Tuesday, July 14, 2009

ABC Wednesday Round 4 has reached the letter Z

...and for that reason I will celebrate the word Zoom.


My camera which I have had since March has a 20X optical zoom.



I know that doesn't mean much if you have a telephoto lens on a DSLR, but it is what makes it possible for me to do things like this:



...and this:



I took some moon pictures when I had a 10X optical zoom on a previous camera, but they were nothing like this. Look craters!

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And with the 10X, I certainly couldn't do anything like this (yeah, it's a little fuzzy yet. There is still room for that telephoto.):



I was glad that I had the 20X Zoom the other day when we met this guy. He was clear away across the meadow.

That was one big bear, but without the zoom, he would have looked more like this:
And with the digital zoom stretched in effect, he would look all pixelated like this:

So if you are getting anew camera, look for the most Optical Zoom that you can. Try to avoid using the digital zoom if you can, it seriously decreases the quality of your photo.

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And I can assure you that you probably cannot get a good picture even fairly close if you are Zooming down the highway. (No, I was not driving.)

See other ABCs that have reached Z at the ABC Wednesday blog and thank Denise for starting this two whole years ago. I think it is among the most long-running photo memes in the blogosphere. What will the Round 5 bring?

10 comments:

Mara said...

I love your second moon, it looks as if it was made by marshmellows!

Rune Eide said...

Nice one! A 20 times zoom on a my dSLR (a Canon 40D) will measure close to 800mm! On the professional ones it is 1000mm!!! My longest lens gives me about 12 times.

Of course you get much of that back in quality in many areas, but you have also got to lug it around :-)

I'm glad you warn people off digital zoom. That is just fake, and in any case is much better done in relevant software.

PS I may have to scan some old pictures of mt. Rainier...

imac said...

Great post with great pics, also good sound advice there.
Try a VR lens to help with the shot from the cars.

Jay said...

I honestly don't know why people bother with the digital zoom at all! They're usually pretty useless, in my experience.

Your pictures of the moon are great! Look! Craters!!

Joy said...

How wonderful to be able to take pictures of the night sky with your big lens.

Thumbelina said...

Fabulous shots and great advice. It is a wonderful meme. I might come back in for round 5.

Leslie: said...

LOVE the shots, and the excellent information about the camera! Thanks!

Dragonstar said...

I love your moon photos! I don't want the hassle of carrying a load of lenses around - been there, done that, missed a lot of shots through changing lenses. These days I'm happy with a point-and-shoot, though I insist on a decent zoom, reasonable macro ...

Mary said...

Wonderful moon shots and good zoom is so nice to have. When I go to check on the eagles and heron rookery, I wouldn't see anything, if I didn't have a decent zoom.

BlossomFlowerGirl said...

Wonderful photos of the moon.