What is the "zoom" function on my camcorder?

What is the "zoom" function on my camcorder?

Tim Smith (Camcorder Training Specialist) gives expert video advice on: What is the difference between an "optical zoom" and "digital zoom"?; Should I ever turn off my camcorder's image stabilizer? and more...

Every camcorder out there has some sort of a zoom--from the old days when they were no more than maybe three or six power up to these days where they can be 20, 25 even 35 power zooms. What you would do that for, you want to get closer to the subject but you just can't, so as you zoom in it magnifies the image optically, we're talking about optical zooms now, optically to put that image down onto the image sensor in a larger format. It's great for composition, gets you just into the action that you couldn't be in any other way.