A lens question and some deciphering help, please

[Belle0101]

Okay, I know next to nothing when it comes to photography but I really want to learn. I'm real good at using the auto-focus settings but I want to go beyond that. To help myself learn I bought 3 books by Bryan Peterson and have been lurking on the "photos an average tourist wouldn't take" thread. BTW - I am in such awe of everyone's talent. I'd be happy if I could be half as good someday.

Anyhow, I'm trying to figure the lens (size) on my camera and it looks like gibberish to me.

What I have is a Panasonic DMC-FZ5. On the side is the following: 12X, Optical Zoom, 35mm Equiv., 36-432, Mega O.I.S.

Around the lens itself is printed: LEICA, DC-VARIO, ELMARIT, 1:2.8 - 3.3 / 6-72 ASPH.

Anybody care to take a stab at decipering that for me? I understand the model / style information, the 12X, Optical Zoom and the O.I.S. but the rest of it ... gibberish.

I'm sure my lens is average because it's what came with camera but I just wanted to compare the numbers with the information in the books.

Thanks in advance for the help and in the meantime I'll be studying!

 

[jann1033]

the 35mm equiv would be telling you what the lens on your camera would "equal" zoom length wise if it were on a 35 mm camera. due to the sensor size on your camera the image would different than if you were taking the same picture with the same lens on a 35 mm film camera...it's not the same size as the actual film would be.
your camera's photo would look a center portion of the 35 mm photo with out some of the edge...ie cropped.
your camera's photo would actually look like you have more "zoom" but it's doesn't really, cause it doesn't pick up the same amount of detail a lens of that actual mm would pick up.
go to here for a focal length comparison...look under ef lens 101 on the right side
http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ProductCatIndexAct&fcategoryid=151
crop factor picture http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crop_factor
leica is the manufacturer
the 2.8-3.3 would be the f stops/aperture/ how large the opening in the shutter would be... from the widest angle of the lens to the farthest zoom ie it would be f2.8 at the 36mm( or what ever that actually would be on your camera) to 3.3 at the 432 mm zoom...really it would be f3.3 before the 432 mm. i'm not sure what the 1 means...it's written like that on all my macro lenses so you probably have a close up mode but i don't know exactly what the 1 stands for. i don't know what the 6-72 asph is..i thought the asph meant aspherical but no idea what the 6-72 would be

now i will step aside and be soundly trounced by everyone who knows more than i do

 

[ndelaware]

The 6-72 ASPH stands for 6mm-72mm Aspherical lens.

 

[jann1033]

are there 2 lenses here? i thought this panasonic was a bridge camera, no?

if not what size sensor would make a 72 mm=423mm?????

 

[pisco]

are there 2 lenses here? i thought this panasonic was a bridge camera, no?

if not what size sensor would make a 72 mm=423mm?????

There is no crop factor on small sensor P&S digital cameras. Crop factor only occurs when you put a standard lens on a DSLR with a sensor smaller than a standard 35mm piece of film.

What is going on here is that the actual lens size is 6-72mm. To get the 35 equivalent you have to multiply times 6, which gives you 36-432.

The Mega O.I.S. refers to optical image stabilization. What that is is a glass element in your lens that adjusts to counteract the effects of the camera moving to reduce blur in your images from camera shake.

Hope this helps.

 

[jann1033]

ok that explain it, thanks..i figured i should have kept my mouth shut and i was right

 

[MarkBarbieri]

12X, Optical Zoom, 35mm Equiv., 36-432, Mega O.I.S.

12X - The difference in focal length between the widest and most telephoto settings is 12x. 432 / 36 = 12.

Optical Zoom - When you zoom, it is doing it by moving lenses around and changing the image that hits the sensor. This is compared to digital zooming in which you enlarge the image digitally after the sensor has recorded it. Digital zooms trade resolution for magnification. To that extend that you would ever want to do that, it can be done better on a computer than by your camera, so most people ignore digital zoom and concentrate only on optical zoom.

35mm Equiv. 36-432 - The lens has the same zoom range or field of view as a 35mm film camera with a lens that goes from 36mm to 432mm. That translates to a bit of wide angle (but not much) to very long telephoto (almost too hard to hand hold except in bright sunlight). The range is pretty good, but you'll probably want to be able to go wider when shooting indoors or when taking pictures of buildings and large things at WDW.

Mega O.I.S. - "Mega" optical image stabilization. This is a mechanism that moves elements in your lens around as you try to hold the camera steady. It helps prevent the bluriness you get when you take a picture and you don't keep your hand perfectly still.

LEICA, DC-VARIO, ELMARIT, 1:2.8 - 3.3 / 6-72 ASPH.

LEICA - is the company that designed and probably made the lens. They are a well regarded German lens manufacturer.

DV-VARIO ELMARIT - That's the name that LEICA gives to that model lens.

1:2.8 - 3.3 - That's the range of apertures for the lens. The aperture is the hole in the lens that lights goes through. The numbers represent the ratio focal length of the lens and the size of the aperture.

6-72 - That's the actual range of focal lengths for the lens. As with the 35mm equivalent sizes shown earlier, the max telephone (72) divided by the minimum (6) is 12.

The reason why the lens is really 6-72 but the 35mm equivalent is 36-432 is because the sensor is 1/6 the size of a 35mm piece of film. A smaller sensor uses smaller lenses to get the same field of view.

If you compare this with a typical DSLR, they use a sensor that is just over 60% of the size of a 35mm piece of film. In their case, they multiply the focal length of the lens by 1.6x to get the 35mm equivalent. Doing a little algebra, you can see that you would multiply your lens by 3.75 (6/1.6) to see what size lens a Digital Rebel user would need to cover the same field of view as yours. It works out to a 22.5mm - 270mm zoom on a Digital Rebel.

 

[majimikate]

I just sold that camera when i got my Rebel and I didn't know all of that...thanks Mark!! Now I just gave to ask, what do you do? Are you a photographer by trade? Or just a big techie who loves all that stuff??

Just wondering!
Chris

 

[KaitlinsMom]

now i will step aside and be soundly trounced by everyone who knows more than i do

That made me laugh! That is exactly why I don't post very much on this board! Just when I think I am pretty well versed in an area, out come the pros!!!

That's fine with me though - That is why I am here.... to learn -

Karen

 

[MarkBarbieri]

Are you a photographer by trade? Or just a big techie who loves all that stuff??

Just a techie. I'm a mediocre amateur photographer that tries compensates for a lack of artisitic talent with equipment and technical knowledge. By trade I'm a manager in IT that secretly hopes to be demoted and turned back into a developer again.

 

[DueyDooDah]

By trade I'm a manager in IT that secretly hopes to be demoted and turned back into a developer again.

Now I know why I respect you. I was an IT Manager, and publicly returned to hands-on work. It's the best move I've ever made.

 

[jann1033]

That made me laugh! That is exactly why I don't post very much on this board! Just when I think I am pretty well versed in an area, out come the pros!!!

That's fine with me though - That is why I am here.... to learn -

Karen

yeah me too... except for me i seem to learn best via humiliation

 

[Belle0101]

Thanks for the info! Sounds like this is a good camera for a beginner to grow into then?

I have so much to learn. I think I finally have aperature, f/stop, shutter speed and ISO memorized as far as what they are. Now I have to put it to practice.

I've always been a point and shoot type person, even with my 35mm - Nikon N65. But hanging out here, lurking actually, has inspired me to want to learn more and be more creative.

May as well go ahead and embarrass myself - what does "focal length" mean?

Thanks again for the info ... I hope you don't mind all my questions.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

Sounds like this is a good camera for a beginner to grow into then?

You can't really judge a camera by the lens specs. I honestly don't know whether it's a good camera or not.

May as well go ahead and embarrass myself - what does "focal length" mean?

The focal length tells you how much the lens bends the light coming in. It's like the magnifying power of a telescope. A focal length with a big number makes things look much closer. It also reduces the "field of view", which is another way of saying that you see less from side-to-side and up and down.

A focal length with a little number makes things look farther away. It also allows you to see a wider field of view. You can see more from side-to-side and more up and down.

Long focal length lenses are often called telephoto lenses. Short focal length lenses are often called wide angle lenses.

 

[seashoreCM]

the 35mm equiv would be telling you what the lens on your camera would "equal" zoom length wise if it were on a 35 mm camera. due to the sensor size on your camera the image would different than if you were taking the same picture with the same lens on a 35 mm film camera...it's not the same size as the actual film would be

Caution. The 35mm equivalent focal lengths stand for what kind of a lens (not necessarily yours) would be needed on a 35mm film camera to give the same wide angle and maximum zoom views that your lens provides on your camera (that the lens came with).

If you could detach your lens and put it on a different camera (with a different sized film frame or sensor) the 35mm equivalent focal lengths would be different.

The focal length (stamped on the lens) and the sensor size (usually hard to find out) go together to represent the view angle that the camera will take a picture of. Because sensor sizes vary, photographers generally compare lens and camera combinations using the 35mm film camera equivalent focal lengths that each lens and camera combination should have published for it.

You should not interchange lenses putting a lens designed for a smaller sensor on a camera with a bigger sensor. Otherwise the edges of the larger sensor will likely be outside the sweet spot of the lens and have blurriness and/or fall off in brightness (the picture appears vignetted).

f/2.8 - 3.3 is supposed to mean that at widest angle the lens is an f/2.8 lens and when zoomed all the way, the lens is an f/3.3 lens. But I am a little leery because for a lens with that much zoom (12x relatve to its widest angle), if it was f/2.8 at said widest angle I (just my intuition) would expect its maximum aperture would be much smaller than f/3.3. The way of expressing maximum f/stop is sometimes 1:2.8 as well as f/2.8.

if not what size sensor would make a 72 mm=423mm?????

It's just one lens, whose zoom capabilities range from 6mm to 72mm absolute focal length.

The 6 to 72mm lens in question on your camera was declared to be equivalent to a 35 to 423mm lens on a 35mm camera. The 35mm film frame size is 24 x 36mm. In order for that declaration to be valid the sensor for which the lens was intended would be somewhere around 4 x 6mm in size (ratio 72/432). If you are talking about absolute focal length in millimeters and not 35mm equivalents, a 72mm lens never was and never can be 432mm.

Other digital camera hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/digicam.htm

 

[Geoff_M]

ELMARIT

This refers to the optical design of the lens. Namely, the type, number, and arrangement of the glass lens elements used.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

"In America, we do not abandon our fellow citizens in their hour of need," President Bush said, as quoted by USA Today in one of its online articles.

That is an outright lie.
Tons of C-rations (MRE's), water, and baby formula could have been brought in much more quickly after Hurricane Katrina.

That's kind of a surprising for a sig for a moderator. On most forums I've seen, the moderators are the ones trying to remove inflammatory politics from the non-political forums, not inject it.

 

[boBQuincy]

...snip...Long focal length lenses are often called telephoto lenses...snip...

Mark has this correct (as usual) and probably didn't want to further muddy the water with more information *but* us techno-geeks need something to do.

"Telephoto" refers to a group of lens designs that have their optical centers outside of the physical lens. Huh?! It means that a true telephoto lens is shorter (usually much shorter) than it would be if it were a conventional design.

And what does this matter? Be glad telephoto lenses exist, and we have lenses that are smaller than they would be otherwise, after 12 hours at WDW that's a good thing!