Daniel Kingsford Osabutey , Nov 18, 2013; 06:59 a.m.

I would like to know the difference between zoom, macro and telephoto lenses as I intend to buy some of the basic lenses as a beginner. I planed to purchase Canon EOS Rebel T5i DSLR Camera with EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM. I love to take pictures during events like wedding, party, sports and other programs. Your recommendations for the of basic lenses and other tools needed for a beginner will be much appreciated. Thanks

A:

Ed Avis , Nov 18, 2013; 07:37 a.m.

The main characteristic of a lens is its focal length. Roughly speaking this determines the angle of view, with a shorter focal length meaning a wider angle. (You can check Wikipedia or other sites for the exact definition.) A 'zoom lens' is one where you can change the focal length, so changing the view and letting you 'zoom in' or 'zoom out'. Technically, it also means The lens you mentioned is of this type.

Focal length in the early days was also the physical length of the lens. So if you wanted to have a narrow angle of view, for photographing far-away objects, you needed a big long lens. This is still true to some extent but ways have been found to make the lens not quite as long, so a 200mm lens for example might be shorter than 200mm physically. This is called a 'telephoto' lens. More loosely, the term is used for any lens with a long focal length, typically used for head and shoulders portraits, animal photography and so on. That might mean a focal length of 85mm or more.

'Macro' photography is taking pictures of things where the final photograph shows it bigger than life size. For example a picture of a tiny spider in a poster sized print. Some take a stricter definition, insisting that the image formed on the camera's sensor should be life size or bigger. A 'macro lens' is one that lets you take these high magnification photographs, usually by moving the camera very close to the subject. An ordinary lens might not be able to focus on things that close, just as if you're over 25 you probably can't focus on a finger held just in front of your nose.

Your planned purchase sounds fine and I suggest experimenting with that before buying any extra lenses.

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Q:

Can anyone explain the difference between "macro" and "telephoto"?

I know that a macro lens will give you a magnification of 1:1 but how does it differ from a telephoto lens?

A:

There is no direct relationship between Telephoto focal lengths and Macro capability.

Macro lenses allow closer focusing than most lenses.

By allowing you to get the subject closer to the camera, it allows you to increase the size of the subject in your photo. Macro capability is measured in terms of Maximum Magnification (MM) that is only indirectly related to focal length. Magnification is expressed as the ratio between the actual size of the subject and the size of the subject's image that is projected onto the film/sensor. A 1:1 Macro lens, which has an MM of 1.0x or 100%, means if the subject is 15mm tall, the lens can get close enough to project a properly focused image of the subject on the focal plane that is 15mm tall. A 1:2 lens would have an MM of 0.5x or 50% and would project an image 7.5mm tall of the 15mm subject. This is because if both lenses are the same focal length the 1:2 lens would require twice the distance to properly focus on the 15mm subject.

Most Telephoto lenses are designed to focus on distant subjects,

not to reproduce nearer subjects at high magnifications. A 600mm lens will do very well at taking a 6 foot tall human at very large distance (a little over 400 feet) and filling the 36mm tall sensor frame (full frame is 36mm x 24mm) in portrait orientation. I've never seen a 600mm lens that can get close enough to a 36mm subject to fill the same frame and properly focus on it. By the time you are close enough to the subject, you are inside the lens' Minimum Focus Distance (MFD) by several yards/meters. Most telephoto lenses have very large MFD and thus small MM numbers. That is what a Macro lens is designed to do: by reducing the MFD you can focus on a much closer object and get a higher MM.

There are some telephoto zoom lenses on the market, usually in the 70-300mm range, that claim to be Macro capable. But if you examine the specifications of such lenses, you see that at best they are 1:3 in terms of magnification. They can only focus close enough to project a 15mm image of a 45mm subject. That gives them an MM of .33x or 33%. While it is theoretically possible to design a telephoto zoom lens with 1:1 Macro capability, it is not practical. Most true Macro lenses have a fixed focal length designation that allows them to be simpler, cheaper than a comparable zoom lens would be, and produce better image quality at closer subject distances.

There are some fixed focal length prime lenses that fall into the Telephoto range in terms of focal length and also are capable of close enough focus to be Macro lenses. But a lens doesn't have to be a telephoto lens to have Macro capability and there are many Macro lenses that have shorter-than-telephoto focal lengths.