing lenses, because you’ve been making a big mistake…

Why Pinch-to-Zoom Can Reduce Quality

This is why… your phone has two types of zoom - Optical and Digital.

Optical Zoom is the real deal making the most of those fantastic lenses on the back of your camera.

Digital Zoom is just enlarging the pixels, which gives you inferior quality images.

To stick to Optical Zoom and get top quality images, don’t pinch outwards to zoom. Instead, tap the numbers that you see at the bottom of the screen when you open the camera.

If you're still a bit unsure check online what optical zoom your phone make and model has.

Any numbers between these, like 0.7, or higher than the last one (here it's 3X) are Digital Zoom.

Of course, if your subject is further away than your phone’s highest optical zoom allows, then pinching to zoom is sometimes the only option - just be aware that image quality will start to drop.

Who knew that we’ve been doing such a simple thing wrong all this time!

Your choice of zoom level also affects how your photos look, as some lenses can create visible distortion like leaning vertical lines. I’ve explained this in more detail here.

There’s so much fantastic stuff hidden away on your phones and that’s why you need to come along to one of my phone photography workshops  to get more great phone photography tips. I'd love to see you there!