Canon 600mm Lens

[Buszaj]

Hi everyone,
I've been looking at photos on sites such as pBase and came a long pictures taken with a massive Canon "super-telephoto" lens. The model is EF 600mm f/4L IS USM. How do these huge telephoto lenses help, and what can they do for an SLR? (Is it excellent zoom capability?)

Thanks a lot!

 

[Big Mike]

There is actually no 'zoom capability'. 'Zoom' being the ability to change the focal length. That is a prime lens, which means that the focal length is always the same.

How do these huge telephoto lenses help

The have more magnification, so that you can photograph things that are far away. It has a large maximum aperture (for a lens that big), which means that the whole lens must be big and heavy...that helps to get faster shutter speeds and a shallower DOF.

 

[DSLR noob]

The smaller the mm number the wider the angle of view or for point and shoot terms, the more zoomed out you are. The eye sees at about 50mm a 100mm lens sees twice as far away. a 600mm lens sees really far away. Much farther than a point and shoot. It's what you'd use to take wildlife photos without scarring the animal away.

Here is my explination of focal length from another thread.

How a lens is named(Canon, others are similar)

Canon------------50mm------------f/1.4------------USM
^manufacturer----^focal length----^max apertrue--^feature, in this case, a USM ring focusing motor

Focal length guide(variable "L" for length):
L < 28 it is considered wide and would be good for landscaping, somehting around 14 to 21 would be ideal. It is also good for taking pictures in cramped spaces. One can also emphasize the size of a building.

30> L < 80 Is considered a midrange lens. Good for portraits, photos of cars, etc.

L < 80 Is a telephoto, good for taking pictures from a distance. Lengths above 250 are great for nature photography of animals that'd be scared when you approach closely. think a telescope for your camera.



Focal length diagram of how a telephoto sees compaired to a wide angle. (Variable "C" for camera, lines represent everyhting camera can see, not the shape of the lens) Both cameras are pointed at a red Corvette.


Telephoto, 150mm

......|...........|.........
......|...........|.........
......|...........|.........
.......|.........|..........
.......|.........|..........
.......|.........|..........
........|.......|...........
........|.......|...........
........|.......|...........
.........|.....|............
.........|.....|............
..........|...|.............
..........{C}.............


Wide angle 28 mm

\.........................../
....\.................../....
.......\............./.......
..........\......./..........
............{C}............

On the telephoto, notice the accuracy to fill the frame with a small portion of what the camera is pointed at, but at high magnification (imagine the lines at the end of the camera's sight being edges of a picture frame, the photo is the same size, just stretch or squish the image into that perspective. this camera sees from a few feet in front of the bumper to just in front of the rear tire of the car.


On the wide angle, it captures a lot of what it is pointed at, more than what your eye can pick up (eye is about a 50mm), but everything in the picture is smaller to fit. Once again picture is same size. This image captures the car and the entire parking lot

Always research a lens before buying it. Just because it has the focal length and aperture you want doesn't mean that the image quality is great. ask here before purchasing!

 

[Alex_B]

Hey, DSLR_noob .. that is really a long answer ... and you put some effort into that apparently

cannot be bothered to read it in detail ... but I guess that will really help beginners.

 

[DSLR noob]

It is a partial answer. I took that out of a lens buying guide I wrote on another thread. It was about 3 or 4 times that length. 100% original, and did take some time to make.