making sense of zoom

[Rufous]

Can someone please help me understand the zoom of digital camera? What I would like to know is how to compare say the Canon SX 20 IS with its 20 power zoom which goes to 100mm with a binocular. Is the old 35mm the equivalent to our eyes? When a camera says it has a zoom with 35mm equivalent of 560mm does that mean it is like looking through a 560/35=16x binocular? Thanks, Brian.

[wabow]

Its lense to sensor distance or lense to film distance. Every digital camera is different and the manufacturer calculates zoom differently, usually to match what they are trying to market. The exception would be a dslr. A canon has a crop factor of 1.6. So 1.6*??mm lense is the 35mm equivellent unless it happens to be full frame like the 5d.

Don