quality is not as good. Digital zoom uses the computer to fill in the blanks of a shot. If you want to take SLR quality photos for printing then you want higher mega pixels. For internet use only then 640 x480 is plenty. My 1.3 meg pix camera does fine for internet. I never use the 1024 x 762 for internet because the pictures become too large. Granted the picture quality is not like an SLR film camera. They now have SLR digi cams starting from $700 and up. Guy at work got a digi Sony SLR style camera with interchangeable lens. You can change the shutter speed and the f/stop to adjust for depth just like a SLR film camera. It all boils down to how you will use the camera, for printing, internet.