I was thinking of a spotter for 100-200 6ppc spectating and thought of a camera. I am looking at a Nikon COOLPIX B500 40x optical zoom with video capabilities. Would the 40x zoom on a camera have me seeing 6mm holes at 200yds? It would only run me about $250 and seems like it may fit the bill plus a whole lot more.
I know next to nothing about cameras.......Am I thinking right or not even close?......Thanks for your input.
Regards
Rick
Your thinking is in the right direction but there are a lot of things to consider. Let me see if I can list a few of those items.
First, a camera lens is different from a riflescope in how they use the concept of Zoom, like 40X, when it comes to general purpose lenses. In the camera you are considering the 40X zoom ranges from the widest wide angle settting to the maximum telephoto setting. In a riflescope there is no wide angle setting, it's 1X to 80X or whatever the maximum is. In the Nikon B500, the telephoto is about a 1/2X, so ranging from that 1/2X to let's say 20X, is what the 40X zoom covers. The 40X is not magnification from 1X, it's the entire range.
If you look at the tech specs, the site lists the range as being from 4.0mm to 160mm. That is the 40X range.
"But what does the 4mm or 160mm translate to?", I hear you asking.
That's the second part. The sensor in the B500 is what is known as a 1/2.3 inch sensor size. This is a very popular size for bridge cameras, such as the B500. Its dimensions are 4.55mm X 6.17mm, with a diagonal of 7.66mm. You are surely familiar with the 35mm film cameras of yesteryear. The format of that film (sensor) is 24mm X 36mm with a diagonal of 43mm. So, as you can see the sensor size of the B500 is much smaller than the one in a 35mm camera. The 35mm camera was so ubiquitous that people instinctively equate the focal length of a lens to the magnification using the 35mm format as the base. So, Nikon gives the 35mm equivalent in the tech specs of the B500: 22.5mm - 900mm. That's still your 40X zoom.
Now, we all remember that the standard lens on a 35mm camera has a focal length of about 50mm. This means that a 100mm lens would be a 2X telephoto, and a 900mm would be an 18X telephoto. Since the sensor of the B500 is smaller than a 35mm film (sensor), the industry refers to this type of sensor as a crop sensor. So these sensors have a crop factor that you can apply to the focal length of the lens to get the equivalent view for a certain focal length.
The crop factor of my DSLR is 1.5; which makes my standard lens to be about 35mm. If I used a standard 50mm lens, the 1.5 crop factor would make the image on the small sensor to be the equivalent of a 75mm lens (50mmX1.5 = 75mm). In the case of the B500, the crop factor is 5.64. This would make the 50mm lens appear to produce the 35mm equivalent of a 282mm lens (almost a 300mm lens).
With me so far?
So when we see that the B500 has a lens that goes from 4.0mm to 160mm, we now understand where the 22.5 to 900mm equivalent comes from. 4.0 X5.64 = 22.56 and 160 X 5.64 = 902.4. But the top end at 160mm (900mm equivalent) still comes out as 18X magnification, something much less than what is available in riflescopes.
When I want to take images at much higher magnifications that I can get with any available lens for my camera, I use an adapter for my Kowa spotting scope to do what is called digiscoping. With this technique, I remove the lens from the camera and replace it with an adapter that connects to my Kowa using the 20X-60X eyepiece. I get a much smaller picture and it's circular but it's much higher magnification. I don't use it to view bullet holes at 600 yards, but it would do that just fine. I use it to view targets at 1000 yards. I'll post some examples.
You can certainly get an adapter to use your smartphone as the camera; there are many such adapters for various spotting scopes.
Edited to add:
If 18X will allow you to see bullet holes at 100 and 200 yards (and it just may,) the B500 would be a good way to go, but you would need to zoom on the monitor in the back of the camera. You'll need a good tripod and use the Smartbridge software.
Here is an example of the line at Lodi from 1000 yards, at 60X on the Kowa.
