Examples of zoom distance?

DifferentSeed

Hi folks,

I hope this is the right place for this, if not please forgive me moderators

Now... I got a new lens earlier (yaa!) and my husband is trying to understand what the zoom range means, and I can't explain it to him in a terms he understands. I've shown him sample photos but he doesn't seem thrilled and isn't sharing in my bouncy joy (Sigma 100-300 f/4 EX DG IF lens btw:barb)... so, my question is...

Are there any references, charts, photo examples, measurements, etc that (in plain, easy, English) show him what a 100mm range means will do (vs. normal, naked eye?) and a 300, and 450, 600, etc? There must be something out there, but my searches haven't found it yet. :scratch

Zanotti

http://www.tamron.com/lenses/fundamentals.asp


http://www.tamron.com/lenses/learning_center/default-new.asp



http://www.tamroneurope.com/flc.htm


Try these! The last one is the focal length comparitor you had asked for.

Z

DifferentSeed

Woo! Thanks so much!!!

Stan

It depends on the camera you are using. but as basic rule in a 35mm (full Frame) camera a 50mm lens is the same as the human eye.

Try keeping both eyes open and see the magnification on the object. So at 100mm the object appears twice as large as it should. The modern DSLR's have a crop factor which will affect the image factor but that is better left to others to explain. There are plenty of threads here on the effect of crop factor try a search.

Hope it helps some

Stan

Rhuarc

Wow, I love that last link with the little flash program. Really handy for us newbies to be able to visualize just how much a certain amount of zoom will help!

rosselliot

Zanotti wrote:

http://www.tamron.com/lenses/fundamentals.asp


http://www.tamron.com/lenses/learning_center/default-new.asp



http://www.tamroneurope.com/flc.htm


Try these! The last one is the focal length comparitor you had asked for.

Z

are those on a full frame sensor? I'm speaking of the last link...

- RE

TylerW

rosselliot wrote:

are those on a full frame sensor? I'm speaking of the last link...

- RE

Click the '35mm' button for full frame, and 'digital' for APS-c sensor

howard

Here's a link to a low tech comparison of the same view at different focal lengths on a 1.6 crop body. At risk of stating the obvious this is not a test of image quality and I think most if not all have not had any PP except for resizing http://www.pbase.com/howards/focal_length_examples

DifferentSeed wrote:

Hi folks,

I hope this is the right place for this, if not please forgive me moderators

Now... I got a new lens earlier (yaa!) and my husband is trying to understand what the zoom range means, and I can't explain it to him in a terms he understands. I've shown him sample photos but he doesn't seem thrilled and isn't sharing in my bouncy joy (Sigma 100-300 f/4 EX DG IF lens btw)... so, my question is...

Are there any references, charts, photo examples, measurements, etc that (in plain, easy, English) show him what a 100mm range means will do (vs. normal, naked eye?) and a 300, and 450, 600, etc? There must be something out there, but my searches haven't found it yet.

BigAl

I think Stan's description is a good rule of thumb. I'd extend it to add a 30mm lens on a 1.6x crop factor camera giving the same field of view as the human eye. As to distance from the subject, that's tricky as most folks don't really have a good perception of distance.

Here are a couple of pics taken with a Bigma at the extremes. I can't give distances either, but I'm sure everyone has a feeling for the size of a zebra. (When I'm bored I'll do some calculations to estimate the distance )

50mm


500mm