Camera help!!

[wisconsinteacher]

We are looking at a new camera.  We have it between two Nikons.  One is 21X optical zoom and the other is 26X.  They are the same camera just different zooms.  Is it worth the extra $50 for the larger zoom?  We will use it to take pictures of landscapes and when on vacations.  We have the 21X at home for 30 days to try and love it so far.  He would have to order the 26X because he does not stock that one.

[BOFF]

I don't think the extra 5X is gonna be noticed.



God Bless,
David B.

[Skeeterbait]

Something to think about, as the magnification of a zoom lens increases, the effective F-stop of the lens increases.  Or in lay terms, it makes the lens darker.  With the limited light gathering ability of lenses on compact cameras anyway, the super zoom cameras are limited to only bright daylight at the top of their zoom range.  Therefore the difference between the 21x and 26x camera would only be usable in bright well lit environments unless you raise the ISO setting to 400 or above, which in itself is going to make the pictures grainy.

Point being, if your serious about picture quality, I don't think you would find the extra 5 power useful very often.

[alloutdoors]

Cameras are not like binoculars, where 8x or 10x actually means something. The 26x does not necessarily have "5x more zoom" than the 21x, it may even have less total magnification. What you need to know is the focal lengths of the lenses. The 21x and 26x just denotes the magnitude of difference between the nearest and farthest focal lengths of the zoom range.

For example, a zoom lens that covers a focal length range from 10mm to 100mm is a "10x zoom" (its maximum focal length is 10 times its shortest).

A lens that covers from 50mm to 100mm is a "2x zoom".

Both lenses have exactly the same maximum magnification, although the 10-100mm is obviously capable of shooting a much wider angle shot. And if you had a lens that covered from 50mm to 200mm it would be a 4x zoom, but would have double the magnification ability of either of the 100mm lenses.

Calling lenses 20x, 25x, etc., is just marketing spin.