CHDK’s set_zoom range for Canon PowerShot SX710HS

CHDK supports programmatically setting the zoom level on the camera. However, the exact range for the zoom and apparently the translation between the zoom level in CHDK to actual focal length is camera dependent.

Zoom to focal length, Canon PowerShot SX710HS

In order to figure out the exact range for the zoom and the relation between the numerical zoom steps and the focal length, I’ve used the following Lua script to get the current zoom setting and set it to a certain value. I’ve also configured the display of the camera to show the exact focal length at all times.

-- Guy Rutenberg 2018-08-10
-- 

--[[
@title Get and Set Zoom
@chdk_version 1.3
@param z Zoom level
@default z 0
--]]

z_old = get_zoom()
print("Current zoom "..z_old)
print("Zooming to "..z)
set_zoom(z)

Next, I’ve set the zoom to multiple value, and plotted it against the actual focal length. The results are shown in the graph above.

The range for the zoom is 0 to 111, which matches focal length of 4.5 to 135mm. The change is pretty linear in two section: 0 to about 85 and again from 85 up to 111.

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