Terminology

ConfusedChicca

ConfusedChicca

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Laura
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Is it meant to be this confusing??

Wide angle, telephoto, zoom, prime... I have no idea what they mean (yet).

Mini rant over.

:cuckoo:
 
Wide angle = It's a question "Why Dangle?"
Telephoto = It's a picture taken with a camera you see on a television.
Zoom = Summat you do on a motorbike.
Prime = Summat you do to a blunderbus (or any firearm that uses blackpowder)

Happy to Help! ;)
 
My slow typing means that someone else will probably have written much better explanations by the time I've done this but never mind. :lol:

Wideange-
Pretty simple, the angle of view it sees is wider than you see through your eyes. The wider the lens, the more scene you get in the shot.

Telephoto-
Exactly the opposite. These are like telescopes for your camera. The bigger the number (of mm's) the more magnification you get and the closer you bring the subject to you.

Zoom-
These are just lenses with a range of mm's. So it might go from 24mm (a mild wide angle) to 135mm (a mild telephoto). These are liked by many because you get lots of flexibility over the amount of scene you get in your shots. You can stay in one place and increase or decrease the amount of the view you want to photograph.

Prime-
These are lenses with a fixed mm. So no zooming in and out, what you see through it is what you get. They are far less flexible than the zooms obviously but usualy have a better image quality, as they can de designed to do just the one thing, as best as possible.

HTH. :)
 
Wikipedia confuses me.. lol.

Dazzajl: thanks, just what I needed to know. Now I have to decide what kind of lens I want next, it's either a zoom or a wide angle.
 
ConfusedChicca said:
Wikipedia confuses me.. lol.

Dazzajl: thanks, just what I needed to know. Now I have to decide what kind of lens I want next, it's either a zoom or a wide angle.
Click to expand...

Ah fair enough, can't please everyone ;)

As for lenses, depends on what you want to try. Overly simplified this but...

Wide Angle = landscapes, taking shots of own feet !, wacky angles of everyday things

Zoom = Versatile but depends on length of the zoom ! I've got a wideangle zoom and a long reach zoom :)
 
Well so far its between the Sigma 75-300mm and Canon 70-300mm.
 
im with chuckles :lol:
 
ConfusedChicca said:
Well so far its between the Sigma 75-300mm and Canon 70-300mm.
Click to expand...
Wouldn't that be the Sigma 70-300 mm APO DG macro?
I have it (Nikon mount) and for the money, it's very nice, imo.
Then again, you might want to go for one of them Canons for better / safer compatibility.
 
dazzajl said:
Telephoto-
Exactly the opposite. These are like telescopes for your camera. The bigger the number (of mm's) the more magnification you get and the closer you bring the subject to you.
Click to expand...

Although that is what pretty much everyone uses it to mean, technically a telephoto lens is one which has a special set of elements to allow it to be made shorter than a regular lens.

Obviously this is used for larger focal length lenses which would otherwise be around twice as long, hence why it has become synonymous with long lenses.

Wide angle lenses are reverse telephotos though. This allows them to be made longer than they normally would be, which is necessary for them to be physically possible.

The front element of a 10mm regular lens, for example, would need to be 2cm from the image plane (sensor or film), which would not even see it protruding the mirror chamber.

Michael.
 
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