Camcorder zoom vs digital camera zoom ?

ust a quick question. My girlfriend is wanting to buy the Samsung WB 550 digital camera which has a 10x optical zoom, so we went into a shop and looked at it. I have a Canon HV20 HD camcorder which also has a 10x optical zoom, but when I stood the 2 together in the shop and zoomed in on the same point, my camcorder showed a closer image, obviously suggesting my camcorder was zoomed in further. Both were definitely using only the optical zoom, so is there any reason why my camcorder seemed to zoom further??