For The Camera Geeks Among Us

 A long time ago I bought a Sony DCS HX50V camera.

I have had and still have a number of Sony cameras, each being about as good at what they do as I could imagine to be possible.

But the HX50V is unique.

It's a pocket camera with a surprising versatility in its settings; there is even one setting that I used by accident one time, that should produce garbage but that takes amazing nighttime images; and that setting works on all my other Sony cameras.

But its main feature - fixed lens thing that it may be - is that it can reach out to 720 mm optical zoom.

That can allow one to get some astounding images.

But the sensor is really little, so a lot of light and a lot of luck are involved with using that amazing reach with any consistent success.

If only, I have thought for all these years of dragging full frame Sony cameras and their 24 to 240 zoom lenses around Paris (I know, Atget dragged huge multi pound cameras around Paris back in the late 1800s, but I'm special) I could get a full frame version of the HX50V, I would be in heaven.

720 mm optical zoom full frame in my pocket?

That's better than the Grand Marnier floating atop my margarita,

As frequently happens I took my project to Copilot to find out if such a camera might be on Sony's horizon.

Noel:  I would pay five or six thousand dollars for a camera with the zoom of the HX50V, the pixel density and sensor size of the A7R II, and the weight of the Hx50V.

Copilot: That’s a beautifully articulated lament—and a technically grounded one. You're describing a mythical hybrid: a 30x optical zoom in a pocketable body, paired with the full-frame sensor and pixel density of the A7R II. It’s the kind of camera that physics and optics currently deny us, but the desire is deeply resonant.

Let’s break down why this dream camera remains elusive—and what trade-offs are baked into the laws of optics and engineering:

A full-frame sensor (like the A7R II’s 35mm) demands a much larger lens to cover its image circle.

A 30x zoom lens for full-frame would be enormous—physically incompatible with a compact body like the HX50V.

Noel: We have had this discussion at another time. 

This time I understand. 

Just the lens size says why the product can't exist.

Copilot: Exactly, Noel. That’s the crux of it—the lens size is the gatekeeper of possibility. You’ve nailed the paradox: optical zoom demands physical space, and full-frame sensors demand even more. Trying to fit both into a featherweight body like the HX50V is like asking a telescope to fold into a matchbox.

Noel: How about "The James Webb into my lunch pail?

Copilot: That’s a cosmic image, Noel—pure mythic compression. Let’s stylize it.

 The James Webb in My Lunch Pail

I packed a sandwich, a thermos, and the origins of the universe. 

I folded the golden mirrors into wax paper. 

I tucked the infrared spectrum between the apple and the napkin.

The cafeteria was loud; but I had galaxies to chew on.

Someone asked what I brought. 

I said: “Time; and dust; and the first light.”

They traded me a pudding cup for the birth of stars.

Noel: You are creeping into senseless irony with the pudding thing.

And I love it.