HELP: What do the numbers mean?

[jasper]

Hi, I am a newbie to photography. May I know what do the numbers like 35mm lense means? I own a BenQ DC2300 and its specs says focus/macro = fix / 1.3m / 18cm, what does it mean? Does it mean the camera has to be 18cm away from the subject or below 18 cm from the subject or more than 18 cm from the subject or something else totally? And for the lense it's written as 5.6mm . What does that number represent? Thanks for any helpful replies

 

[nipapa]

hi welcome to CS. i'm newbie too... and hope this might help :rbounce:

http://forums.clubsnap.org/showthread.php?t=101790

 

[jasper]

Thanks nipapa for your help. Still confused. The article was talking about 50mm, 35mm etc lenses on 135mm, 120mm format etc. So i understand about the 35mm part. But I still don't know it means by saying focus/macro = fix / 1.3m / 18cm, or the f=5.6mm 1:3.5 etched beside my lense.

 

[zaren]

Thanks nipapa for your help. Still confused. The article was talking about 50mm, 35mm etc lenses on 135mm, 120mm format etc. So i understand about the 35mm part. But I still don't know it means by saying focus/macro = fix / 1.3m / 18cm, or the f=5.6mm 1:3.5 etched beside my lense.

i think it means that your lens has a fixed focal length of 5.6mm (as opposed to a zoom lens which has a range of focal lengths). the closest focus distance is 1.3m in normal mode and 18cm in macro mode. 1:3.5 means that the image size in macro mode is 1/3.5 times the size of the actual object. a focal length of 5.6mm on your digicam is probably equivalent to a focal length of around 35mm on a 35mm film camera.

 

[jasper]

Thanks Zaren! That helped a lot.