If i have a digital SLR camera, I'm wondering how I can find the ZOOM level, not magnification level. I know that a 200mm lens is around an 11x zoom...so is 400mm just double that, or more? What is equivelant to 1x on a digital SLR? 35mm? You've waded into the one of the annoying messes that marketers and salespeople have made in the photography market.
"Zoom level" just isn't a useful question to ask. When comparing a digital camera with a "5x zoom" and another with "8x" you might expect the "8x" to be higher power and greater magnify distant subjects. But that's not so - the "x" number is not the same as microscopes or binoculars where it's a measurement of magnification power.
The "x" number on a digital camera is a measure of it's focal length range. If the lens has a focal length of 20mm - 100mm that's a "5x" lens. A focal length of 100mm - 300mm? That's a "3x" lens. Divide the highest focal length by the lowest. See how the "x" number doesn't mean anything about magnification power?
SLR lenses are measured in focal length. As a rough rule of thumb, imagine making a circle with your thumb and finger and looking through it. Hold your hand 50mm from your eye. That's roughly the view of a 50mm lens. At 100mm from your eye, your view narrows. The greater your focal length, the narrower your view. If you could take a picture through your eye, the entire photo would be all of what you could see through the circle of your thumb and finger.
On a 35mm film SLR, a 50mm lens is considered the "normal" focal length of what we see with our eyes. On a digital SLR, a 28mm lens is about "normal". The zoom levels as you call them are used when referring to point and shoot cameras with non-removable lenses A 10-100mm would be a 10x zoom.
In the world of SLR's and DSLR's, zoom lenses are given in their size in mm. 12-24mm zoom, 24-85mm zoom as are fixed focal length lenses 85mm, 400mm and so forth. Experienced photographers know what each of those lenses will do and choose which ones to purchase based upon what they need their camera to do.
I hope this helps .. if you need more feel free to email me |
