My daughter recently received a digital camera. One of her first questions to me was asking why the zoom buttons were labelled with the letters W and T. Once you know, you will remember it forever.
My daughter was extremely excited when she got her digital camera for Christmas. The one thing she could never figure out what why the zoom buttons were labelled with a W and a T instead of a plus and minus. The good part of this is it allowed me to explain some basic camera terminology to her.
T = Telephoto
Using a telephoto lens zooms in on the object viewed. “Tele” comes from Greek and means to cover large distances. You might remember it better by relating it to a telescope which certainly zooms in to distant objects.
Here’s an example of the telephoto button used to zoom in:
W = Wide Angle
As the name suggests, this button zooms out to gives a wide field of view. Objects in the frame will appear smaller, but more of the environment can be captured on the image.
Here’s a picture zoomed out using the wide angle button from the same location:
Many digital cameras now are ditching the T and W buttons for plus and minus signs instead.
