Telephoto advice 5-20 miles

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Noob Rebel EOS T5 owner wants telephoto resolution at the level of identifying what a person is doing from 5-20 miles away. What ~$200 lens do you recommend?
 
In order to capture a 10-foot tall/wide scene from just 5 miles away, you'd need a focal length of around 60,000mm. No such production lens exists, let alone one for two c-notes.

Even if one did, particulate matter and turbulence in the atmosphere, as well as camera shake, would probably render the image useless.
 
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Noob Rebel EOS T5 owner wants telephoto resolution at the level of identifying what a person is doing from 5-20 miles away. What ~$200 lens do you recommend?

Good luck...........:biglaugh:
 
Noob Rebel EOS T5 owner wants telephoto resolution at the level of identifying what a person is doing from 5-20 miles away. What ~$200 lens do you recommend?
A remote camera.
Atmospheric conditions are such that it would rarely be possible to even see there is a person at that distance whatever the lens.
 
And the elephant in the room asks ,,,, why does some want to photograph at that distance
 
Unless you are in a tower or other high place the curvature of the earth prevents you from seeing more than about 8 Miles, right?
 
Unless you are in a tower or other high place the curvature of the earth prevents you from seeing more than about 8 Miles, right?
Actually, it depends on terrain and obstructions.
If in Kansas, you can see Toto and Dorothy at about 12 miles on a clear and un-humid day. At 20 miles IF and ONLY if your at a higher as you point out.

But atmospheric conditions and curvature limit to about that point.
 
Unless you are in a tower or other high place the curvature of the earth prevents you from seeing more than about 8 Miles, right?

Unless you're a member of the Fraternity like Wesley in the movie "Wanted" then you can curve the bullet, and shoot around corners.....wonder if that applies to taking pictures also??? :allteeth:
 
Well obviously Terrain is a big factor. For example where I live I can see Mount Rainier which is approximately 120 miles north of here... Of course Mt. Ranier is over 13,000 feet high...but this morning as I was eating in a restaurant and making the above post I could not see my hometown a mere 7.5 Mi to to the north of me... but I could easily see both Mount Saint Helens, and Mount Hood each about 65 miles away or so I would estimate.
 
Rookie. I just went outside and was able to see things approximately 93,000,000 miles away. Tonight, I'll be able to look at things millions of light-years away. :345:
 
I've taken a few shots at those sorts of distances.
This one
wind-power---old---new_1369959684.jpg

Through a 400mm lens on an APSC body, (and subsequently cropped IIRC) has the ship at about 4 miles, the nearer turbines about 7 miles & the further ones about 20 miles.

People can perhaps be made out on the ship, but you could only guess what they're doing.
Visibility was unusually good on this day!
 
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Canon makes a 5200mm lens that would provide a field width of about 500 feet at 20 miles so I'm still not sure you would be able to tell what people are doing. It focuses at 18-32 miles and has a minimum focal length of 400 feet. There are three of them in existence and one sold on EBay a few years ago for $50,000. It weighs 220 pounds so I'd recommend a very, VERY strong means of mounting it. I'd also recommend getting somewhere quite high to see over the curvature of the earth.
 
Canon makes a 5200mm lens that would provide a field width of about 500 feet at 20 miles so I'm still not sure you would be able to tell what people are doing. It focuses at 18-32 miles and has a minimum focal length of 400 feet. There are three of them in existence and one sold on EBay a few years ago for $50,000. It weighs 220 pounds so I'd recommend a very, VERY strong means of mounting it. I'd also recommend getting somewhere quite high to see over the curvature of the earth.
Well, at least in that video of the Canon 5200mm lens, you can see the person waving at you.

 

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