HELP WITH LENS!

[Mark5000]

Can someone please explain to me what 75-300mm means on a lens. The camera store guy just told me its just zoom. It just feels like he's forgotten to tell me the rest. Is there anymore I should know, because next to it there is a little picture of a flower with 1.5/4.9ft.. I guessing this is in some sort of relationship to the 75-300mm??
What lens do people general have on there camera most of the time?

 

[kylehess10]

75-300mm is the focal length range

Look through the viewfinder, zoom in and out and learn the focal length for the lens. That'll help you understand it more.

 

[MTVision]

Can someone please explain to me what 75-300mm means on a lens. The camera store guy just told me its just zoom. It just feels like he's forgotten to tell me the rest. Is there anymore I should know, because next to it there is a little picture of a flower with 1.5/4.9ft.. I guessing this is in some sort of relationship to the 75-300mm??
What lens do people general have on there camera most of the time?

75-300mm is the focal length. It would help to know what brand the lens is.

The lenses people keep on their camera all the time varies depending on what they are shooting

 

[Mark5000]

Its a canon 1000D... Im a newbie to photography

 

[thereyougo!3]

The flower refers to minimum focal distance - it mens that's the closest to the subject the lens will focus. It's for macro shots, although your lens won't do a 1:1 ratio like a true macro lens

 

[MTVision]

The flower refers to minimum focal distance - it mens that's the closest to the subject the lens will focus. It's for macro shots, although your lens won't do a 1:1 ratio like a true macro lens

Thats what I thought but I didn't think the minimum focusing distance was 1.5 feet but now I realize it's 1.5 meters!

 

[DiskoJoe]

Just buy the zoom lens. There is not much to worry about.

Just buy it and go have fun.

 

[fsquare]

I would suggest picking up some books to start. Shoot, read, learn, improve.

 

[KmH]

Can someone please explain to me what 75-300mm means on a lens. The camera store guy just told me its just zoom. It just feels like he's forgotten to tell me the rest. Is there anymore I should know, because next to it there is a little picture of a flower with 1.5/4.9ft.. I guessing this is in some sort of relationship to the 75-300mm??
What lens do people general have on there camera most of the time?

The 75 - 300 mm is the focal length zoom range.

The 1.5/4.9 feet is the near focus limits at 75 mm and 300 mm. If the lens is set to the 75 mm focal length, anything closer to the lens (actually to the focal plane of the camera) than 1.5 feet cannot be focused sharply, and when the focal length of the lens is set to 300 mm anything closer than 4.9 feet can't be focused sharply.

The lens likely also has some numbers that look like f/4.0 - f/5.6 though the numbers may be a little different. Those numbers indicate the maximum (widest open) aperture the lens can achieve at the 75 mm and 300 mm focal lengths.

If the lens is set to 75 mm and the aperture is set to it's maximum (f/4, or whatever it is for your lens), as the lens is zoomed towards 300 mm the lens aperture will automatically change until it becomes f/5.6 just before reaching the 300 mm focal length. If the lens focal length is set at 75 mm and the lens aperture is set to f/5.6 or a smaller aperture (f/8 is a smaller lens aperture than f/5.6 is), the aperture will not change as the lens is zoomed towards 300 mm, because f/5.6 is not the minimum lens aperture for focal lengths less than 300 mm.

 

[o hey tyler]

The 1.5/4.9 feet is the near focus limits at 75 mm and 300 mm. If the lens is set to the 75 mm focal length, anything closer to the lens (actually to the focal plane of the camera) than 1.5 feet cannot be focused sharply, and when the focal length of the lens is set to 300 mm anything closer than 4.9 feet can't be focused sharply.

At first, I thought this as well. However I found that 1.5m = ~4.9ft. Are you sure it isn't just a metric/US conversion? I suppose it could just be a coincidence.

 

[analog.universe]

To me this looks like metric/us. 1.5ft is really close at 75mm, especially for a zoom lens. I also haven't seen any lens that isn't ancient that only has markings in one system and not both.

 

[shootermcgavin]

I have to wonder why you would spend probably a good amount of money on something a salesman barely described to you.

 

[KmH]

The 1.5/4.9 feet is the near focus limits at 75 mm and 300 mm. If the lens is set to the 75 mm focal length, anything closer to the lens (actually to the focal plane of the camera) than 1.5 feet cannot be focused sharply, and when the focal length of the lens is set to 300 mm anything closer than 4.9 feet can't be focused sharply.

At first, I thought this as well. However I found that 1.5m = ~4.9ft. Are you sure it isn't just a metric/US conversion? I suppose it could just be a coincidence.

Could be. The OP's level of understanding is so shallow that other information may have been left out, like the max apertures.

But none the less, the close focus distance will vary as the lens is zoomed, and those numbers are about right for a lens advertised as having a 'macro' capability.

 

[MTVision]

At first, I thought this as well. However I found that 1.5m = ~4.9ft. Are you sure it isn't just a metric/US conversion? I suppose it could just be a coincidence.

I looked up the lens and bh photo has minimum focusing distance at 4.9ft (1.5 meters)

 

[KmH]

Well there we go. Thanks.