I am a keen snapper but have never owned a sophisticated camera - my usual cameras are an Ixus 145 and an old Canon Sureshot - the one with the swivel screen.
I have just been given a Sony a5000 and am trying to find my way around it - pretty difficult for a 73 year old!
This is my problem and it's probably rather silly.
When I point the camera at a scene and look at the screen the subject seems a long way away.

When I zoom it in completely it looks to be the distance that I can see it without a camera, if you see what I mean.
I expected the zoom to zoom me in like a telephoto lens very close.
But with this camera, if for instance I want to zoom in to a seagull some distance away, the zoom doesn't effectively magnify it at all.
Is there some setting I need to change all this or do I have to buy another lens to get a proper zoom?

Many thanks for any answers to what probably is a silly question....

 

 The kit lens is a 16-50 zoom. I imagine that's the one you have. That gives you a 26-75, 35mm equivalent lens, as the a5000 is an APS-C camera.

 

 So you have from a normal wide angle to a small zoom. The 75mm eqivalent is not much, but is a bit longer than a normal 50mm equivalent lens.  You don't have much here for zooming in on seagulls. A longer lens might help.

 

 I'm 68 myself but I have been doing this since the 70s so I have accumulated some knowledge.

In order to zoom in to far away objects, the lens attached to the camera needs to have a high mm number.

 

 

The lens your camera probably came with goes from 16mm to 50mm and is designed for portraits, indoor scenes and wide landscapes.

 

Swapping the (readily interchangeable) lens for, eg, a “Sony 55-210mm e mount” will make subjects appear around 4 times larger/closer.

 

 

Unfortunately birds demand the largest mm lenses of all commonly shot subjects - Pros typically use 400, 500, even 600mm lenses costing thousands of dollars.

Thanks so much for the responses folks - only just seen them because I didn't get a notification.

 

Since posting that I've been firing off a few shots and have to say I am impressed by the quality, so my perceived problem is not such a handicap.

 

I took photos non zoom from a cliff top and was amazed that on cropping at home I could enlarge dots of figures walking on the beach to almost recognisable people.

And actual zoomed shots when cropped are far sharper than I expected. 

So I'll stick with this lens - many thanks.