Which has more zoom: a Nikon p520 or a 55-200 mm lens?

Question

Which has greater zooming distance, the Nikon Coolpix P520 or a 55-200mm VR2 lens?

Answer 1

Whose zooming distance is more nikon p520 or a 55-200 mm vr2 lense

The specs for the Nikon Coolpix P520 state that that camera's zoom range gives the same range of viewing angles as a 24-1000mm lens would on a 35mm camera like a full frame DSLR. That's a much wider range than the 55-200mm lens you're looking at.

Answer 2

Which has greater zooming distance, the Nikon Coolpix P520 or a 55-200mm VR2 lens?

What's your definition of "zooming distance?" :)

The Coolpix P520 has the following lens specs:

Lens: 60x optical Zoom-NIKKOR glass lens Lens Focal Length: 4.3-258mm (angle of view equivalent to that of 24-1440mm lens in 35mm [135] format) Lens f/-number: f/3.3-6.5

Zoom factor is a relative measure for "how much the lens zooms" in terms of how much larger the telephoto end of the range is than the wide angle end of the range. So in this specific case, 258÷4.3 = 60x zoom. A 55-200 lens would have 200/55=> 3.63x zoom. So, here, the P520 has about 16 times the ability to zoom than a 55-200 lens, from the shorted focal length to the longest one.

But you are talking about a bridge camera with superzoom capability from very wide to very long vs. a telephoto lens that doesn't cover wide at all. And a superzoom range that probably carries a lot of optical compromises, as well as a max. aperture of f/6.3 (vs. f/5.6 on the 55-200 lens).

In terms of actual focal length, however, you're comparing a maximum telephoto focal length of 258mm vs. 200mm. So, the P520 optically magnifies more than a 55-200, by about 30% (58/200). So the optical power of the lenses are similar.

In terms of effective focal length (i.e., film equivalency, where we look at the field of view created with that focal length and a specific sensor format) then you're looking at 1440mm vs. 300mm. Or, roughly 5x more magnification. Because the P520 has a 1/2.3"-format sensor with a 5.6x crop factor (258*5.6=> 1440), while a Nikon 55-200 lens is designed for 1.5x crop ASP-C format (200*1.5=> 300).

But what this means is that most of the magnification of the bridge camera is being done by the fact that it has a tiny sensor. Which may have a lower resolution, definitely has a lower dynamic range, and most of the magnification is being done by the crop factor, not the lens.

Answer 3

You can calculate the zoom ratio of any lens by just dividing the two focal lengths (FL @ tele end / FL @ wide end). In the case of the 55-200 that would be 200/55 ≈ 3.64; and for the P520, it has a 4.3-180 mm lens - 180/4.3 ≈ 41.86 (or if calculating it using focal lengths of equivalent field of view - 1000/24 ≈ 41.66 - which means there's some rounding done for either the real or the equivalent focal lengths).