1. A method of automatically controlling a zoom level of a surgical camera, comprising the steps of: defining by a user one or more custom zoom parameters associated with one or more surgical instruments; capturing a series of images with the surgical camera; analyzing the captured images utilizing one or more algorithms to detect the presence of a surgical instrument in the captured images; determining one or more default zoom parameters associated with the surgical instrument upon detection of the instrument in the captured images; and automatically adjusting the zoom level of the surgical camera based upon the one or more custom zoom parameters associated with the detected surgical instrument if defined by the user, otherwise automatically adjusting the zoom level of the surgical camera based on one or more default zoom parameters associated with the surgical instrument.