Your Megapixel count doesn't have the effect on zoom/clarity that you might think.
To get the best photos you need as much optical zoom as you can get. Digital Zoom will make your photos look not like you'd expect 
The content is just fine for what it's worth 
He's right. There's usually two kinds of zooms on a camera: Optical zoom and digital zoom. Optical zoom mechanically moves the lens around to zoom in and digital zoom zooms in on the photo magnifying the pixels and creating a photo like your first one (which I think is a fantastic shot even though it is grainy). Your second shot is obviousy not zoomed past the the limits of your optical zoom, thereby giving a much smoother more detailed look.
When looking at your camera's LCD there should be a meter of sorts showing the amount of zoom applied to the current shot. On that "meter" there should also be an indicator showing where the optical zoom ends and the digital zoom begins. To keep your shots as smooth and detailed as possible, try not to zoom past the camera's optical zoom capabilities.
Two things of equal importance when shopping for a compact digital camera are megapixel and optical zoom capability. I personally think that there is negligable difference in picture quality with anything much higher than an 8 megapixel compact camera with a small lense. Money would be better spent on a camera with say, 8 megapixel and 5 X optical zoom than a 12 megapixel camera with 3 X optical zoom.
If I'm wrong school me. I'd love to learn more about this stuff...
