does super zoom = poor sensor?

[Barrie Davis]

It is the very smallness of the sensor that PERMITS the much extended zoom range lens to be fitted in a camera that is both affordable and not too big to carry around.

Unfortunately, the smaller sensors are the noisier ones, and that is the necessary trade-off....

... although the noise only shows in poor light shooting, and hardly shows in prints, at all.
--
Regards,
Baz

"Ahh... But the thing is, they were not just ORDINARY time travellers!"

 

[Barrie Davis]

For 2 reasons basically. Without getting too technical (basically due to my lack of knowledge!):

• optically speaking: is a lot easier and cheaper to make a lens that performs better if the focal lenght is fixed or has a smaller range. With the same type of construction/materials a lens that has 3x zoom with perform better than one with 20x zoom.

[Yes, that is more or less true.]

• sensor size due to a narrower light cone: for a given lens diameter, the longer the lens (more zoom) the narrower the light cone to the sensor will be. So the manufacturer has 2 options - increase the diameter of the lens or reduce the size of the sensor.

Sorry, that's quite wrong! Long focal length has no direct bearing on the ability of a lens to cover large or small sensors.

Errr... Would you care to say how that idea came to you?
--
Regards,
Baz

"Ahh... But the thing is, they were not just ORDINARY time travellers!"