Due to the amount of variables involved, this is an extremely complicated subject. Unfortunately, real world situations usually do not allow all people to have the knowledge, the perfect conditions or the equipment to best photograph an object in the sky. Throw in the short amount of time to react to the situation, the excitement during the experience… therefore, having actual UFO photos is a rare event.
We should all be more knowledgeable with our digital cameras. You mentioned your camera has a 4X digital zoom. It is important to understand the difference between optical zoom and digital zoom.
Optical zoom is when a camera uses the optics to “zoom in” or enlarge an object being photographed. Therefore optical zoom give one the ability to enlarge an object will out losing clarity or sharpness (within the limits of the optics).
Digital zoom is a process where the image is digitally enlarged and cropped. There usually is a loss if image quality with digital zooms (loss of resolution).
Examples:
.....................Optical Zoom.............................................. .....Digital Zoom.............................
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