Getting it sharp from a telephoto

Telephoto prime and zoom lenses are among the most useful lenses for a wide variety of genres. They are used for sports, wildlife, travel, and street photography. Many photographers use them for portraits and close-up shots as well.

Technically, telephoto lenses have a focal length or 60mm or more for a standard 35mm or full sensor size camera, though most people think of telephoto lenses having a focal length of 85mm or more. Lenses with a focal length greater than 300mm are considered to be super-telephoto lenses.

Telephoto lenses help us bring distant subjects closer, fill our frame with the subject, show detail difficult to see, capture action, and produce a shallow depth of field.

Advanced Long Lens Techniques

More and more travelers, including travel photographers, are choosing destinations to see wildlife. They're interested in conservation, the environment, along with viewing and photographing wildlife in their natural habitat.

At some of these locations a good DSLR, with a telephoto lens having a focal length of 200mm will suffice, as you can get fairly close to the animals, but generally you'll need a 300mm lens or longer, and 400mm or longer could be a real help.

I found that even in the Galapagos Islands, off the coast of Ecuador, which Charles Darwin's book, “Origin of Species,” made famous, where many of the birds and other wildlife have a small “circle of fear,” you often need a lens with a 400mm focal length.

The “Circle of Fear” is the distance from an animal, inside of which, the animal has discomfort or distress from the photographer's or observer's presence, which may cause the animal to flee.

In other locations, such as an African safari, or a hike in Denali, a super-telephoto focal length of 500mm or more is virtually a “must.”