What does “10x zoom” mean on a camera lens?
Asked 7/15/2016
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I’m new to photography and I’m confused about what “10x zoom” means. Does it correspond to distance, like making something 10 meters away look as if it were 1 meter away? Or 10 feet away look like 1 foot away? I’d like to understand whether “10x” has any meaning in meters or feet, or if it means something else.
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
10y ago
2 Answers
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It's impossible to say.
This is because a "zoom factor" is a relative measurement, not an absolute one. 10x zoom doesn't mean the picture is enlarged 10x. All that the zoom factor is telling you is how much longer the longest focal length of the lens is from the shortest one.
Both a 5-50mm and a 50-500mm lens are 10x zooms. But they have vastly different types of reach. And on different sensor sizes, that amount of reach also changes, due to crop factor.
See also: How do zoom, magnification, and focal length relate?
Originally by user27440. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user27440
10y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
“10x zoom” does not mean a subject 10 meters away will look as if it were 1 meter away. It has no direct meaning in meters or feet.
For camera lenses, “10x” is only a ratio: the longest focal length is 10 times the shortest focal length. For example, both 5–50mm and 50–500mm are 10x zoom lenses, but they have very different real-world reach.
At the long end, the subject appears about 10 times larger in the frame than at the wide end of that same lens. In other words, if something fills the frame at the longest setting, then at the widest setting you’d see about 10 times more of the scene across the frame.
It’s also not the same as physically moving closer. Changing focal length changes framing, but moving your position changes perspective. A photo taken from far away with a long lens is not the same as moving close with a wide lens.
So: “10x zoom” tells you the lens’s zoom range, not how many meters or feet closer something appears.
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