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DAY 111 | PHOTOGRAPHY 101 |
Overview of Lenses
THE LONG AND THE SHORT AND THE ZOOM OF IT
If you own a SLR or DSLR, you have probably had to choose a lens to go along with your camera body. Usually a basic lens comes with the body, but there may be a time when this lens doesn’t meet your needs. Let’s review the most common types of lenses: normal, long, short, and zoom.
The most important difference between lenses is their focal length. Focal length is the distance between the optic center of the lens and the film/sensor.
A normal or standard lens captures almost exactly what is seen by the human eye. What is considered normal varies, depending on the film size; for a SLR/DSLR, it would be 50mm.
Examples of lenses with different focal lengths.
A long lens is used when you do not want to get close to a subject or are not able to. Some standard long lens sizes are 85mm, 105mm, or 200mm. The higher the number, the farther away from your subject you can be, or the greater the magnification of your subject.
A short lens has a shorter focal length than a standard lens and provides a wider angle of view, which explains why they’re also known as wide-angle lenses.
A zoom lens covers a range of focal lengths, and the lens can be adjusted anywhere within that range. My favorite zoom lens is a 28-105mm lens, which is perfect for everyday shooting, but if I am going to photograph distant objects, I tend to use my 80-200mm lens. —CWN
FUN FACT
The longest lens is a 1700mm telephoto lens manufactured by Carl Zeiss and developed specifically for the Hasselblad 203 FE for use in long distance wildlife photography.