1. A method of automatically controlling a zoom level of a surgical camera, comprising the steps of: 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 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 zoom parameters associated with the detected surgical instrument.