ok, you're referring to video digital zoom, i.e. the output image has always much smaller resolution than the chip. There are two approaches: 1.) take a fraction of the sensor image (the smaller the higher the zoom) and rescale it to video resolution (apparently, what N86 the does). this should lead to a the lowest noise level w/o zoom, and maximum noise if you zoom to video resolution. with even more zoom you get the digital zoom artefacts (interpolation). 2.) like 1., but take a fraction of the inner VGA-sized area of the sensor image I don't think the N900 or N97 would use 2.) Otherwise the video would always record the inner VGA region of a still image of the same scene. However, the video seems to be wide angle, if you don't zoom in: http://www.nokiausers.net/N-Series/N...d-Natural.html According to the documentation of the camera chip there is also a builtin resize function and it is likely that the N900 would use it.