I'm sure this is the same "lossless" digital zoom technique that's supported in the Phantom 4 (with IOS devices only). It simply crops the 4K sensor when recording in 1080P. Since it's an internal sensor crop, the quality of the video is rather good. The advantage to flying while using the digital zoom (in 1080 mode) is you CAN SEE the target better WHILE FLYING. If you can see things better while flying, this can certainly influence where you fly and loiter, since you can see better during flight. This is especially helpful for SAR and Inspection operations. The zoom is not smooth like an optical zoom. It's somewhat jerky as you zoom in and out the zoom level. So these zoom in an out time periods need to be edited out in post, because they just look bad, too jerky. With practice you'll learn how to zoom in and out very fast with your "pinch and spread" technique, so it instantly goes from 1X to 2X and you see no graduations in between.