Why does Lightroom show 220mm on the Sony RX10 IV when Sony says 600mm?
Asked 5/2/2019
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I shot at the maximum zoom on my Sony RX10 IV, which Sony markets as 600mm equivalent. But Lightroom shows the focal length as 220mm in the metadata. Why is there a difference?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
7y ago
2 Answers
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The sensor in the Sony RX10 iv is a one-inch sensor. The "600mm" is actually the "full-frame equivalent" of the 220mm lens you really have. In other words, your 220mm lens produces on your sensor the same framing as a 600mm lens on a bigger (24x36mm) sensor.
If you had a true 600mm lens,
- the camera would be very heavy (several pounds)
- it would be barely usable in practice (that would be roughly a 1500mm-equivalent, you would need a very stable tripod to use it).
Originally by user75947. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user75947
7y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Lightroom is showing the lens’s actual focal length: 220mm. Sony’s “600mm” figure is the 35mm/full-frame equivalent focal length.
The RX10 IV has a 1-inch sensor and an 8.8–220mm built-in lens. Because the sensor is much smaller than full frame, a 220mm lens gives a narrower angle of view that looks similar to what a 600mm lens would show on a full-frame camera. That’s why the camera is marketed as reaching “600mm equivalent.”
So both numbers are correct, but they describe different things:
- 220mm = the lens’s real physical focal length, which Lightroom records
- 600mm equivalent = the full-frame comparison used in marketing and specs
This “equivalent focal length” convention is very common on compact and bridge cameras to make the field of view easier to compare across different sensor sizes.
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