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I have Canon 18-135 and 70-300 zoom lenses. People ask me how much zoom my camera supports.

What am I supposed to tell them?

"135 ÷ 18 = 7.5" and "300 ÷ 70 = 4.2"?

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    \$\begingroup\$ Tell them the range from the very widest Canon lens in existence to the very longest. That's somewhere between 8mm and 5000mm for a 625x zoom. At which point you can the explain the difference between a camera and a lens to them... \$\endgroup\$
    – Joanne C
    Commented Mar 6, 2011 at 13:20
  • \$\begingroup\$ JoanneC: There's a 5000mm??? Three zeroes?? Oh my, I need to rent one sometime for some video footage. The effects they got with a 1200mm they used in THX1138 (shot on smaller film than, say, a 5DmkII sensor) were really really cool. I had no idea Canon went that high though... Or is it 3rd party? \$\endgroup\$
    – lindes
    Commented Mar 8, 2011 at 19:20
  • \$\begingroup\$ P.S. Canon's "lens lineup" shows an 800/5.6 as their longest lens. They have some 500s, did you mean that? Or is there something else you're talking about? I suppose there's always the option of adapters for telescopes and such... ? \$\endgroup\$
    – lindes
    Commented Mar 8, 2011 at 19:32
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    \$\begingroup\$ The 800mm is just their longest current model. The 1200mm was, I think, the longest refractor that was ever part of the standard catalogue, and it was not a telephoto lens -- it was a little longer physically than it was optically even with the hood retracted -- and nearly useless due to atmospheric shimmering (in even coolish temperatures, your subject would dance around the finder, making framing and focusing difficult). I had the Minolta 1600mm f/11, and it was only really good for shooting the moon; daylight shooting was like a '60s television acid trip. \$\endgroup\$
    – user2719
    Commented Mar 9, 2011 at 9:41
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    \$\begingroup\$ @lindes - It was FD. If you look up the FD mount on Wiki, you'll see that the 5200mm was the largest on the mount. Now, mind you, it was a mirror lens so the bokeh will suck... ;) \$\endgroup\$
    – Joanne C
    Commented Mar 11, 2011 at 3:51

5 Answers 5

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As you've pointed out, the question is meaningless in absolute terms. People whose exposure to photography starts and ends with point-and-shoot cameras don't really know what the term means.

They'll be thinking in terms of compact cameras, and the "zoom" on those goes from a moderate wide angle (about the 20mm mark on your lens, which is about 32mm equivalent on a full-frame sensor) as "1" to some multiple. The long end of your telephoto zoom is 300mm, or about "15x" in terms they'll understand.

If they seem disappointed that all you get is "15x" with that "huge" lens, you can always mention that there's an accessory you can get to go to 80x (that'd be the 800mm f/5.6 with a 2x teleconverter, and together they're about the price of an "entry level" automobile, but you don't need to mention that part). That'll kill the disappointment.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ one more reason to buy that Bigma 50-500 :) \$\endgroup\$
    – jwenting
    Commented Mar 31, 2011 at 8:17
  • \$\begingroup\$ Bigma? I think what you really mean is this one: sigmaphoto.com/shop/300-800mm-f56-ex-dg-apo-hsm-sigma \$\endgroup\$
    – Mike
    Commented Mar 31, 2011 at 9:39
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    \$\begingroup\$ no, the Bigma. It has "more times zoom" than the 300-800 so according to the kids thinking "more times zoom" makes for a better lens, it's better :) I usually tell them I've 1x zoom, as I usually use primes... \$\endgroup\$
    – jwenting
    Commented Oct 19, 2011 at 7:29
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Since your question is "What am I supposed to tell them?", I'm going to go a little bit off the literal math — which you can find at How do I convert lens focal length (mm) to x-times optical zoom?. What you should say is:

That number represents how much the lens can change, not anything absolute. The more "times-zoom" a lens has, the more compromise on image quality it has to have. Since my camera allows me to change lenses, I can have the flexibility of a huge zoom range without compromising on the results.

Then, I'd steer the conversation this way:

In fact, some very popular lenses for SLR cameras have no zoom at all, because they can be high quality and let in a lot of light without being expensive and gigantic. On the other hand, some lenses like my 18-135mm have a relatively high zoom ratio, allowing you to choose that convenience when you want it.

At that point, they may just smile and nod and back away. But they may also learn something. :)

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Its the factor between your widest focal length and tele end. For example, you have 18-135mm lens. Your widest focal length is 18mm and tele end is 135mm. So your lenses 'zoom' is 135/18=7.5X, for your 70-300 its 4.2X. This is optical zoom, some camera supports digital zooms as well. Zoom doesn't necessarily mean longer reach, its means longer range. As you see, your 4.2X zoom lens have more reach than your 7.5X zoom lens.

Compact cameras mostly have fixed lenses and zoom is used to denote the capability of the lens attached to it, but this isn't used for DSLRs as their zoom depends on the lens being used.

One thing is, your 'camera' isn't limited to any specific zoom. "how much zoom my camera supports" is not a valid question. It depends on the lens attached to it. Your camera supports unlimited zoom as long as it has got a lens to support it.

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You could just explain that the zoom factor (ie 3.5x, 10x, 20x) is just marketing babble and doesn't really make much sense for comparing different types of lenses, when you have the ability to change lenses.

Explain that for a given camera, the focal length is what makes the difference to how "zoomed in" you are.

Then go on to explain that you could buy a 7mm lens for this camera, or a 1000mm lens. If you own both these lenses that's a bit like having a 142x zoom.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Surely the size of the sensor effects 'how zoomed in' you are in addition to the focal length of the lens? \$\endgroup\$
    – ChrisFletcher
    Commented Mar 30, 2011 at 9:28
  • \$\begingroup\$ That is true, and relevant when comparing reach across different camera systems (compact vs DSLR etc) so I've edited my post slightly. The main point though is that the zoom factor spec is not really relevant when you can change lenses. \$\endgroup\$
    – thomasrutter
    Commented Mar 31, 2011 at 6:04
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I will answer this question from a consumer marketing point of view, since that is the context of the question.

In consumer marketing, "1x zoom" is often assumed to be a standard wide lens, around 24mm focal length (35mm equivalent), which is typically the widest zoom on a point and shoot camera, or the default camera on a phone.

So you can tell people that your 18-135 lens goes from "0.75x to 6x zoom". And your 70-300 lens goes from "3x to 12x zoom".

The above is assuming a full frame camera. For a APS-C crop camera, then you can tell them your 18-135 lens goes from "1x to 8x zoom". And your 70-300 lens goes from "4x to 19x zoom".

All of this isn't technically accurate, but that's the answer that the people asking the question are looking for.

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