Compact, powerful telephoto zoom
Taking you closer to the action, the EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS STM is the perfect companion for your EOS's 18-55mm standard zoom lens, and ideal for wildlife, sports and travel photography. It combines powerful telephoto performance with great image quality and instinctive handling.Lightweight telephoto zoom
This 4x telephoto zoom lens is ideal for the budget-conscious photographer with an interest in shooting sports, wildlife or portraiture. In common with other telephoto lenses, the EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 III compresses perspective and allows the photographer to restrict depth of field.Also known as a telephoto lens, the 55-200mm lens has an excellent focal length which lets you be as far away as you need to be from a dangerous subject. The superzoom end of the lens also lets you be as close to the scene without crossing over a restricted area, a basketball court or a football pitch perhaps.
Its versatile zoom range goes from 55mm, which is great for portraits and group shots, up to 200mm telephoto for catching close-ups on the sports field, school events and more. Forget about blurry photos and shaky videos; Vibration Reduction (VR) helps keep your photos sharp and your videos steady.
If you are looking for an all-in one lens to take pictures of family, group of people, landscape, etc., 18-55mm is a better lens since you can get a wider view. If you are wanting to take portraits, sports, birds/wildlife etc., 50-200mm is better as you cannot be too close to the subject.
The first number or pair of numbers indicates the range of available focal lengths in millimeters. From this you can tell what angles of view the particular lens can handle. Lower numbers mean a wider angle. So an ordinary, basic 18-55 DSLR lens can “zoom” from medium-wide views out to the beginning of telephoto range.
The AF Zoom-NIKKOR 70-300mm f/4-5.6G is a lightweight and versatile option for those seeking affordable telephoto zoom capability. With a 300mm maximum focal length (450mm equivalent on DX-format cameras) it brings even the most distant action closer. It's an ideal lens for candids, travel and sports photography.
Because this lens captures a wide area it is used for photographing groups of people and landscapes. Telephoto is used to enlarge pictures or for bringing distant subjects closer. A common telephoto comes with 75–300mm coverage.
The 70-300mm is ideal for wildlife, nature, and sports photographers who're looking for a budget zoom lens that can help improve their photography level. Since it is versatile, the Nikon 70-300mm functions well in different environments.
Most photographers have zoom telephoto lenses in their kit bag, generally of the 70-300mm type or equivalent. These are a great starting point for shooting wildlife, but if you want to get serious about the subject, their relatively short reach can quickly become limiting.
The 70–300 is a pretty good lens from 70–200mm it softens up a lot from 200mm-300mm, for a portrait the softening is a plus, for most everything else not so much a plus as a negative. That is, compared to a professional prime lens of 300mm, the 70–300mm is not as sharp.
With a full-frame Canon or Nikon DSLR, an 85mm prime lens is ideal. If you're shooting with an APS-C format camera like a Canon EOS 7D Mark II or Nikon D500, a 50mm prime that gives roughly the same 'effective' focal length is the best portrait lens for the job.
Here is an example: For a 300mm lens, divide 300 by 50 to get 6x magnification. Or divide 300 by 100 to get 3, then multiply 3 x 2 to get 6x.
The 70-200mm lens is also a fantastic addition to the kit bag for those nature photographers who also have a passion for landscape photography. The 70-200mm offers flexibility for composing, with the telephoto reach helping to compress a scene for flattering perspectives that might not work with a wider focal length.
The minimum shooting distance is the minimum distance between the focus plane and the sensor plane. The longer the lens the longer that distance. On very short lenses (like 18-55 mm) it's around 0.28 m while with long lenses (like 70-300 mm) it's about 1,5 m.
A 200mm lens does not "zoom" at all. A 70-200mm is about a 2.85 x zoom. What you are really asking is what is the "reach" of a lens. Taking 50mm as "normal" a 200mm would bring a subject 4 times closer, a 400mm 8 times.
The difference is one-third of the field of view in linear terms. If a 200mm lens has a field of view of 6 x 9 feet at a certain distance, a 300mm lens will have a field of view of 4 x 6 feet, on the same camera at the same distance.
The sharpest aperture of your lens, known as the sweet spot, is located two to three f/stops from the widest aperture. Therefore, the sharpest aperture on my 16-35mm f/4 is between f/8 and f/11. A faster lens, such as the 14-24mm f/2.8, has a sweet spot between f/5.6 and f/8.
The most common “pro” telephoto zoom lenses are the 70-200mm f/2.8 lenses. If you don't need the speed that an f/2.8 lens offers, some other great choices would be a 70-200mm f/4, or if you need the extra reach, an 18-300mm or 70-300mm variable-aperture lens might be your answer.
Usefulness: Availability: Overall: Ideal Uses: This 80-200mm f/2.8 is better for portraits than slower VR zooms because this lens can defocus backgrounds better with its fast f/2.8 aperture.
Another way to think of this, starting again from 100mm lens and 10 yards, if you changed to a 500mm lens (5X the focal length) you would get the subject to appear the same size by moving back 5X the distance. So a 500mm lens would show the subject the same size at 50 yards (10 yards x 5).
A telephoto lens is a lens whose focal length is greater than 50mm. For example 85mm, 100mm, 135mm or 200mm. A macro lens is one which has the capability to focus real close with reproduction of atleast 1:1. A prime lens is generally sharper than a zoom lens, lighter in weight and smaller.
A wide angle lens is any lens that is 35mm or smaller. Lenses that are more wide than 24mm can be called ultra-wide angle lenses, but most photographers just call them fisheye lenses. Due to size exaggeration, wide angle lenses are great for shooting landscapes, real estate, and architecture.
Like it's cousin the 50mm lens, a 35mm lens is known for having excellent versatility. Use it on a full frame camera to get a standard view of a landscape. Pop one onto your crop sensor camera for a longer effective focal length for portraits. It's even better when you can find a good used 35mm lens for a great price.
