Why do we need telephoto lenses or what is a “telephoto”? What does wide angle mean?

17.01.2017

Why might I need a different lens?

So you've just bought your first interchangeable lens camera. Great!) Your camera most likely came with a lens, so why do you need another one?

Mainly, different lenses can widen different kinds photos you can take, and increase the number of “genres” in which you can work. Different lenses can allow you to take better photos of different subjects and work more effectively in different situations. The whole question is what you want to shoot.

What are the options?

At first glance, choosing an additional lens may seem overly complicated: there are a huge number of options, lens names are written with strange code values ​​and completely minor changes in these values ​​lead to huge differences in price.

Important to remember: You don't need the “full” set. So don't worry about the huge number of lenses presented on manufacturers' websites; you don't need to buy them all.

Your interests and photography style will determine what exactly you need. And while there's always a risk that your photos will depend on the lens you have, there's nothing that says you need a lot of lenses to get what you want.

The effect of focal length (and aperture) depends on the size of the sensor in front of which the lens is mounted.

The two main characteristics of a lens are the focal length (which determines how the lens sees the world around it - what kind of view it has and how close it is) and the maximum aperture value (which determines how much light the lens can let in).

Prime and zoom lenses

The most common type of lens, often sold in a standard “zoom kit” with a camera, is a zoom lens. They are equipped with a complex mechanism that allows them to display a specific range of focal lengths, which means you can visually zoom in and out of objects. Zoom lenses are very flexible to use.

An alternative to zoom lenses are lenses with a fixed focal length (prime lenses). As the name suggests, they only have one focal length and cannot zoom in or out. Why would anyone want such a limited lens? From a practical standpoint, it is easier to design a prime lens with good optical performance and a bright maximum aperture, letting in more light, since that is what the lens is designed to do. And, from an artistic perspective, many photographers find that prime lenses force them to choose the composition of their images more carefully.

What is a telephoto lens?

Although the term has a specific meaning, most people use “telephoto” to refer to anything longer than 50mm equivalent. In simple words, telephoto - everything that can be magnified more than the naked eye allows.

Telephoto lenses with long focal lengths allow you to take photographs that appear to be closer to the subject, which is why they have proven themselves in filming wildlife and sporting events.

Many camera manufacturers offer telephoto lenses that can be purchased as part of a “dual lens kit” when purchasing a camera. As with your standard zoom kit, this will most likely be an F3.5-5.6 variable aperture lens. This lens is great in many situations, but it won't necessarily be the sharpest or most efficient.

Short and medium telephoto lenses can be great for portrait photography.
Photo: Dan Bracaglia

Telephoto lenses are suitable for completely different things. Short and medium lenses are good for portrait photography. Longer lenses are suitable for shooting sporting events, and super-long telephoto lenses are ideal for bird photography.

If your budget allows, you should pay attention to telephoto lenses with a constant aperture that maintain the F number throughout the entire zoom range.

If you feel like the long end of your zoom lens isn't getting you close enough, you might want to consider investing in a telephoto lens.

What is a wide angle lens?

As you might guess, wide-angle lenses are the opposite of telephoto lenses: they are short focal length lenses that have a wider angle of view than can be seen with the naked eye.

The wide-angle lens has a wide field of view, making it ideal for landscape photography.

These lenses can be used for all types of landscape and environmental photography, and can also add a dramatic effect to your images. If you find yourself constantly shooting at the widest focal length of your standard zoom lens, wide angle lens could be a great choice for you.

What is a macro lens?

Macro lenses are special lenses designed to get as close as possible. These lenses are especially popular among those who photograph insects, flowers and other small objects with big amount details.

Macro lenses allow you to get closer to small objects.

If your standard zoom lens refuses to focus and your chosen subjects always look too small in your photos, you might want to consider a macro lens.

What about a standard zoom lens?

A common mistake that is made is that since your standard zoom already covers the medium-wide to medium-tele range, there is no need to buy a new lens for that range. In fact, the opposite may be true.

The standard zoom lenses that come with your camera allow you to go shooting right out of the box, but they are usually designed to save money. Such a lens may have poor optical performance and a slow maximum aperture, which, for example, will limit the camera's ability to shoot in low light conditions.

Need to try.

Whatever lens you choose, it will take some time for you to adapt your “photographic eye” to “see” the photos that the new lens can take. It just takes practice - after some time, you will almost instinctively feel the new viewing angle.

And even if you change your mind, a good lens will usually retain much of its value if you take proper care of it, so you can always sell it and try something else.

Telephoto lenses are most often used to photograph distant objects: buildings and structures, landscape fragments, people and animals. Telephoto cameras are very convenient when shooting reports, as they allow you to maintain a significant distance between the photographer and the center of events. Due to their long focal length, such lenses greatly blur the background, making them suitable for artistic and portrait photography.

In the telephoto lens segment, like nowhere else, there is a connection between the quality of a particular model and its price. The cheapest telephoto lenses cost several thousand rubles. Dear ones - almost ten times more. Moreover, both of them can have the same range of focal lengths, and the whole difference comes down to aperture (televisions with f/2.8 aperture are very expensive) and optical quality. Almost always, expensive models will provide higher sharpness and lower levels of aberration. In addition, expensive telephoto lenses have built-in high-speed autofocus motors, while budget telephoto lenses often focus very slowly.

For the beginning photographer, almost any telephoto lens with a range from 55 to 200 mm (sometimes 300 mm) will do. This lens will cope with 90% of shooting tasks. If we're talking about about shooting in low light or when you need to focus quickly and high quality images, then you will have to purchase a medium or top-level telephoto lens, paying for it an amount comparable to the cost of the camera.

Separately, it is worth mentioning lenses for photographing wildlife. When photographing birds and animals, a focal length of 200 or 300 mm may simply not be enough. You need to choose from models with a maximum focal length of at least 400-500 mm. It can be a prime or zoom lens. Naturally, it is advisable to purchase a model with the highest aperture ratio at the long end, because even on a sunny day there may be little light for shooting with such a lens. Recently, third-party optical manufacturers have released a number of successful models in this market segment, but all other things being equal, we would recommend paying attention to high-quality branded lenses, despite their higher cost.

Portrait Lens

Typically, when talking about a portrait, photographers mean an image of a person against a blurred background. For a long time, they have been produced for portrait photography. special models lenses. Their main advantage is almost perfect blurring of the out-of-focus zone. This is achieved by using special optical circuits. It should be noted that such lenses do not always provide high image sharpness at open apertures. And this is not a drawback of portraiture, but rather their feature, since they perfectly convey the texture of human skin, without emphasizing minor defects and wrinkles. Thanks to this, portraits sometimes do not even require retouching graphic editors. The focal lengths of such lenses, as a rule, belong to the moderate telephoto range (from 77 to 135 mm).

If you are not yet ready to purchase a specialized portrait lens, try replacing it with a telephoto lens. Top models from any manufacturer successfully cope with this task.

On cameras with APS-C frame format, you can use the classic “fifty-kopeck” lens as a portrait lens. Naturally, such optics are designed for completely different purposes, but good blurring of the out-of-focus zone, as well as high aperture, allow the use of 50 mm lenses as a less expensive replacement for a portrait lens on half-frame cameras.

Macro Lens

This type of lens is characterized by three main features: the ability to focus at extremely short distances, high sharpness and very high image contrast. Macro lenses are capable of providing a shooting scale of up to 1:1 (in this case, the real dimensions of the subject are equal to the dimensions of its projection on the matrix). But there are individual models that provide both smaller and larger scales. The focal length range of macro lenses can range from 30 to 300 mm. The shorter the focal length, the shorter the minimum focusing distance. It is more convenient to use short-focus lenses for subject photography, and long-focus lenses for wildlife photography. The latter allow you to increase the distance between the photographer and the subject at the same image scale.

Some modern zooms are labeled "macro", indicating that they can also focus from relatively short distances. But, as a rule, this optics is not capable of providing the same shooting range as full-fledged macro lenses, and in terms of optical properties it lags behind specialized lenses.

Conclusion

At the very beginning of the article, we noted that the lens has a greater impact on the final result than the camera itself. It is the lens that determines the sharpness of the image, forms a pattern in the blur zone, is responsible for bringing the subject as close as possible and provides the required viewing angle. It's not always possible to choose the right lens the first time - it's a long journey of trial and error, but don't let it scare you. While modern DSLRs become obsolete in an average of three years, good lenses serve their owners for decades. The main thing is to make an informed choice. And of course, in the race for perfect quality, one should not forget that real masterpieces are captured not by a camera, but by a photographer...

Beginner photographers only know about telephoto lenses that they are designed to magnify distant objects. However, in reality, long-focus optics are not just an opportunity to bring distant objects closer, but also a powerful creative tool with which the photographer can influence the photographic image in different ways. Using a telephoto lens can create the impression of a shallower depth of field or provide the desired size consistency between distant and near objects in the frame. Unique Features Telephoto lenses make their range of applications extremely wide - from wildlife photography and portraits to macro photography.

Types and design of telephoto lenses

Strictly speaking, a telephoto lens can already be called an optics whose focal length exceeds 70 mm (for a full frame). However, today it is customary to classify “full-fledged” long-focus optics as lenses whose focal length does not exceed 135 mm, which corresponds to an angle of view along the wide side of the frame of no more than 15 degrees. In any case, telephoto lenses are different in that their internal design allows them to effectively increase the focal length. This provides excellent opportunities when shooting what is called “from a distance.” Moreover, the longer the focal length, the more pronounced the unique properties of a telephoto lens are, which we will talk about later.

The simplest design of a telephoto lens with one long-focus lens has very large dimensions and low image quality. Therefore, a different optical design is currently used, including a converging and diverging lens, as well as additional groups of lenses made of glass with different optical properties to reduce aberrations and implement additional functions, in particular, image stabilization.

A diaphragm is placed between the groups of lenses, changing the amount of light passing through the optics and. The shape of the blur in the blur zone is precisely the image of the aperture opening. Increasing the focal length and ensuring sufficient aperture of telephoto lenses requires the use of lenses of larger diameter. As a result, the weight and dimensions of long-focus optics increase, and, ultimately, the price of such telephoto lenses increases.

It is simply impossible to make a high-quality lens with a long focal length light and compact. For example, a telephoto lens with a focal length of 200 mm and f/2.8 aperture is already difficult to hold in your hands with the camera for a long time, so you have to use a tripod. Telephoto lenses with even longer focal lengths are often overall dimensions bodies are superior to professional SLR cameras.

True, in modern models For telephoto lenses, manufacturers try to use expensive optical glass with a very high refractive index or diffraction optics in order to somewhat reduce the overall length and weight of the structure. But in any case, you need to understand that long-focus optics are almost always large and quite heavy photographic equipment.

Currently, based on the effective focal length, it is customary to distinguish three types of telephoto lenses:

— Short telephoto lenses

This is an optic with a focal length from 85 to 135 mm. Short telephoto lenses are the lightest and most affordable of all their counterparts. They are used, in particular, in portrait and wedding photography, when the photographer is in close proximity to the subject being photographed, but at the same time tries not to interfere with what is happening.

— Medium telephoto lenses

Medium telephoto lenses include optics with focal lengths from 135 to 300 mm. Such lenses are quite often used for photographing fast-moving objects, for example, when photographing sports competitions. Thanks to the telephoto lens, in this case the photo is free of blur.

— Super telephoto lenses

Ultra-long-focus optics have a focal length exceeding 300 mm. Such lenses are heavy and seriously expensive. They are used, first of all, where it is impossible to get close enough to the subject. close quarters. In particular, when photographing wild animals, which, when photographed close, can simply run away due to one awkward movement of the photographer.

By the way, the largest telephoto lens to date was manufactured by CarlZeiss; it has a focal length of 1700 mm and an exorbitant weight of 256 kilograms. This unique telephoto lens was produced in a single copy for one lover of photographing the world of wildlife from great distances.

Features of telephoto lenses

Telephoto lenses differ from other optics not only in that they are capable of bringing distant objects closer. One of the key features of a telephoto lens is that it has a narrow angle of view, which normalizes the relative sizes and distances of near and far objects. That is, the use of long-focus optics makes it possible to achieve an effect in a photograph in which objects closest to the camera appear approximately equal in size to those distant. The thing is that when the angle of view is narrow, distant objects fill a much larger part of the frame.

In practice, a telephoto lens has a direct effect on perspective. Normalizing the relative sizes of near and far subjects can be used by the photographer to impart a sense of scale. To enhance this effect, you only need to move away from the nearest subject as much as possible and, accordingly, bring it closer with a telephoto lens, if necessary. Reducing the ratio of the size of objects and the distance between them can be beneficial for creating a sense of density or emphasizing the number of objects in the frame, but excessive normalization of relative sizes can also spoil the photo, making the scene too static, flat and uninteresting.

Given the amazing ability to zoom in on distant objects and at the same time the narrow angle of view, when using long-focus optics, you should carefully choose the quality of the content of the frame. In other words, some selectivity must be exercised. A telephoto lens can perfectly capture a simple but well-focused composition. For example, when photographing wildlife, you can zoom in on a small animal that is far away, accurately conveying its shape in the frame and paying special attention to various small details. Using powerful long-focus optics, you can photograph not only wild animals in their natural environment habitats, but also such dangerous and large-scale natural phenomena as volcanic eruptions.

The next feature of telephoto lenses is that they reduce the depth of field while maintaining the same focusing distance. It is important to emphasize that telephoto lenses themselves do not have a shallower depth of field. When using long-focus lenses, photographers often magnify the subject much more than, for example, using wider-angle lenses. That is, they usually do not move away from the subjects, as a result of which they fill the frame more, which leads to a decrease in depth of field.

Considering this feature of a telephoto lens, as well as the fact that distant objects out of focus visually appear much larger, which increases their blur, the need to achieve extreme focusing accuracy at the selected point increases significantly. The slightest error in focusing when using a telephoto lens can lead to blurring of individual details of the photograph. In most cases, when using long lenses, it is better to use the center point to focus, and then adjust the composition of the frame as you see fit, without worrying about changing the focusing distance. Regarding the topic of focusing, it is worth noting that on fast long-focus lenses, focusing, one way or another, is associated with the movement of massive lenses. This, of course, somewhat reduces the speed and accuracy of automatic focusing.

To avoid photo blur when using a camera with bulky long-focus optics, you must use a tripod. However, handheld shooting is also possible. Just to minimize the blurring of the frame caused by hand shake, you will need to either reduce the exposure time as the focal length increases, or somehow stabilize the position of the camera in space. Most often, when shooting handheld, you have to use both methods.

To reduce the shutter speed, you need to open the aperture wider or increase the ISO sensitivity in the digital camera settings. Be careful - increasing ISO sensitivity increases the likelihood of noise in the photo, and opening the aperture, in turn, reduces the depth of field. You can stabilize the camera when shooting handheld by leaning your body or the telephoto lens itself against some stationary object, for example, against a wall or tree. You can also try shooting while sitting, holding the telephoto lens with one hand.

Telephoto photography - landscapes, portraits, architecture and macro photography

In addition to shooting sports and fast-moving subjects, telephoto lenses are used in many other genres. For example, in landscape photography. In principle, wide-angle lenses are known to be more suitable for landscape photography, since they exaggerate the sense of depth, while telephoto lenses compress it. However, telephoto lenses are widely used in landscape photography.

In particular, they are used for shooting compositions consisting of several shots at different distances. Trees or houses may be placed in the background, followed by distant hillsides, and the blue sky in the background. It is also beneficial to use long-focus optics when shooting in fog or atmospheric haze, since distant objects will appear closer in the photograph. In addition, rain, snowfall or fog will appear denser in the image than when using conventional wide-angle optics.

Telephoto lenses can also be used for panoramic photography, that is, to create panoramas from several frames “glued” together. Typically, wide-angle lenses are again used for these purposes. However, when shooting from a high point using a telephoto lens, you can achieve excellent detail in panoramic photographs with an extended horizon. On them you can see individual people, cars and trees down to the smallest detail. By gluing together many separate fragments, you can thereby combine a high resolution, provided by a large photographic scale, and a wide angle of view for stunning, detailed panoramas.

Long focal length optics are great for architectural photography because they allow photographs to convey the spatial relationships between various elements of a structure. If you use wide-angle optics to photograph buildings or structures, then the suitable shooting distance will be approximately comparable to the characteristic dimensions of the building. However, in this case, perspective distortions will inevitably arise, which often do not allow the architectural forms to be correctly conveyed. It is better to move the telephoto lens further away from the subject. True, there is a risk of foreign objects getting into the frame, but buildings and structures captured using long-focus optics look much more natural and natural in photographs.

In portrait photography, a telephoto lens ensures minimal distortion of the proportions of the model's face and good separation of it from the background. The background or background that is out of focus is blurred. The image of the model’s face or figure will be captured in natural proportions. Plus, the use of long-focus optics when shooting a portrait allows the photographer to move a sufficient distance from the subject, and at the same time gives him the opportunity to more flexibly control the depth of field.

Focal length 112 mm. Aperture 5.6

Finally, thanks to their superior detail and ability to photograph at fairly large scales, telephoto lenses can be used for macro photography. The closer the subject is to the camera, the larger it will appear in the photo. True, in this situation, the minimum distance at which one or another telephoto lens is capable of focusing will act as a natural limitation on the maximum possible shooting scale.

In fact, telephoto lenses can be used in a variety of shooting situations to achieve certain effects. You can learn the key features and master the skills of working with a telephoto lens in practice. So arm yourself with long-focus lenses and photograph as much as possible.

New version of article, revised for clarity. Based on advice from Nik_SSG, YuriS, nukemall and Mormon.

Purpose of the article- to give beginners guidelines in choosing their first telephoto lens, and for those who continue to do so - a basis for exchanging opinions. I will rely, first of all, on the Nikon system, with which I have more experience (I do not ignore other systems). Some of the materials presented are facts arising from personal experience and expert assessments (available publicly on the Internet). The other part is the interpretation of these facts through the prism of amateur photography logic (they will be anticipated by the letter combination IMHO).

The article has two sections - theoretical and practical. The theoretical section is valid for any systems. The practical one has a greater “tailoring” for Nikon, but significant differences with other systems are highlighted.

Section one is the design of a telephoto lens and the selection criteria arising from it.

In this section I will describe the typical features of modern telephoto lenses, but some of them apply to all glasses of this class, regardless of the time of manufacture.Technically, a telephoto lens is a lens with a focal length greater than the diagonal of the frame. When the focal length is equal to the frame diagonal, the field of view of the lens is close to that of the human eye, and the lens is called “normal”. For full-frame cameras, the frame diagonal is slightly more than 43 mm. That is, even a “fifty-kopeck” lens, technically a moderately long-focus lens.

However, all lenses in the 40-60mm range are more often called “normal” because, despite some variations in focal length, they provide a field of view close to natural. For full-frame cameras, the telephoto range starts at about 60mm. In practice, however, moderate telephoto lenses with focal lengths up to 135 mm are called portrait lenses according to their typical purpose. Accordingly, lenses from 135 mm to approximately 300 mm are considered telephoto lenses. Then the exotic stuff begins - super telephoto cameras for extreme reporting and photo hunting.

Telephoto lens properties: narrow field of vision, distortion of perspective compared to natural towards its less pronounced ( visual effect, when shooting the same object at the same scale without crop), shallow depth of field and significant background blur (even at small apertures), large compared to other MDF lenses (minimum focusing distance).

Today we can talk about three classes of optical devices, corresponding to ideas about telephoto lenses: telephoto lenses with a fixed focal length (there are especially many of these for systems of previous years such as M42), telephoto zoom lenses, superzoom lenses with a telephoto range.

An example of the former is the Soviet television set “Jupiter-21”. Secondly, the modern Sigma 50-150/f2.8. Third - both Tamron 17-270 with a record zoom factor, and the more moderate Canon 18-135.

All three classes of lenses are suitable for shooting in the television range, but have significantly different properties. Fixed televisions have a high aperture ratio and the best optical quality (modern ones). Zoom telephotos have moderate aperture and average optical properties. Due to the complexity of manufacturing, superzoom lenses have worse aperture and optical quality (at the same time, the resolution drops precisely in the television range - the further away, the more). The higher the magnification of a superzoom, the worse it works as a telephoto. The principle of “Occam’s razor” comes into force - the more lenses, the more difficult it is to ensure the best best quality production of each. And some focal points inevitably turn out to be compromises, so that there is an opportunity to provide others. Another typical sharpness picture for superzooms is a dip in the mid-range of the photons. Vignetting is more pronounced at both ends, as is distortion (but it is in different directions).

Let's consider key factors What should you pay attention to when choosing a telephoto lens? They weave from design features and the typical purpose of television cameras.

1. Longer focal length not only makes the picture larger, but also significantly changes the perspective (in practice, when shooting without a crop at the same scale). This is the result of changing the relative distances between camera, subject and background, but the fact remains. In real shooting, wide-angles make the perspective more pronounced, while telephotos hide it. This is the first factor that should be taken into account when choosing a telephoto lens, since very long telephoto lenses give, IMHO, an inexpressive picture. For this reason, a reasonable telephoto range (not for extreme photography) is unlikely to exceed 300 mm.

Extreme Sigma 800 mm - unlikely to be the choice of the majority

2. The second factor is the purpose of the television. If photo hunting is not your only genre, a powerful prime telephoto is unlikely to suit you. Most often, in everyday photography, focal lengths around normal are used: 35-85 mm. Ranges much “wider” or much “longer” are more exotic. Specific focal lengths such as 14 or 180 are used less frequently, so it makes more sense to cover them with zooms. In addition, the design of inexpensive zooms usually requires a shorter minimum focusing distance compared to MDF primes, which is useful when shooting macro.

If you still want to buy a prime telephoto (for example, because of a higher aperture), pay attention to the 135 mm and 200 mm primes. The first one will be much more compact and, in some cases, faster. The second will give a more pronounced “flattening” of perspective. Among the lenses of the “era of glass and metal” (70-80) there are both prime lenses and zoom telephotos. Most Soviet televisions are fixed lenses. I note that lenses designed for full-frame film shooting have less sharpness, and can blur on digital (especially cropped) images. Naturally, if you do not want to resize in the future, but plan to use the full resolution of the matrix.

The Soviet television camera "Tair-11A" 135/f2.8 on an open aperture will not give ringing sharpness at digital cameras high resolution

3. The third factor is stabilization. Optical stabilization (here we are talking about the one built into the lens) reduces blurring when shooting handheld thanks to the gyrascopic movements of one of the lens blocks. For any telephoto lenses, stabilization plays a vital role! Due to the need to avoid blur, even a high-aperture prime without stabilization has to shorten the shutter speed, which negates its aperture. In addition, some fast lenses do not provide sufficient sharpness at an open aperture, and the aperture still has to be limited.

Any TV is very blurry the background, even at an aperture of 5.6 typical for “dark” zooms. IMHO, therefore, in a debate between a high-aperture telephoto camera and a stabilized telephoto lens, I would choose the latter. The combination of both advantages will add up to a huge sum.

Canon 70-200/f2.8 IS USM - a fast, stabilized telephoto camera, yours for a modest 75 rubles.

4. The fourth factor is autofocus. For most telephoto lenses it is fast enough (for expensive ones it is also accurate). The purpose of many television cameras is reporting. And here autofocus is very important. The question is, will you be in demand in the reportage genre, where the AF speed cannot be neglected?

5. The fifth factor is optical quality. For primes, it is higher, but for inexpensive (or well-worn) copies, in order to achieve the necessary sharpness and contrast, you will have to close the aperture, losing the gain in aperture typical for primes. All Soviet televisions are guilty of this, to one degree or another. If we evaluate modern primes and zooms, zooms have lower optical quality. And this lag in quality increases from the “wide” end to the “long” end. When buying a telezoom, check it at the “long” end. After all, if it lathers on its 300 mm, why do you need these 300 mm? IMHO, no matter what anyone says about plastic, it is better to “soften” the picture on the computer than to restore non-existent parts in “soap”.

Sigma 18-200 - a typical superzoom with a drop in resolution towards the “long” end

Optical quality (primarily sharpness, distortion and chromatic aberration) is worse for zooms with higher magnification. The 18-200 (10x) zoom is more “soapy” and generally “compromising” than the 55-200 (4x) zoom. Providing a large zoom factor is in itself a non-trivial task, so high-quality superzooms (such as Nikkor 18-200 VR) cost a lot of money.

6. The sixth factor is drawing. A telephoto lens by its nature is designed to highlight, isolate the subject and blur the background. IMHO, if you don't shoot landscapes, a telephoto may be your main "creative" lens. Simply because increasing the FR has an even more fundamental effect on background blur than the aperture ratio. Therefore, it’s good if you like his drawing. This sounds seemingly funny and obvious. But in reality, many zoom televisions have an unexpressed technical drawing. They're not very interesting to shoot with. In a decent store you can leave a deposit and go out into the street with a telephoto camera, take a couple of shots in the near and far fields, take a portrait, and evaluate the drawing. In terms of design, fixed zooms will be ahead - including vintage ones.

Section two - choosing a telephoto lens for the Nikon system, taking into account the specified factors.

The selection algorithm is based on personal experience acquaintance with the Nikon system, for other systems I will note only the general and most obvious points.

Focal length. IMHO, I would not recommend taking (at least with the first telephoto) something “longer” than 200 mm. A larger DF “flattens” the perspective too much when shooting at the same scale and removes volume. If you do not (constantly) photograph celestial phenomena or cheetahs in the savannah, you are unlikely to need a DF larger than 200 mm. In the near field it is completely useless - such lenses have a significant MDF, reducing the possibilities for macro photography.

Purpose. IMHO, for the sake of versatility, I would buy a zoom. At the “wide” end it’s better to have 50-55mm for crop, 70mm only for full frame cameras. Indoors, a difference of 15-20 mm in focal length means the need to change lenses or the lack thereof. For Canon and Nikon, the question may be: take a specialized telezoom (for example, Canon 55-250 IS or Nikkor 55-200 VR) or a superzoom with a telephoto range (such as Canon 18-135 IS or Nikkor 18-200 VR). On the one hand, you can buy a very good telezoom for money that is ridiculous for photographic equipment. On the other hand, the versatility of superzooms is captivating.

The affordable zoom telephoto Nikkor 55-200 VR requires another lens for wide-angle photos (at least a kit lens, with which it is often sold in a double kit)

The choice is further complicated by the two companies' policies regarding workmanship (dictated by marketing). There are no budget TVs with a metal mount, but the cheapest superzoom will have one. IMHO, if a telephoto lens is a “creative” lens for you, it is more logical to take it separately (even in plastic). If you just want to “shoot that bird” on vacation, a superzoom is preferable. The latter is also more convenient for video shooting for obvious reasons - you cannot change the lens while recording. However - see the “Optical quality” item!

Stabilization. Since I settled on zoom, I will “dance” from it. The zoom is “darker” than the prime lens - so stabilization is required! Expensive zoom televisions can boast of excellent stubs, while for cheap ones the situation is more complicated. We multiply the focal length by the crop factor (1.5 for most DSLRs) - if you divide the second by the resulting number, you will get a “safe” shutter speed without blur. On a cropped lens on a 200 mm telephoto it will be 1/300 of a second. A good stub should remove blur with a shutter speed 8 times shorter (three exposure levels - for specialists). In reality it is more likely 2-4 times. But this is also very, very good.

An unstabilized Canon 70-200/f4L costing more than 20 thousand at the “long” end will require the same shutter speed as a stabilized Nikkor 55-200/f4-5.6 costing four times less. A good stabilization is one of the most important factors determining the cost of a telephoto camera (along with autofocus). IMHO, if you see a lens that is more expensive, that means you are paying for a stub.

Autofocus. Autofocus speed significantly depends on the motor - it is highest for advanced ultrasonic (the latest modifications such as Ring USM from CANON) and stepper motors. If you can adjust autofocus with your hands at any time without switching anything, the lens has just such a motor. A report telephoto captures the subject instantly and keeps it in focus tracking mode (useful if you are photographing sports or animals).

But! Any technology makes the lens more expensive - and if a stub is absolutely necessary, then focusing speed can sometimes be sacrificed (for reporters, this idea is irrelevant, of course). Once again, the stub and autofocus determine the price to a huge extent. For example, the difference is 6000 between Nikkor 55-300 DX VR and Nikkor 70-300 VR (the latter has internal focusing without rotating the front lens, a more advanced focusing motor and a stub in “honest” 3 steps). If two lenses cost the same, but the AF is much faster, it means that the victims affected something else (drawing, torn control cables, open sharpness, etc.). This is economics, unfortunately.

Nikkor 70-300 VR, a significant part of the cost of which is made up of bells and whistles, not optics

Optical quality. In terms of optical quality, the situation is simple and complex at the same time. All other things being equal, the principle “the more the better” applies. Higher price means better quality. But only other things being equal! The price of a telephoto includes autofocus, a stub, protection from dust and splashes, constant aperture, a design of constant dimensions, and even a tripod socket. A cheap TV may be devoid of these bells and whistles, but it is not a fact that the picture quality has suffered significantly. IMHO, you need to test different models yourself, this will give you real performance about the possibilities of optics.

However, almost all experts (of which I do not count myself) do not recommend using superzooms like 18-250 as telephoto cameras. Their optical defects increase as the focal length lengthens. That is, you will get “soap” in exactly the focal range for which the lens was purchased.

Drawing. Similarly with a drawing - take it and test it. But here everything also depends on individual taste. Some people like swirling bokeh or vignette, others don't.

What's left?

On Nikon, the best telephoto (for crop) turns out to be a baby Nikkor 55-200/f4-5.6 VR. Even the 8 times more expensive Nikkor 70-200/f4 VR is less convenient at the “wide” end, although I think it will perform excellent at full frame. Sigma 50-300 OS lathers at the far end and is replete with purple halos. The Tamron 70-300 VC suffers less from these, but costs 3 times more than the Nikkor 55-200. Nikon’s own 70-300 VR is comparable in price to the Tamron, sharper at the “long” end, but does not have an expressive pattern ( although its focusing speed and accuracy are unrivaled). The Nikonovsky 55-300 has undistinguished workmanship for its price (the Sigma of the same price is much more respectable) and slow autofocus - really slow! Plus, its front lens rotates, just like the Sigma. I won’t even consider unstabilized options.

New universal Nikkor 18-140/f3.5-5.6 DX VR lens

Out of competition is the newest Nikkor 18-140/f3.5-5.6 VR. Judging by the reviews, it is optically good, has a metal mount for rough handling, is cheap (about 15,000), and has a good TV range. IMHO, it will be good for close-up shooting, the 55-200 is more interesting as a portrait due to its slightly higher aperture, and as a pronounced telephoto due to its larger focal length. Main question is how often do you shooting very distant objects? And do you have an extra 10,000 when buying your first zoom?

The situation in the case of the Nikon system is paradoxical - in the middle price range (up to 20,000) the cheapest option turns out to be the most preferable.

In the case of Canon, the situation is slightly different. Canon optics differs (not counting the L-series, of course) with slightly less sharpness and micro-contrast. This means that third-party optics Sigma and Tamron are stronger competitors here. Additionally, many Canon lenses come in multiple versions that differ significantly. 18-135 IS is optically inferior to the more modern 18-135 STM (similar for the two versions of 55-250). A stepper motor is an extremely interesting option for both photography and video.

New Canon 55-250 STM - plastic mount in optics for 12 thousand rubles.

18-135 would be better suited as a video telephoto, the optical quality is mediocre, but the focal range is wide, and the focusing motor is lightning fast. For photography, the choice will be between a quiet, fast Canon 55-250 STM with a plastic mount for 12,000 and any Sigma and Tamron for the same money. IMHO, the question is real tests in the field and in choosing a good copy (from third-party manufacturers variation in quality big).Note that on the 55-250 the STM motor is slightly slower than on other STM lenses.

For mirrorless systems the choice of a telephoto is not trivial, since the small working distance allows you to install any “glass”, be it from Yaschica or from Zenit. And here it is proven and really sharp “MS Jupiter-37A”, and even with a good lens hood, IMHO, it fits well at a price of around 3000 and an “indestructible” design. Native amateur televisions for mirrorless cameras are significantly more expensive than their “DSLR” counterparts, although they usually have a more solid design.

"Jupiter-37A" in the multi-coated version is loved by many and for good reason (in particular, it is sharper than the similar "Japanese" SMC Takumar 135/f2.8 and has better bokeh)

Warning - this article is based only on personal experience. The focus is on Canon equipment that I have worked with throughout my photographic experience.

Why do you need a telephoto lens anyway?

Probably at least half of the owners of DSLRs with a standard zoom lens want to buy a telephoto lens. To the question “why do you need a telephoto lens?”

Most often you hear an answer that is difficult to argue with - “to bring everything closer!” :) As a rule, a telephoto lens is really used for shooting objects that cannot be approached - starting from banal water lilies and houses “on the other side”, ending with professional photo hunting, sports photography, airplane photography, and so on. Telephoto lenses, due to their ability to greatly blur the background, are often used for portrait photography. Some televisions allow you to shoot good macro. In other words, the range of tasks that a telephoto lens can solve is quite wide.

This article discusses the main points when choosing, purchasing and using a telephoto lens.

Which telephoto lens to choose

Each manufacturer of photographic equipment, as a rule, has a huge number of long-focus lenses. If we consider Canon, then at least a dozen models come to mind (we are not taking into account primes for now)!

• Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS
• Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 USM L
• Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 USM L IS
• Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 USM L IS
• Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 USM L
• Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 USM IS
• Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 USM L IS
• Canon EF 100-300mm f/5.6 L
• Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 USM L IS

The situation is similar for other manufacturers. All this diversity is complemented by a large number of television models from Sigma and Tamron. Telephoto lenses can cost anywhere from a few hundred to several thousand dollars! How to sort through all this variety and choose a telephoto lens with the optimal ratio of price, functionality and image quality?

First of all, let's do a little freestyle classification of telephoto lenses.

By focal length

Like all optics, telephoto lenses are divided into zooms and primes. A zoom lens has the ability to change the focal length within certain limits, thus changing the scale of shooting an object from medium to very large (a small scale is provided by wide-angle lenses, which were discussed earlier).

Telephoto lenses with a fixed focal length do not have this ability, so you will have to run around to frame them. Moreover, taking into account their very small viewing angle, we will have to run very long distances, and sometimes even climb mountain slopes, stairs, stepladders, trees - depending on what we are going to shoot. The use of long-focus primes is mainly for hunters, astrophotographers, and sports photographers. As a rule, special platforms and booths are used for shooting, the location of which is “adjusted” so that the scene of action is clearly visible and the distance to the subjects is optimal for using a given focal length.

Sports photographers with fixed telephotos

Zoom lenses are much more practical for everyday use. In most cases, they have worse aperture and image clarity, although there are also very sharp and beautifully depicting zooms - in in this case We are talking about professional “moderate” telephoto lenses 70-200mm.

The lens simulator will help to give a more clear idea of ​​how the “degree of zoom” is related to the focal length:

See how the field of view of the lens changes with changing focal length and when used on a full frame sensor (FX) and on a 1.5 crop sensor (DX).

By aperture

Aperture characterizes the maximum light transmission of the lens. The faster the lens, the more light reaches the sensor (with the aperture fully open) and the shorter the shutter speed is required. Another well-known pattern - the greater the aperture ratio, the more within wide limits You can change the depth of field. This is relevant for portrait photography, in which lenses that provide strong and beautiful background blur are highly valued.

High-aperture long-focus optics allows you to bring to life a large number of creative ideas. As a rule, these are very expensive professional-grade lenses. One of the elements of prestige for each manufacturer is “moderate” telephoto lenses with a focal length range of 70-200mm and a constant aperture of f/2.8. These are professional zoom lenses, “tailored” for portrait photography. They, as a rule, provide excellent image quality - there is enormous detail in the sharpness zone, while the background is blurred very strongly and beautifully. Contrast, color rendition, and light resistance are also at a very high level. The 70-200mm f/2.8 lenses are extremely popular among wedding photographers, allowing you to simultaneously solve problems in reporting and portrait photography. 70-200 mm lenses also have “lightweight” versions - with a constant aperture ratio of 4. They are noticeably cheaper and more compact than their “big brothers”, but they also have fewer capabilities, although, in fact, these optics are very good.

The aperture of most amateur telephoto lenses is very low - f/4 at the short end, f/5.6 at the long end and even less. This imposes some restrictions on the use of such lenses in artistic portrait photography (which is most often carried out in the range of up to 135-150 mm) and shooting fast-moving objects - due to the small amount of light entering the matrix, for shooting with a short shutter speed you have to greatly increase the sensitivity ISO.

If you look carefully, among professional telephoto lenses there are sometimes not very fast ones! Here's an example:

• Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 USM IS (costs about 20,000 rubles)
• Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 USM L IS (costs about 45,000 rubles)

It seems that the differences are only in one letter, but “Elka” costs more than 2 times more. What's the catch?

In fact, these lenses are quite similar in appearance to each other (the usual 70-300 is black, the Elka is white and slightly larger in diameter). The difference is in the filling. The lenses have different optical designs and use lenses of different classes. As a result, the inexpensive “simple” 70-300 has acceptable picture quality only at 2/3 of its range (somewhere up to 200 mm), then there is a noticeable decrease in sharpness, and chromatic aberrations appear. "Elka" gives a brighter, richer and sharper picture over the entire range of focal lengths.

By presence/absence of stabilization

You probably know that image stabilizer helps compensate for camera movement caused by hand shake, allowing you to shoot at longer shutter speeds and still get sharp photos. Nowadays, stabilizers are installed in almost all lenses, but stabilization is most relevant in long-focus optics, that is, in telephoto lenses.

There is such a rule - in order to get guaranteed clear pictures, you need to shoot with a shutter speed no longer than 1 divided by the focal length (in film equivalent). That is, if our focal length is 50 mm, then the “safe” shutter speed will be 1/50 of a second (or shorter). If a telephoto lens has a focal length of 300 mm, then the “safe” shutter speed will be 1/300 second on a full frame and approximately 1/460 second on a “cropped” camera (in terms of a 1.6 crop, 300 mm turns into 460 mm).

It follows from this that you can only shoot with a 300mm telephoto handheld on a bright sunny day! If the shutter speed turns out to be longer than the safe one, there are options - open the aperture wider (often sacrificing detail), increase the ISO (this increases the noise level), or use a tripod (this reduces the photographer’s mobility).

And here stabilization comes to our aid - the included stabilizer can increase the safe shutter speed by 2-3 times. That is, instead of 1/300 second, the “safe” shutter speed for 300 mm will be 1/100 second (1/160 sec on crop). Agree, the stabilizer provides a serious advantage and allows you, in most cases, to abandon the use of a tripod and shoot at low ISO sensitivity not only in sunny, but also in cloudy weather, sometimes even in the evening.

Thus, we can conclude that the image stabilization function is exceptionally useful for a telephoto lens. However, to be fair, it is worth noting that the stabilizer is only useful when shooting stationary objects (for example, landscapes). If you are going to shoot moving objects, for example, athletes, stabilization will not help you - to “freeze” the movement, you need to reduce the shutter speed by opening the aperture and/or increasing the ISO sensitivity.

What do you need to know when buying an inexpensive telephoto lens?

The main disadvantages of most budget telephoto lenses are low aperture, a noticeable decrease in image quality as the focal length increases, chromatic aberration, and vignetting at an open aperture. Some particularly cheap models do not have image stabilization - such lenses are included in special offers in stores and are “paired” along with budget DSLRs as a bonus (of course, not free). In this way, stores get rid of stale, illiquid goods. Before you fall for such an offer, think about what you will be photographing with this lens?

Portrait

Yes, compared to a kit lens, this lens will blur the background better. Below is a portrait taken with a Canon EF 75-300mm f4-5.6 IS USM telephoto lens (focal length 75mm, f/4, Canon EOS 300D)

As you can see, there is blur, but not very strong. To enhance it, you need to increase the focal length to about 200 mm. Next example- portrait taken with a Canon EF 100-400mm f4-5.6L IS USM telephoto lens (focal length 210 mm, f/5.6, Canon EOS 5D)

This is better, but I had to shoot from a very long distance (about 10 meters), which is not always convenient.

But if you try to shoot portraits with a fast prime lens, even an inexpensive and not so long-focus lens, for example 50mm f/1.8, you will probably completely lose the desire to continue shooting portraits with a budget telephoto camera and will immediately want to save up for a good “portrait lens”, for example, 50mm f/ 1.4 (better for crop) or 85mm f/1.4 (better for full frame). They cost about the same as a budget telephoto lens, sometimes even cheaper.

The last photo was taken on a Canon EOS 5D with the Samyang 85mm f/1.4 lens at full aperture. You can see how much blur can be achieved when using a fast "portrait" prime. Moreover, the shooting distance in this case did not exceed 3 meters.

Scenery

Although landscape photography is not the main function of a telephoto lens, nevertheless, it can sometimes be successfully used to capture some interesting fragments of the landscape. You can judge what quality a cheap telephoto lens will provide when shooting landscapes from these two photographs:

Focal length 220 mm

Focal length 300 mm

The photos were taken with a 6-megapixel Canon EOS 300D and a Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM lens back in 2005. We see that at 220 mm the quality can be called tolerable, but at 300 mm there is simply no sharpness! However, I just recently saw a “double kit” in a store - an 18-megapixel Canon EOS 600D with an 18-55 mm kit lens and, in addition, a Canon 75-300mm lens (you’ve already seen photos from it), and the version without stabilizer! Is it worth throwing out small, but still money, for such optics?

Some will rightly argue that the new telephoto lenses have improved image clarity. Yes, but do not forget that the resolution of the matrices has also increased many times over, therefore, even if the situation as a whole has improved, it will not be radically better - 100% of the cropped photos will be approximately the same. Budget telephoto lenses at the long end are not capable of producing truly high-quality images.

Photo hunt

Due to the low resolution at the long end, photographs of animals and birds will only be suitable for printing in small formats or publishing on the Internet. Due to the low aperture ratio, you will have to significantly increase the ISO in order to photograph animals and birds in motion - this will cause increased noise in the images. It will very quickly become clear that 250-300 mm is too small for photographing animals in their natural habitat; the most you can photograph more or less close-up are animals accustomed to people (cats, dogs, pigeons, etc. ). With such a lens, you can only photograph wild animals in a zoo (through bars and glass walls of pens).

Travel photography

For these purposes, a “travel zoom” is much more convenient - a lens with a range of focal lengths from wide-angle to moderate telephoto. The most popular “travel zooms” for crop are Canon 18-135mm, Nikon 18-105mm. Having two lenses - a standard zoom and a telephoto, you will inevitably encounter two difficulties - the dimensions and weight of the kit (two lenses are larger and heavier than one), as well as the need to swap these lenses (at the risk of dropping something or picking up dust on the matrix). From my own experience, I will say that during excursions it is quite rare to have the opportunity to take leisurely photographs - even if the guide gives you free time, there are a lot of people who want to take photographs and you will have to act quickly. In this regard, it is preferable to have one universal lens rather than two for different purposes. The picture quality of travel zooms is quite good; they are often superior to both a kit lens and a budget telephoto.

If you try hard enough, you can still find a bunch of reasons to dissuade you from buying a cheap TV. But if you still haven’t lost the desire to buy, then I’ll give you some recommendations - how not to make a bad purchase and how to enjoy shooting?

1. The main recommendation is that if the lens is not fast, it is highly desirable to have a stabilizer. Image stabilization will significantly reduce the percentage of defective images due to movement, and will also make it possible to close the aperture to 8-11 - it is at these values ​​that the best sharpness is achieved.

2. Don’t mess with “superzooms” - 18-200mm, 28-300mm, 18-270mm, etc. They have a poor aperture ratio at the long end; the image clarity of such lenses can be an order of magnitude lower than even that of a whale 18-55 mm.

3. Be sure to check the lens for front/back focus.

Which lens to buy - “cropped” or “full frame”?

If you have a “cropped” device and you don’t plan to switch to full frame in the foreseeable future, I personally don’t see makes a lot of sense buy a “full-frame” 70-300 mm lens - it costs one and a half times more, at least, and the quality is comparable to “cropped” lenses of the 55-250 mm family.

Let me remind you that on budget TVs only 2/3 of the range is “working”, then there is a noticeable decrease in clarity. At the same time, the difference in “effective” focal lengths between 55-250 and 70-300 disappears altogether.

The 55-250 lens is not without mechanical drawbacks - it does not have dust protection; with a telescopic design, this will inevitably cause dust to get inside and settle on the lenses. But for such a price, this is a very good purchase, especially if it is included in the so-called “double kit” - then its price turns out to be absolutely ridiculous.

There are still quite interesting option - Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L USM. Its cost is about 40 thousand rubles (used ones can be found cheaper). Despite the fact that this cheapest version of the lens does not have a stabilizer, its image quality is noticeably better than that of the above-mentioned telephoto cameras (). For some, this will be a strong argument - when using a tripod, this lens will provide results that are simply unattainable for budget optics.

The lens has an extremely reliable design, providing internal focusing and internal zooming - this prevents moisture and dust from getting inside the lens. Disadvantages - rather large dimensions and considerable weight. There is a version of the lens with a stabilizer, but it costs 1.5 times the basic version.

Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L USM IS

Budget telephoto lenses from third-party companies - is it worth it?

The most popular third-party manufacturers are Sigma and Tamron. As a rule, their lenses cost less than the original ones, but are often no worse in performance and provide comparable or even better image quality. But there are also pitfalls. The main one is the greater likelihood of running into a low-quality copy. If you are inclined to buy a Sigma or Tamron telephoto camera, I recommend not taking the first lens you come across, but testing several copies and choosing the best one.

How to choose the best?

There are two ways - take photos using all the test lenses, and then, looking at them on a large screen (for example, on a laptop you take with you to the store), choose the one with the best picture quality. The option is reliable, but not always acceptable - it is not always possible to use a laptop.

The second method is to put the camera on a tripod, fix its settings and place all the lenses from the test set on it in order, shoot the same thing and look at file size! The larger it is, the better the detail of the photo. This method allows you to quickly select the sharpest specimen. But, I repeat, absolutely equal conditions must be created for all lenses. Motley objects that completely fall within the depth of field zone are best suited for photography, for example, a page with text, a store window, a poster on the wall.