Help - My heads hurting

[kennygee]

Am I right in calculating the magnification of my DSLR setup as follows?

EOS 300d - 'crop factor' = X 1.6
300mm Canon lens
Total focal length - 300 X 1.6 = 480mm

Does this give an overall magnification of 480/50 = 9.6, or is the correct calculation 480/35 = 13.7 (when compared to a 35mm film camera)?

I think its the 'crop factor' that is confusing me

The reason I ask is that I am considering the Panasonic FZ20 (12X zoom) as a second camera for holidays/casual use and want to compare the reach in comparison to my DSLR

Cheers

Ken

P.S. Post moved to Camera and Photography page

[PWG]

The way I was told was 50mm focal length = normal = x1 so any multiple of 50.

The crop factor is the equivalent size of a 35mm film that the sensor covers. So for the 300D the 35mm film area is 1.6 x the sensor size. My brain isn't up to working out how much smaller the sensor is compared to the film.

[yossi]

It's quite confusing, but if you think that the sensor is smaller that a 35mm frame and is more like a cutout - that you'll have to enlarge it a little more to get to the final print size, crop factor becomes quite an easy calculation.
In your case the magnification is 9.6, as if you were using a 480mm lens.