Help with zoom - Camera

Doodlegame · August 31, 2017

Hey,

Hopefully, this goes here, sorry if not

So, I'm set on a camera I like as a first camera (Canon 1100D). It comes as a kit with a 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 lens.

When googled, it says that the camera has a x3 optical zoom... I thought the zoom came from the lens though? Probably sounds really noob haha

If this is the case how do I find the zoom that the lens offers?

Also,

I know what aperture is but id've thought it would be more than f3.5-5.6 ~ Again probably just me being a noob but if someone can explain both of these that would be great

Thanks for any help!

Dooooooooooooodle

njmyers3 · August 31, 2017

Yes, it does have 3 times zoom. Divide the maximum focal length by the minimum: 55/18=3.

The lens that comes with cameras typically doesn't have a very wide aperture.

Doodlegame · September 1, 2017

8 hours ago, njmyers3 said:

Yes, it does have 3 times zoom. Divide the maximum focal length by the minimum: 55/18=3.

The lens that comes with cameras typically doesn't have a very wide aperture.

OK cool thanks! Birthday today so I might go out and get it!

One more question for the future: How do i find out what size lens i need? I know on the lens for filters and lens caps its the thread but what about the body of the camera onto the lens? (Again, sorry if this makes no sense)

Thanks!

cc143 · September 1, 2017

1 hour ago, Doodlegame said:

OK cool thanks! Birthday today so I might go out and get it!

One more question for the future: How do i find out what size lens i need? I know on the lens for filters and lens caps its the thread but what about the body of the camera onto the lens? (Again, sorry if this makes no sense)

Thanks!

Each brand uses a different mount, for Canon those are the EF (Full Frame) and EF-S (Crop sensor and Full frame) mounts. The 1100d is an APS-C crop sensor Camera, so basically any Canon lens after 1987 will fir on there, aprt from the EF-M lenses which are for the Canon mirrorless lineup.

when you say more, do you mean able to go wider i.e. a lower f/stop i.e. 2.8 or 1.4? or do you mean being a ble to stop the lens down further i.e. narrower aperture like f/8, f/11, f/13 etc?

The lens will be at the f/3.5 on the wide end at 18mm but will automatically stop down to f/5.6 once you zoom in to 55mm. That is the widest though the focal range, you can still stop the lens down to f/22 if not further, I haven't used my 18-55 in some years, so I can't really remember its narrowest aperture (although mine was the version 1, so it might have changed since.)

If you can, get a body only option, I would even say look for a used 700d rather than the 1100d and get a used tamron or sigma 17-50mm f/2.8 OS, I think the constant, wider aperture is worth it. The 1100d though is still a good enough camera.