How to Zoom in With the Monocular? – Complete Guide

People often ask, how to zoom in with the monocular?

Let’s find out!

How to Zoom In With the Monocular?

To zoom in with your monoculars. The first thing you need to do is find a subject that you want to focus on. You can use any object or person as long as they are not too far away from you.

If you have a tripod, set it up so that the camera is at the same height as your eye level.

Now, take a look through the viewfinder. Make sure that everything is clear before taking the picture. Now, turn off the flash if you have one.

Turn on the autofocus mode (AF-S) and press the shutter button halfway down. The camera should automatically start focusing on the subject.

Now, hold the monocular steady while pressing the zoom lever towards you. As soon as you see the image appear in the viewfinder, quickly release the zoom lever.

Canon Zoom Digital Monocular Review

The Canon Zoom Digital Mono­cular is an interesting product that delivers telephoto performance and solid pictures quickly and easily. We put this niche product through its paces for several months. Read our full verdict here.

Pros

• Fits in your pocket
• Up to 800mm of zoom
• Large EVF
• Good stabilization up to 400mm
• Not a bad price

Cons

• Image quality
• Battery life
• Autofocus performance
• Clunky controls
• No weather sealing
• No manual controls

Technical Specifications

All of the technical specifications for the Canon Zoom Digital Monocular are from the product listing at B&H Photo:

Sensor resolution: 12.1 megapixels

Sensor: 1/2.3″ CMOS

Aspect ratio: 4:3

File format: 8-bit JPEG only

Stabilization: Optical (4-Axis)

Optical design: 11 elements in eight groups

Focal length: 13.8 to 55.5mm (35mm equiv: 100 to 400mm)

Zooms: Optical zoom 4x, digital zoom 2x (8x combined)

Aperture: f/5.6 to 6.3

Focus range: 3.3′ to infinity (wide), 14.8′ to infinity (telephoto)

Exposure modes: Auto exposure, auto white balance

Video: H.264/MP4 4:2:0 8-Bit, full HD (1920 x 1080) at 23.976p/29.97p [30 Mb/s]

Recording limit: 9 min, 59 Secs

Viewfinder: 2.36m dot, 100% coverage

Memory: Single slot microSD (UHS-I)

Connectivity: USB Type-C, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi

Battery: Rechargeable 800 mAh (approx. 150 Shots)

Dimensions: (W x H x D) 1.3 x 2 x 4.1″ / 33.4 x 50.8 x 103.2 mm

Weight: 5.1 oz / 0.31lbs

Ergonomics and Build Quality

The Canon Zoom is an easy-to-use camera that fits comfortably in your hand. Its curved shape makes it comfortable to hold, and the buttons are placed where they’re easy to reach. My hands are big, and I’ve had no trouble operating the camera.

At the top of the Zoom, you’ll find the lens, which doesn’t have a lens cover. Along the side, there’s a rather flimsy plastic cover for protecting the SD card reader and USB-C port.

At the back, you’ll find the viewfinder (EVF). Above the viewfinder are the zoom, power and menu buttons. Below the viewfinder is a dioptric adjustment dial and camera settings. The Canon Zoom is nice to hold and use. Most people will find it easy to operate.

Canon’s Zoom Digital Monocular is a lightweight monocular camera. It weighs only 0.31 pounds (0.14 kg) and features an electronic viewfinder (EVF). It comes with a strap so you can attach it to your belt.

The biggest downside is lack of weather sealing. This is a product that was made to be used outdoors and cannot withstand light rainfall. I shake my head. Even if you do not plan to take your camera outside during rainy days, the Canon Zoom should work fine for a while.

Canon Zoom Digital Monocle — In the Field

It’s not easy to set up and operate the Canon Zoom Digital Monocular, but it can be done. Let’s look at some of the menu options.

You don’t have a scroll wheel or joystick to use for navigation. So, you need to figure out and remember where each of the buttons moves the menus.

A single simple scroll wheel or joystick could have easily set up the Zoom, but no.

You’ll spend 15 frustrating hours just trying to figure out how to use the menus. Once you get past the menus, the game becomes easier.

You may notice that there isn’t a Playback button above. If you want to see the image or video you’ve just taken, press the Capture button again.

It’s not a sure thing, but you’ll just have to wait for the pictures to be downloaded from the SD memory chip.

This is a shame since the EVF is pretty decent. It has a 2.36 meter (7.5 feet) diagonal screen with a 60 frames per second refresh, which provides a sharp image. Too sad though, that you can’t use it for viewing your photos.

The Focal Range

• 100mm
• 400mm
• 800mm

The focal length is what most photographers will be interested in. Both the 100mm and 400mm lenses are good choices. The digital zoom up to 800mm is also quite useful.

There are no “in-between” focal lengths. They’re either 100 millimeters (400 millimeters) or 800 millimeters (800 millimeters).

It’s not ideal for taking photos of people, but if you’re looking for something to take pictures of birds, animals, or sporting events from the nosebleed seats at your local stadium, then the Canon Zoom lens might be just what you need.

Buffer and Battery Life

Battery life is terrible. You won’t get anywhere near 24 hours out of it if you plan to take it outdoors for a full sports game or even just an afternoon hike.

We’ve tested the camera extensively, and found it capable of shooting great photos in good light conditions.

However, if you’re planning to shoot outdoors during daylight hours, you’ll likely get better results from a DSLR.

In low-light situations, the camera struggles to keep pace with moving subjects. You also won’t be able to take advantage of autofocus features such as continuous autofocusing (CAF) and face detection.

Autofocus

Autofocus (AF) is one of those things that can work really well or not so much. On my Nikon D3100, we found that if you are shooting landscapes or people, then autofocus is pretty good. However, if you are trying to shoot something fast-moving, such as sports, then autofocus tends to struggle. So, how does the Canon Zoom Digital Monocle fare? Well, let’s see…

What’s frustrating is having to deal with the fact that zoom keeps locking onto branches instead of birds. There’s no way to stop it from doing so.

In the wide mode, face detection works pretty consistently. At 100mm the minimum focus distance is about 2.5 ft. On the telephoto side (200mm), the minimum focus distance is 4.7ft.

On average, if you’re using Canon Zoom on a sunny afternoon, you’ll be able to take some decent photos. However, if you use zoom during dusk or dawn, you’ll quickly get frustrated because the camera will focus on whatever is close by.

Image quality

Don’t expect high-resolution photos from Canon Zoom. It uses a small sensor similar to those used in smartphone cameras.

However, it’s tied to a Digic 8 chip. You won’t get any better photos than those taken by a smartphone. You’ll just get worse ones.

The Canon Zoom can shoot 8-bit JPEGs but they’re not sharp enough for any serious photography. At 800 millimeters (about 3 feet), images become mushy and soft. They lose details and look grainy.

As the Canon Zoom uses automatic exposure only, you’ll find that it tends to blow out highlights all the time, especially when shooting at high ISOs. Also, its noise is not pretty.

Lowlights are usually shocking. However, they’re often quite pleasant to look at. Your photos will be fine for social networks, but that’s about it!

Conclusion

We hope that this article was helpful if you have any queries feel free to reach out in the comments section below.