Can a 50x zoom camera frame a 500 m area from 6 km away?
Asked 6/16/2021
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2 answers
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I have a camera with these specs:
- Optical zoom: 50x
- Focal length: 6–300 mm
- Field of view: 58.4° to 1.4°
- Resolution: 2 MP
If I want to photograph a circular area about 500 meters across from a distance of 6 km, can this camera zoom in enough to fill the frame with that area? How can this be estimated from the field of view or focal length specs?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
5y ago
2 Answers
4
By calculation angle (which is to the camera) of this triangle is around 4.7 degree.
So on one of the length of zoom you will be able to fill the frame with this object.
But the quality on such distance is under question....
Originally by user34947. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user34947
5y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Yes — based on the numbers, the camera should be able to frame that area.
A 500 m wide target at 6 km distance subtends an angle of about 4.7°. Your camera’s field of view ranges from 58.4° (wide) down to 1.4° (full telephoto). Since 4.7° falls within that range, there will be some zoom setting where the target width roughly fills the frame.
A simple way to estimate it is:
angle ≈ 2 × arctan((target size / 2) / distance)
So here: 2 × arctan(250 / 6000) ≈ 4.7°
That means any zoom setting giving a horizontal field of view near 4.7° would frame the 500 m area.
The main limitation is not whether it can frame the area, but image quality. At 6 km, atmospheric haze, heat shimmer, and the camera’s low 2 MP resolution can greatly reduce useful detail, even if the framing works.
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