Digital Camera Lens Help And Info

Many digital camera manufactures are designing their cameras to use conversion lens, giving you choices like fisheye lens, telephoto lens and wide-angle lens. Whether you are looking to buy a new digital camera lens or just want more info you are in the right place. Digital camera lens definitions, info, and help all right here. What is the difference between optical and digital zoom? What is the difference between a telephoto lens and wide-angle lens? Please read through the information below and if you still can not find the answers to your questions please email us and we will help answer your questions.  

Fisheye lens-The fisheye lens produces a distinctive curve or circular image by using an ultra wide-angle lens.

Soft focus lens- The soft focus lens creates soft lighting which turns into a hazy effect at wide apertures.

Macro lens-A macro lens is usually used for extreme close-ups because it provides continuous focusing to a reproduction of 1:2 (half life-size) or 1:1 (life-size).

Shutter speed-Shutter speed is the length of time the camera receives light.

Aperture-Aperture is the size of the opening allowing light to pass through.

Focal length- Focal length is the measurement of an in focus object to the lens. A super wide-angle lens has the shortest focal length and a super telephoto lens has the longest focal length, see the chart below to view ranges of focal length of different lenses.

What is the difference between optical and digital zoom?-Optical zoom on a digital camera works the same way a regular 35mm camera’s zoom works, the lens physically moves in and out using the optics (lens) to bring the subject closer without sacrificing quality. These moving lenses allows a range in optical magnification that runs anywhere from 2.0x to 10.0x. The higher the optical zoom on a camera, the farther away you can be to take a photograph and still get a clear, close image.

 
Digital zoom is a software simulation of optical zoom using no moving parts. Simply put, the camera crops the picture and enlarges it, filling in the extra pixels by guessing what the picture may look like in a process called interpolation. This results in a loss of quality, and is no different than cropping and enlarging an image with editing software. Instead of using the digital zoom on your digital camera you can use editing software on your computer and have more control over cropping and enlarging the picture.

Many new models of digital cameras are advertising having both optical and digital zoom capabilities. Most of these cameras have a feature that automatically uses digital zoom when you have exceeded the optical zoom limitations. You may choose to disable or shut this feature off so that you know exactly what kind of quality picture you are taking.

How much zoom does your digital camera need?-Optical zoom ranges between 2x and 10x but most average users find 3x to 6x optical zoom about what they need. Most experts will tell you to buy as much optical zoom as you can afford being careful not to overlook the other features.