 Tonya Cozart |
lenses Just wondering if someone could easity explain the difference in a zoom and a telephoto lens. I get different descriptions all the time...and it is really buggin me.
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Joyce S. Bowley |
The way I understand lenses (and I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong) is you can have a FIXED focal length or a ZOOM. Withing the ZOOM category are your Wide Angle (35mm or or shorter), Normal (28-70mm) and Telephoto. Therefore, a telephoto with a 80-200mm or a 100-300mm etc. IS a zoom lens. The difference is in the angle of view each lens affords. I hope that's not too confusing. Joyce
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Jon Close |
In general usage, a telephoto lens is one with focal length longer than the "normal" lens (eg. > 50mm for 35mm camera). The technical definition of telephoto is a lens designed such that it's physical length is shorter than the focal length. A zoom lens is one with variable focal length. It can be a wide-angle zoom, wide-normal zoom, telephoto zoom, etc. A lens with a single focal length is generally called a fixed focal length or "prime" lens.
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Christopher A. Vedros |
A zoom lens is any lens that allows you to change the focal length of the lens. Examples: 28mm-80mm, 70mm-200mm, 18mm-55mm, etc. There are three general terms that refer to the focal length of a lens: "wide angle", "normal", and "telephoto". In the traditional 35mm film world, "wide angle" lenses refer to focal lengths of about 28mm and less. "Normal" lenses refer to lenses that are around 50mm long. "Telephoto" lenses refer to lenses that are about 80mm and longer. You can see from this that some lenses, like an 80-200mm, would be considered a "telephoto zoom" lens. Chris
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Jay A. Grantham |
To reiterate.. you can have: Fixed Wide Angle: 35ish mm and below Fixed Standard: 35ish mm to 70ish mm Fixed Telephoto: 70ish mm and above Zoom: Variation of above I've heard lenses considered Super Wide (20ish mm and below).. Super Telephoto (300ish mm and above).. Depends on who is marketing it, I suppose.
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Christopher A. Vedros |
I guess Joyce, Jon & I were all typing at the same time. Along with Jay's summary, I think we've pretty much covered this one. ;-) Chris
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Tonya Cozart |
ok then.... I have an 18-55 and a 55-200 these would both be considered zooms because they change focal length and the 55-200 would be a telephoto zoom because it's focal length can go above 80mm. Would this be correct? This is what I am thinking anyway...the lenses came with my camera, and the saleslady at the camera store told me it came with a zoom and a telephoto, and I have been reading up and could not come up with a reason why they both were not zooms. Someone that was with me even asked if the 55-200 was a zoom and she said no, it is a telephoto.
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Joyce S. Bowley |
Let's see if we can all multi-post at the same time again! Yes Tanya, you have two ZOOM lenses. the 18-55mm is in the Wide Angle to Normal range and the 55-200mm is in the normal to short telephoto range.
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Jon Close |
I have commonly heard people refer to telephoto zoom lenses as simply telephoto. Just sloppy terminology. Salespeople are not necessarily the most knowledgeable.
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Tonya Cozart |
Thanks to all of you! I was beginning to think I must be too stupid to grasp this, but thanks to you all, and your simple explanations, what I was thinking was right. I guess my salesperson was just being sloppy...:) Funny how we tend to trust everything they say as the gospel truth, at least myself anyway, I tend to be naive that way most of the time.
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