Photography Bay reader, Carol, just got her new D7000 camera. As a new DSLR user, she wants to know more about zooming with the camera and lens.
I just purchased a D7000 camera, and in using the various features, I noticed that I can NOT take a picture in the zoom in or out setting. Apparently this setting is used only for playback viewing? Why is that?
Here’s my response to Carol on why this is the case with DSLRs like the Nikon D7000….
With DSLRs like the D7000 (a great camera, by the way), you will use the zoom ring on the lens barrel to zoom in or out. A common lens for the D7000 is the 18-105mm lens. So, you will rotate the lens barrel to zoom from wide (at 18mm) to telephoto (at 105mm).
The reason that you can’t zoom with a button the camera is because there is no motor inside the lens to drive to zoom ring. Generally, these lenses are too large to put motors to drive the zooming elements inside of the lens (i.e., it would drain the battery too quickly to be an efficient function). As a result, you have to manually rotate the lens barrel to get that zoom action.
In some newer compact interchangeable lens cameras like the Sony NEX-3N, manufacturers are making very compact zoom lenses that are capable of zooming via controls on the camera body. Expect this new trend to continue; however, it may be limited to these more compact mirrorless cameras for a while.
The zoom buttons on the camera are designed for just the reason you have discovered. You can magnify the view of captured images to check things like focus or even zoom in on faces to see if you are happy with expressions in group photos.
I hope this answers your question Carol. I also recommend checking out the Photography Basics section under on the Learn Photography page where I give an overview of some of the basic photography concepts, which I think will help you get to know your way around the D7000.
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