Superzoom & Telephoto Zoom lens - Difference?

[swag72]

Looking at a new lens and have come across the best buy section in the Photoplus magazine. They have listed both superzoom lens and telephoto zoom lens. As a total newbie, and having looked around to find the answer, I have drawn a blank as to what the difference is.

Can someone shed some light on this please in my quest for a purchase?

Many thanks

Sara

 

[IanC_UK]

not 100% on the answer, but i suspect Tele zooms will be up to 300mm'ish and superzooms will be over that, that may not have helped you though

 

[markta]

Some mags I've read reckon that superzooms are anything from 200mm, but I suspect that Ians 300mm reckoning is more like it

Cheers, Mark

 

[Joe T]

I would have thought that a superzoom does wide-angle to telephoto, e.g. 18-200 or 28-300.

A telephoto zoom would be something like a 70-300, telephoto only.

My guess anyway.

 

[swag72]

Will superzoom be able to capture from small to far away?

Sure that's not the terminology - Sorry!

 

[Graham_P_Clarke]

I would tend to agree with Joe T but what do I Know

 

[Joe T]

Will superzoom be able to capture from small to far away?

Sure that's not the terminology - Sorry!

Yes, it will give you a wide angle of view, and then enable you to zoom in quite close too.

They can be useful lenses as they cover so many different things. The quality suffers a little though.

 

[hepburn]

I would have thought that a superzoom does wide-angle to telephoto, e.g. 18-200 or 28-300.

I agree with the above too. Makes more sense if you ask me.

 

[michaelgreen78]

I would have thought that a superzoom does wide-angle to telephoto, e.g. 18-200 or 28-300.

A telephoto zoom would be something like a 70-300, telephoto only.

My guess anyway.

Correct.

Will superzoom be able to capture from small to far away?

Sure that's not the terminology - Sorry!

Yes, your question's a bit muddled, but think of it like this, Photographing a sports team from something like 10 yards back a superzoom will be able to get the whole team in at one end of the range (18mm) and, zooming in, will be able to fit just a face or 2 in at the other end of the range (200mm).

The downside with the superzooms is distortion and poor speed (poor maximum aperture).

 

[simonkit]

As already mentioned superzooms cover a very wide range, 18-200 / 18-250 etc, a tele-photo has more limited range, 70-200 / 70-300 etc....

Generally speaking the tele-photo is likely to have better IQ than a superzoom, the main exception to this "rule" being the Tamron 18-250 which has many fans

simon

 

[hepburn]

Generally speaking the tele-photo is likely to have better IQ than a superzoom, the main exception to this "rule" being the Tamron 18-250 which has many fans

Of which i'm one of them. It's a terrific lens for the money...

 

[alexisonfire]

Anything over 50mm technically could be classed as telephoto, as it enables us to see further than the human eye. A superzoom is classed as one, when its zoom ratio is normally more than 5x

 

[xolotl]

I would have thought that a superzoom does wide-angle to telephoto, e.g. 18-200 or 28-300.

A telephoto zoom would be something like a 70-300, telephoto only.

My guess anyway.

That's what I would go with too.

Super zooms tend to have a 'super' zoom range and can be very useful for all sorts of photography due to the large range of focal lengths available. Telephoto zooms will just change between telephoto focal lengths so between 70mm to 300mm be it in the form of a 70-200, 70-300 or other similar designs.