I have an XL1s, obviously, and have the stock lens that came with it 16X. A while ago someone asked me what the size is, 35mm, 16mm etc. I am embarrassed to say I don't know. Anyone want to enlighten me...

Tell 'em it's a one-third-inch video lens, 'cause that's what it is. Hope this helps,

Ok. Thanks, that makes sense. I didn't think it was a specific mm.

Well, it should be a specific millimeter size. The nomenclature used in video camcorders is outdated, archaic and inaccurate, but for some reason the industry insists on hanging onto them. Your DV camcorder is referred to as a one-third-inch camera and lens because that's the size of the CCD image sensors inside the camera head. Except it really isn't. They're actually a bit smaller than that. One-third inch, one-half inch, etc. are tube diameters back from the days before CCD technology when video cameras used orthicon, plumbicon and saticon tubes for creating images. To make an image plane the same size as those tubes used to make, the CCD needs to be only as big as a 4:3 rectangle that would fit inside the diameter of that tube. Therefore, a one-third-inch CCD is actually a bit smaller than one-third of an inch. Then there's also the appalling practice of expressing other CCD sizes as mixed fractions, such as 1/3.4 of an inch. If the industry would simply switch to an actual millimeter measurement of the CCD diagonal, we'd all be so much less confused.

No doubt... That sounds like it could be really confusing! Thanks for the information, sincerely.

Marco,

The standard 16x lens is a 5.5 to 88mm zoom, which is equivalent to a 40 - 630mm zoom in 35mm format. So its a pretty long lens!

I have to admit that I normally use the 3x wide angle = 3.4 - 10.2mm (24 - 72mm in 35mm format) as I find it a more useful range.

The manual 16x lens is very close to the standard one for lengths (5.4 - 86.4)

I hope this helps

Yeah that def. helps. Thanks a bunch. One less thing to ponder, lol...

Keep in mind that Richard is talking about the focal length of the lens, not
the diagonal of the imaging frame (the CCD sensor in this case), which is
what 16/35mm in film refers to. Unless you where talking about a 16 or 35mm
lens, heh.

I see.. Ok. So the 16/35mm refering to the diag is really what i was getting at. Thank you.