Photography is an art that thrives on the perfect combination of skill, creativity and the right equipment. Among the various tools available to a photographer, telephoto lenses hold a special place because of their unique capabilities. These lenses, with a focal length of 70mm or more, are essential in situations where the subject is far away or difficult to approach.
You know them, the sports photographers who stand on the sidelines of professional football matches with those extremely long 500mm lenses. Being able to get super close and fast action is the holy grail in this branch of photography.
Telephoto lenses are also very useful in nature photography. Wild animals are generally skittish, and getting too close can scare them away or pose a safety risk. A telephoto lens helps overcome this challenge, allowing photographers to capture sharp, detailed images from a safe distance, capturing the beauty of nature in its purest form.
And telephoto lenses are also great for absolutely any object you can't physically get close to. Animals in zoos are a good example, as are any objects from which you are physically separated by some sort of barrier such as a fence or a large body of water.
Telephoto lenses in smartphones
A number of smartphones nowadays have telephoto lenses with optical zoom capabilities. Optical zoom preserves more image quality than digital zoom, which simply crops out and enlarges part of the image. For thin smartphones, smart lens constructions are often used, such as periscope or folded telephoto lenses. This means that a longer focal length still fits in a relatively thin housing.
The telephoto lens is also playing an increasingly important role in recent iPhones, Samsung Galaxy models and other high-end smartphones. Depending on the device, you can, for example, optically zoom in 3x, 5x or even further, which is useful for portraits, street photography, concerts, animals or details at a distance. If you are looking for a new smartphone, it is wise to not only look at the number of megapixels, but also at the presence and quality of the telephoto lens.
Anyone who mainly takes photos with their smartphone can do so choosing a new device So pay close attention to the optical zoom, the quality of the telephoto camera and the image processing in low light.
With a periscope lens, most of the lens elements sit sideways under the rear housing and a prism is used to bend the light 90 degrees from the outer element in the camera island. This could easily enable optical zoom of up to 10x in a smartphone camera, although we don't yet know the maximum focal length of Apple's implementation.
There's still no information on how far Apple is pushing the optical zoom. Suggestions have been made for 6x zoom, while others think Apple will match the 10x zoom of Samsung's S23 Ultra. Apple usually chooses quality over specifications, so the company may choose to limit the range to 6x.
The reason for limiting the zoom range is that there is always a trade-off between maximum focal range and image quality. This is also the reason why you have one 18-400mm lens low quality for a DSLR, while pro zoom lenses offer significantly shorter ranges but are much more expensive, and why professional photographers still use prime (non-zoom) lenses for ultimate quality.
When which telephoto lens
The specific focal length you need varies depending on the type of photography you practice. Here are some general guidelines:
Portrait photography
Lenses with a focal length between 85mm and 135mm are often used for portrait photography. These lenses help to bring the subject into the foreground and blur the background, contributing to an attractive bokeh effect.
To play sports wildlife-photography
When photographing sporting events or wildlife, lenses with a longer focal length (e.g. 200-600mm) are often useful. This allows you to capture action taking place at a considerable distance, without having to enter the playing field or disturb the animals. Those who prefer such a wide range in one fixed camera can also look at a superzoom camera such as the Sony RX10 V.
Bird photography
When photographing birds, an even longer focal length is often required. Lenses from 400mm to 800mm are often used for this type of photography. This allows you to take detailed pictures of birds at a great distance.
Moon and star photography
For photographing celestial objects such as the moon or stars, you may need a super telephoto lens required with a focal length of 600mm or longer. You might also consider a telescope, which works effectively as a very long lens.
Please note that these focal lengths are guidelines only. The specific focal length you need may vary depending on your specific situation and creative vision.
Tripod
Telephoto lenses like the ones you see on the sidelines at a professional sporting event are not only expensive, they are also bulky. When using it, you need a tripod that can support not only the camera, but also the weight of the lens. And because those lenses are so big and heavy, you have to shoot at very fast shutter speeds to avoid lens-related camera shake.
Using a monopod or tripod can be extremely valuable when handling a telephoto lens for photography. Due to the considerable weight and long length of such a lens, it can cause unintentional movement in your hands while taking a photo. This can lead to a less sharp result than desired, something you certainly want to avoid when capturing special moments, such as your first encounter with a deer or red deer.
Zoom lenses versus fixed focal length
The average photographer doesn't really need a large telephoto lens, unless sports or nature photography is your passion. If you mainly photograph family events, or travel a lot and like to take your camera with you, you may find that a super long telephoto lens just isn't that useful.
Instead, buy something mid-range - consider a 75 to 300 or 55 to 250mm zoom lens. These are reasonably low priced and also offer many options.
But also one mid-range zoom lens however, has some caveats.
These are heavier than kit lenses. So you can't use them with slower shutter speeds. Most modern zoom lenses have some form of image stabilization technology, meaning they perform better at slower shutter speeds than their counterparts from a few decades ago, but you need to be aware of their limitations.
The old rule was that you should never shoot with a shutter speed whose bottom number is smaller than the focal length of the lens. For example, if you're shooting at maximum zoom with a 55 to 250mm lens, you don't want to shoot slower than 1/250 or you'll get camera shake.
That rule has actually changed quite a bit since the introduction of image stabilization technology, and you can now get away with shooting a few stops slower depending on how well your camera performs. You won't really know until you do some testing, so it would be best to start with that 1/f rule and work backwards to see how much blur you get with decreasing long shutter speeds.
Remember, you should still take precautions like keeping your camera as steady as possible during those exposures, but the test photos should let you know when to stop hand-holding your camera and instead mount it on a tripod.
These have variable apertures
So while your maximum aperture may be f/4 when fully zoomed out, the aperture may change this to, say, f/5.6 at maximum zoom.
The reason for this is very simple: as you lengthen the lens, the aperture does not technically change, but the physical distance that light has to travel over the longer focal length does change, so less light ultimately reaches the camera's sensor.
The old rule was that you should never shoot with a shutter speed whose bottom number is smaller than the focal length of the lens.
Lenses with fixed focal lengths (prime lenses) are nice if you want to pay more. A lens with a fixed aperture has a barrel that does not lengthen or shorten when you zoom, so the aperture remains the same.
To construct a zoom lens in this way you need much more material, which makes it much heavier and more expensive. This is also usually accompanied by better quality glass and faster autofocus, which makes the price even higher. That's not to say it's not a worthwhile investment, and if you find yourself enjoying telephoto photography, it's certainly not a waste of money.
The quality of the photos with a prime lens is often somewhat better than with a zoom lens, because when developing a prime lens, only one focal length needs to be taken into account, so that the image quality is maintained. But, the bigger the more expensive and probably out of reach for the average photographer.
Fun Facts
Telephoto lenses with a less extreme range can also be very useful, for example, to capture people at events without disturbing others.
And just as you can use a wide-angle lens to increase the distance between objects, you can also use a telephoto lens to decrease the perceived distance between objects. Suppose you're photographing a forest and you want it to look denser than real life. Then stand some distance from the forest and zoom in. With your zoom lens, the trees appear to come closer together, which can make the forest look much more massive.
A telephoto lens also allows you to focus on a specific part of the landscape and isolate it from the rest of the shot. This can help to emphasize a particular feature, such as a mountain peak, a single tree or a waterfall. Telephoto lenses also minimize distortion, rendering subjects more accurately, especially when it comes to large landscapes.
An advantage of telephoto lenses is that they provide a small depth of field. This makes it easy to separate your subject from the background. The background quickly becomes out of focus. You can also easily take photos of your children with a telephoto lens up to about 135 mm without them being too aware or bothered by the presence of your camera.
While a wide-angle lens can make a person's facial features appear disproportionately large, a telephoto lens can create an almost flattening effect across the entire face. The effect is not as unflattering as the effect of a wide-angle lens on a human face, but it is important to be aware of it as it may result in a less accurate representation of that person.
Conclusion
A telephoto lens is not a requirement for every photographer, but it is an extremely valuable addition when you want to get closer to subjects, take calmer portraits or isolate details from a scene. For many hobby photographers, an affordable zoom lens in the mid-range is already a good way to discover what telephoto photography can add. Anyone who notices that sports, birds or wildlife really becomes a passion can always switch to a brighter or longer telephoto lens later.
