Zoom lens

A zoom lens is a mechanical assembly of lens elements for which the focal length (and thus angle of view) can be varied, as opposed to a fixed focal length (FFL) lens (see prime lens).

A true zoom lens, also called a parfocal lens, is one that maintains focus when its focal length changes. A lens that loses focus during zooming is more properly called a varifocal lens. Despite being marketed as zoom lenses, virtually all consumer lenses with variable focal lengths use varifocal design.

The convenience of variable focal length comes at the cost of complexity - and some compromises on image quality, weight, dimensions, aperture, autofocus performance, and cost. For example, all zoom lenses suffer from at least slight, if not considerable, loss of image resolution at their maximum aperture, especially at the extremes of their focal length range. This effect is evident in the corners of the image, when displayed in a large format or high resolution. The greater the range of focal length a zoom lens offers, the more exaggerated these compromises must become.

Zoom lenses are often described by the ratio of their longest to shortest focal lengths. For example, a zoom lens with focal lengths ranging from 100 mm to 400 mm may be described as a 4:1 or "4×" zoom. The term superzoom or hyperzoom is used to describe photographic zoom lenses with very large focal length factors, typically more than 5× and ranging up to 19× in SLR camera lenses and 83× in amateur digital cameras. This ratio can be as high as 300× in professional television cameras. As of 2009, photographic zoom lenses beyond about 3× cannot generally produce imaging quality on par with prime lenses. Constant fast aperture zooms (usually f/2.8 or f/2.0) are typically restricted to this zoom range. Quality degradation is less perceptible when recording moving images at low resolution, which is why professional video and TV lenses are able to feature high zoom ratios. Digital photography can also accommodate algorithms that compensate for optical flaws, both within in-camera processors and post-production software.

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