ANSWERS: 1
  • It is possible to achieve almost any magnification with an optical system with the appropriate lenses. The question becomes, is the magnification USEFUL? In general, it is considered that a telescope's maximum useful magnification is about 2 X the aperture in mm. So for your 50mm aperture, it would be about 100 power. You could easily go higher, but the image would be too dim or fuzzy to be useful. Camcorder optical systems are the same way. Typically your 40x camcorder might have 10x optical magnification, and then 4x digital magnification where they simply only use part of the camera chip and blow the picture up. This of course lowers the resolution of the image (makes it fuzzy). 10x magnification could be achieved with a 5mm lens. Most camcorder lenses are bigger than this.

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