What is the lens suitable for? All about lenses. Tighten your aperture where possible

03.12.2011 28575 reference Information 0

The modern camera has undergone very few changes compared to those large-format machines that the world saw in the form of the creations of Niepce or Prokudin-Gorsky. Yes, they became smaller, got autofocus, image stabilization, and then the photographic plate was replaced by film, which itself became a victim of the digital matrix... but globally nothing has changed: the image on the photosensitive material continues to be projected using the lens, which has always been the main factor creating an image.

Cool photographers have the opportunity to try everything, but, naturally, they shoot with the lenses they like most - and for some reason they usually like rather expensive optical devices. Enthusiasts have been collecting lenses for years, clinging to one system, changing some items in the collection from year to year for a number of reasons... however, all these are people who already know the taste of photography. What should a beginner do?

Indeed, when buying a camera, a person is rarely guided by his own sanity and does not understand the words “wide-angle” and “long-focus”, but he perfectly buys into “zoom”, sincerely believing that the larger it is, the better the lens. Meanwhile, the situation is rather the opposite - however, it all depends on what to put at the forefront. From the point of view of versatility, a high-power zoom is indeed better, but for quality the situation is the opposite - a larger zoom leads to greater optical distortion.

Focal length

First, a little theory... The most common camera system in the world is based on 35mm film ("Type 135"), which is exactly the Kodak you shot with back in the days of film cameras. It is this standard that has therefore become a guideline for photo manufacturers in the consumer sector, and it is this that we will talk about in the article below, “forgetting” that there is also a medium and large format.

Today's lenses, one way or another, are tied to the 35 mm format, despite the fact that cameras today are farther from it than ever - less than 1% of all cameras that are oriented to this standard are produced for a similar frame size (24x36 mm) . Moreover, the vast majority of cameras produced (more than 90%) are compact ones, in which the size of the light-sensitive matrix is 4-6 times smaller than the area of the same film frame. And yet, in order to follow at least some standard, 35 mm film became the reference point for everyone.

If you look at the lens of a compact camera, you can often see two scales on it, for example 8-24 mm f/2.8-5.0 (38-114 mm), where the designation in brackets corresponds to the focal length (note, this is not the lens size), recalculated in 35mm equivalent. This is precisely why lenses differ (all other parameters are not as important as they say).

To understand this, let's imagine two cameras: an old film point-and-shoot camera and a modern digital compact with a resolution of 10 megapixels. We shoot the same frame on both at 38mm from the same position and print it on 10x15. Having looked at the frame and not paying attention to the difference in quality, we understand that there are practically no differences in the space covered - and therefore, is there any difference for us that the matrix is 4 times smaller than the film frame, but in fact focal length is only 8 mm? That is why the focal length (FL) is simply multiplied by the corresponding coefficient (“crop factor”), which can be obtained by dividing the size of the film frame diagonally by the corresponding size of the matrix - this is how the effective focal length is obtained.

However, for DSLRs the situation is the opposite: sincerely believing that their owners are extremely experienced people and understand the essence of the issue, none of the manufacturers of lenses for DSLRs bothers to calculate the EGF for them. Meanwhile, there are not so many full-frame cameras - mostly professional models, of which no more than a dozen have been produced by all manufacturers today - and the overwhelming majority of DSLRs existing today have a matrix 1.5 times smaller in size, for which a lot of lenses have already been produced that do not support full-frame coverage . However, the indication of focal lengths even on them remains standard for “mirror” lenses - the user simply needs to multiply the focal length by the corresponding crop factor (×1.5) in each case. By the way, if you crop a photo in the editor, you also change the EGF (if this is interesting, of course) - after all, you print the photo on paper of the same size or watch it online at the same monitor resolution... For example, if you shot a frame at 50 mm, multiply by 1.5 (crop factor), crop, for example, by 30% and, accordingly, multiply by another 1.33 - it turns out 100 mm.

We hope this is all clear, so further we will talk about the effective focal length, and for SLRs we will indicate both numbers - this will be more convenient for everyone, and it does not matter what you shoot with. It’s just that in a DSLR you can always choose the appropriate lens, but for a compact it will be quite difficult to set the appropriate focal length - so do it at random. However, the article is addressed specifically to beginner “mirror-makers”.

What are lenses for?

Let's arrange the lenses in a table, from the minimum focal length to infinity, and describe their main characteristics and purpose (conditionally, of course):

Now let’s take a closer look at why we need each type of lens separately - this will help us decide whether it’s worth buying them and for what purpose.

Fisheye, ultra wide angle lens

Lenses like " fish eye"are characterized by a very wide angle of coverage of the surrounding space - with a standard 180° diagonal of a cropped frame, they simply have no competitors. The record holder in this direction is Sigma, which released a lens with a focal length of 4.5 mm and a relative aperture of 2.8 - naturally, it costs fabulously, but it also produces a picture that covers more than 180°.

However, for such a wide coverage angle (almost everything that our eyes can see without moving, along with peripheral vision) one has to pay a good price. No, we don’t mean that fabulous money for the Sigma we mentioned, everything is much simpler: due to the ultra-wide coverage, the optical distortion of the lens becomes almost the same as the bend of its front lens - it’s not for nothing that it was called a “fish-eye” (apparently the inventors were aware of the peculiarities of fish morphology). However, photographers did not suffer from this for long, having learned to use these weaknesses to their advantage - the lens perfectly distorts perspective and has an almost infinite depth of field from half a meter already at aperture 5.6, i.e. you can film a person from a level of 20 cm above his head, and the head in the frame will be huge, and the legs will remind us of dwarfs. It also interestingly distorts linear objects - the columns on the sides of the frame bend outward, only the circles remain circles (at worst, ellipses), but all other objects “float”.

In general, the lens is considered more of a good entertainment device (almost 100% of cases of its use are for experiments) than a serious tool - which is true, even in a cramped room a person will not like to be arched at the edges of the frame, even along with columns.

Wide angle lens

"Shirik" - necessary tool landscape photographer and reporter photographing intimate corporate events or parties. EGFs here start from 15-16 mm (the example shows Tokina 12-24, which is 18-36 mm), allowing you to cover 90° and even a little more, which is enough for shooting even in a room. It is usually stated that a “big hole” of 2.8 is completely unnecessary for a wide one - however, corporate professionals are unlikely to agree with this, who often have to work only in pitch darkness, and you can meet all kinds of people here, including those who are afraid of daylight , with which they may confuse the flash pulse.

The advantage of a regular linear wide-angle over a fisheye is that the image is almost distortion-free (the higher the price, the less spherical distortion and the larger the relative aperture), but the disadvantage is that the coverage angle is almost half as large.

The lens can also be used to distort the proportions of objects - when shooting objects from an angle, close up, it visually “compresses” them (if you have seen a 16:9 picture shown on a 4:3 TV, you will understand), since the eye perceives the picture as normal (shot with a “normal” lens), and it is wide-angle. However, this effect also occurs in some computer games.

Note that people standing at the edges of the horizontal frame become noticeably fatter and only lose weight as they approach the center of the frame.

Normal lens

In film times, a “normal” (standard) lens was considered “fifty dollars”, but with the advent of times of smaller matrices (after all, full frame now it’s too expensive for an enthusiast) it is being replaced by a 35mm lens, although many continue to use fifty-kopeck lenses, even if their coverage angle has been reduced to a moderate portrait lens.

There is little that is normal in the lens - if we exclude human peripheral vision, a 50 mm lens gives exactly the same picture that a person sees, and therefore all proportions are respected (wide-angle lenses differ in this - they simply capture part of the field from peripheral vision). Actually, before this was enough - then it was just “zooming with your feet.” Today it has been replaced by a real zoom.

In essence, of course, there is nothing to replace fifty dollars with - this is the very line between a wide-angle and a long-focus lens on which more than one generation of successful photographers has grown up. Usually they make it quite fast, about f/1.8, and for ridiculous money, about 100 bucks, which many people buy - however, when everyone around is with zooms, the lens still loses in terms of versatility, but it quickly teaches the photographer how to play within the frame. In other words, lenses of this type are more for training than for everyday use in different situations - the angle is insufficient for the room, and you can’t really take a normal portrait.

Universal lens, kit

When buying your first DSLR, be sure to take it complete with a “kit” - manufacturers are making a cunning move aimed at selling their own, “original” glass, reducing the price of the standard lens below it market value(i.e., if you buy such a lens new separately from the camera, the total difference will be 100-200 dollars, which can be spent on just fifty dollars). The quality of the staff is not so great, but you will see this only after a year or two of shooting, and only then if you are lucky - and by then, perhaps, its plastic body will not begin to serve as well as in the old days.

In fact, functionally standard zooms have replaced standard fifty-kopeck lenses - the 50 mm EGF today is in the middle of their range (in the case of 18-55, of course). It turns out that that same fifty-kopeck piece was simply expanded with the possibility of zoom, and that’s all, leaving the fifty-kopeck piece itself. Do you see the number 35? This is him.

The advantage of the “whale” over the “fifty kopeck” is in functional terms, since it allows you to photograph the situation in the room, and good portraits come out of it, you just need to twist the zoom ring. The disadvantages are also obvious - it always loses in quality, however, this can be safely discounted at the beginning of a creative journey, since you cannot find a better lens for studying.

Portrait lens

Don't look for a portrait type inscription on this lens - there are none. A portrait lens simply has an EGF focal length of 85-120 mm, depending on the taste of the photographer. The reason is simple: when communicating with a person, most of us look at the interlocutor with both eyes, and therefore we are accustomed to seeing a very specific angle, and only people with one-sided visual impairments see opponents differently - however, no one has ever taken the minority into account, and cynics photographers are no exception. To understand these people without changing your position, close one eye with your hand and see how much the perspective has changed: the cheekbones have widened, the ears have hidden, the nose has spread... do you like it? And the reason is simple: looking with two eyes, the light from an object (naturally reflected - few people glow in person during life) spreads in one direction, practically without converging, and with one we force it to converge at one point at an angle. The situation can be corrected by making this angle sharper so that the outer rays are closer to parallel lines, which is what we have when looking at an object with two eyes - not a fountain, of course, but this is the best of what we have... after all, the lens has only one organ of vision.

Naturally, portraits are taken from a certain distance (remember the “zoom with your feet” again), depending on what is needed: close-up, chest, waist or full height— a narrow lens coverage angle will “bring us closer” to the object.

Please note that there are a bunch of different portrait lenses - macro lenses are similar in their technical characteristics, but the requirements in both cases are different: a “portrait lens” should not only give a sharp image in the focus area, it should also blur the background beautifully (if you know what “bokeh” is, you will understand), while from “makrik” only sharpness is required.

Macro lens

Macro photography is almost the only direction in photography where everything or almost everything depends on the technique used for shooting. Of course, artistic flair is important here, but a good lens will do its job much better for you - which is why many beginners start with macro. A macro lens is any lens labeled “macro” or “micro”, which not only makes it stand out as a cool kid, but simply allows it to focus faster close range. If you look at the table of lens characteristics, you will see the “minimum focusing distance” parameter, which for modern lenses can be 35-38 cm, and for macro lenses - 5 cm or less. Naturally, whatever the lens, the same is how it works in macro - if you don’t want to do a lot of shamanism in Photoshop to fine-tune the results, buy a good one right away, although you probably shouldn’t make macro gaming a lifelong hobby either.

Of course, it’s good to have a fast focusing motor, but this is not at all necessary - you won’t be able to catch a bee on the fly even with fast autofocus, and you need to use prefocus and its locking function in conjunction with burst shooting. But the open aperture plays a double role here: the “big hole” allows you to shoot in poor lighting, but does not provide the desired depth of field required for macro, so you still need to clamp the hole. However, in some cases, ultra-small depth of field, characteristic of macro, gives good results. Please note that the most budget lens models (like the one in the photo) “clutter” the picture, i.e. It doesn’t provide the clarity for which macro is valued - yes, this can be compensated for in the editor, but it won’t be the same.

In theory, a macro lens, like a portrait lens, simply does not have the right to be universal - both have very narrow applications and, as a result, have design and quality features, and therefore should be purchased only for these purposes. Naturally, it’s bad manners to shoot portraits with a macro lens, but if there is no other lens, who will forbid it? Personally, I didn’t specifically buy a makrushnik for myself—I just used the one I got from the film era.

Long lens, telephoto lens

A lens that often allows you to “get closer” without actually doing so - as a rule, such lenses themselves are longer than all the ones we talked about above. These are the ones that photographers often measure themselves against, although it would seem there is no point - well, you take a picture of a bird in the sky or the moon there, and then you go to any hosting and upload it there, adding the appropriate tags, but then, sorting by these tags, you get a couple more thousands of similar frames from other users, and the ego will suffer greatly. Yes, reporters will not agree with us - they are fed with such lenses (not the same as in the photo, but longer and thicker - it is in their work that size matters), because getting closer to the president and puffing a powerful strobe into his forehead makes it far away not everyone.

However, no one bothers you to buy this toy - after all, there are things that you need to get over yourself: chickenpox, puberty and male “measurements”. Even if you don’t get rid of it later, you will still be satisfied.

With this lens, as a rule, they photograph government officials, fashion shows, neighbors from the house opposite in negligee and without it :). Oh yes, also the moon and birds - after all, we see them so rarely in life.

Hood

It would seem that this is another useless thing in a photographer’s arsenal, since, on the one hand, it makes a completely non-compact camera even more non-compact, and it cannot be removed quickly, despite the fact that it practically does not interfere with catching sunbeams (and that’s what it was made for, it would seem that). It can either simply be in the form of a small cylinder that screws into the mounting thread of the filter, or an advanced one, with a bayonet connection and on plastic lenses, with which many have dislodged the front moving part, trying to remove it from them, especially from new ones (the connection is strong, reliable and undeveloped, but your hands are not used to it yet) - in fact, this is an opportunity to earn extra money for workshops that repair optical devices and their manufacturers, who will be happy to sell new ones.

However, there is still a benefit from a lens hood: although it is inconvenient to put a lens cap on the lens with it, a lens hood can sometimes protect the lens from damage (when you forget to put it on), sometimes even from a low fall, or from children’s fingers. Moreover, it gives the lens the appearance of a more serious optical device and immediately identifies the photographer as a beginner, since most people who use the lens for more than a year or two have lost it, collecting dust on a shelf, or have a broken mount.

In many cases, it can be used on tours where tripods are often not taken - when you need to place something under the lens so that it does not fall down when installing the device on slippery rocks.

By the way, it is better to remove the hood when it is not in use and, turning it over, do not fix it on the lens, although there is such a possibility - you will lose efficiency, because. it tends to cover the zoom ring or manual focus, depending on the lens design.

5 biggest misconceptions that prevent you from making the right choice of lens

1. Aperture is better than image stabilizer

Let's figure out what the stub does and what the aperture does. Firstly, the stabilizer helps to obtain shutter speeds that are quite long by classical standards (rule 1: EGF), without blurring the picture. This feature is very useful in the tele-band. Secondly, lenses with a stub often have a special mode for shooting with wiring, i.e. The stabilizer only works on one axis. Thirdly, the stub works regardless of the selected aperture, and therefore does not affect the depth of field. Fourthly, the stub does not affect the subject in any way, and even if it helped to avoid blurring the whole thing, it is not able to prevent the sudden movement of the subject. The aperture allows light to pass through the lens faster and form an image faster. Moreover, the wider the aperture is open, the faster the image is formed, and the shallower the depth of field. An aperture that gives short shutter speeds helps, for example, to freeze an object in motion. But in general, to tell the truth, comparing a stub with aperture is the same as comparing skis and a snowboard. These are two different instruments capable of expressing their strengths depending on the specific task. It's convenient to have both tools available in one lens.

2. The cooler the lens, the more expensive it is.

Many modern budget lenses can compete with much more expensive ones in sharpness, but this is not the only parameter for a lens. Today, manufacturers pay a lot of attention to the functionality of lenses - they equip them with a stub, a large range of focal lengths, and dust and moisture protection. Moreover, in conditions of fierce competition, they often deliberately deteriorate the quality of the design and try to reduce the cost of the product by using cheaper materials. The presence of a plastic bayonet mount on a lens is not so uncommon today.

There are great lenses when it comes to optical quality, but when it comes to durability, they end up at the bottom of the list. A very striking example of this is the Canon 50mm 1.8 Mark II. The image is simply amazing. They speak of it as a “hidden elka”, but the quality of this lens is not impressive - there is no focal length scale, there is a very cheap and noisy motor, there are only 5 aperture blades, the automation often blurs the focus, the bayonet mount is made of plastic, and so on, but at $100 it's a great lens that I think every Canon user should have.

When we buy a lens, we pay not for the pictures that we then shoot, but for the optical quality and workmanship + functionality. If we buy an expensive model, then all three parameters will be at a high level, but not necessarily at the highest level. If we buy a relatively inexpensive lens, we undoubtedly make a compromise. It could be anything - workmanship, functionality, optical quality, aperture ratio, focal length range, or even brand. Therefore, it is important to set your priorities and buy exactly what you need, while being the last to compromise on optical quality.

3. Native Canon and Nikon optics are much better than third-party brands Sigma, Tamron, Tokina

There are many examples where third-party optics turn out to be at least as good as native lenses. And to say that Sigma, Tamron, Tokina are garbage is simply stupid. It's all about market positioning specific brands. For example, Sigma, which in the past has earned a reputation as a relatively unreliable manufacturer, is focused on producing cheap zooms with low aperture and mainly for cropped cameras. Recently, the manufacturer has significantly improved quality control and expanded the lineup your lenses. Now the assortment includes the Sigma 50mm F1.4 EX DG HSM and Sigma 85mm F1.4 EX DG HSM primes, which are excellent in both quality and design. The optical design of these lenses is in-house developed. Another manufacturer Tamron also pleases with the excellent quality of its top-line products. The company's pride is fast zooms with a constant relative aperture. The excellent Tamron 17-50 mm F2.8 XR and Tamron SP AF 28-75mm F/2.8 XR Di LD zoom lenses are a huge market success, and the Tamron SP AF 90mm f/2.8 Di macro prime is considered one of the best in its class . Tokina is much less known to a wide range of amateur photographers, but it is perhaps the only third-party manufacturer focused primarily on quality, and directly competes with the best lenses from Canon and Nikon. The only drawback I can name is the relatively small range of products. To be honest, it’s even a little insulting for a worthy brand that is so underestimated by the photographic community, although it produces “elite” level lenses.

4. Fix is better than zoom

No that's not true. Perhaps this could have been said once, but now it’s definitely not. Previously, the quality of zooms was much lower than it is now. Today, such excellent zooms are being produced as Tokina AT-X 16-28 f/2.8 AF PRO, Tokina 50-135mm f/2.8 Pro DX AF, Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8G ED AF-S, Canon EF 70-200mm F2. 8 L IS II USM, which in their range produce much best picture than many fixes. It’s not for nothing that the best zooms are jokingly called “a set of primes.”

True, primes also have a number of advantages, for example, the same aperture ratio, weight, design, price. Zooms are more versatile and this versatility can be useful in certain conditions. There are situations when a large aperture ratio is needed, then it would be preferable to use a prime lens. There are also tasks where it is necessary to use an 800mm super telephoto lens, for example for wildlife photography. Then you can’t do without the Canon EF 800mm f/5.6 L IS USM prime, and not a single zoom can adequately replace it. The situation is similar with specialized macro lenses and tilt-shift lenses.

5. The more you clamp the aperture, the better the sharpness, and when it’s open it’s always blurry

This is the most common misconception among beginning photographers. Firstly, it’s not always soapy at an open aperture, and secondly, the main thing is that each lens has its own “sweet points”. For the vast majority of lenses, at the maximum aperture, the sharpness index drops significantly even in comparison with aperture 8. This is to blame a physical phenomenon such as diffraction (the phenomenon of light deviation from the rectilinear direction of propagation when passing near obstacles).

Most often, the peak sharpness of a lens appears when the aperture is closed by 2-3 stops. But this rule should be taken very conditionally, because there are a great many exceptions.

Focal length 800 mm

NIKON D4S / Nikon AF-S 800mm f/5.6E FL ED VR Nikkor SETTINGS: ISO 2500, F5.6, 1/1600 s, 800.0 mm equiv.

When photographing wild animals (usually very shy and cautious), you can’t do without long-focus optics. I usually use the AF-S NIKKOR 600mm f/4G ED VR and AF-S NIKKOR 800mm f/5.6E FL ED VR super telephoto lenses. Zooms often help. Here are the models I have: AF-S NIKKOR 80–400mm f/4.5–5.6G ED VR, AF-S NIKKOR 200-400mm f/4G ED VR II, AF-S NIKKOR 200–500mm f/5.6E ED VR And they are indispensable in my work.

NIKON D300S / Nikon AF-S 600mm f/4G ED VR SETTINGS: ISO 400, F5.6, 1/3200 s, 900.0 mm equiv.

In the wild, everything often happens very quickly - it is impossible to rearrange the optics in time. Zooms allow you to instantly change the focal length and frame the frame. The picture quality obtained with modern Nikon zoom lenses is not so much inferior to the picture quality of prime lenses.

NIKON D4S / 200.0-500.0 mm f/5.6 SETTINGS: ISO 3200, F5.6, 1/640 s, 300.0 mm equiv.

My standard set of lenses: AF-S NIKKOR 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II, AF-S NIKKOR 200-400mm f/4G ED VR II. And then, if necessary, I take another 600 or 800 mm. This is the optimal kit that allows you to cover all possible focal lengths.

NIKON D4 / 70.0-200.0 mm f/2.8 SETTINGS: ISO 640, F4, 1/400 s, 160.0 mm equiv.

Each lens has its own task

I shot with all Nikon long lenses and I can say that the advantage of each of them manifests itself depending on the tasks, location and time of shooting. For example, now I am working on a large project “Russian Arctic”. There are open spaces, very shy animals, so I often use the most telephoto lens. Nikon currently has the AF-S NIKKOR 800mm f/5.6E FL ED VR. If I don’t have enough of that, I take a camera with a crop matrix.

NIKON D4S / Nikon AF-S 800mm f/5.6E FL ED VR Nikkor SETTINGS: ISO 2500, F5.6, 1/125 s, 800.0 mm equiv.

I've only used the new AF-S NIKKOR 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR lens a few times and was amazed by its quality. It has excellent VR, very good glass, the picture turns out sharp. The only drawback is that at full zoom it becomes very long and starts to “peck” a little; it’s not easy to hold it in your hands. However, you quickly get used to it. And for me, the long stroke of the focusing ring turned out to be not the most convenient: I have to intercept it, whereas on the AF-S NIKKOR 200-400mm f/4G ED VR II one movement of the hand is enough. This is not so critical, but sometimes situations arise where you need to react quickly and turn the rings.

NIKON D4S / 200.0-500.0 mm f/5.6 SETTINGS: ISO 250, F6.3, 1/1000 s, 390.0 mm equiv.

In the spring, I started working on the “Taiga” project and for it I purchased an AF-S NIKKOR 400mm f/2.8E FL ED VR lens. To be honest, I’m impressed by how beautiful and high-quality the picture it produces. The picture at f/2.8 is a sight to behold. You can shoot with it in almost any lighting conditions! It is always dark and gloomy in the taiga; a fast lens is needed there.

NIKON D4S / Nikon 400mm f/2.8E FL ED VR AF-S Nikkor SETTINGS: ISO 1000, F2.8, 1/1600 s, 400.0 mm equiv.

I have to work a lot in Africa. If I'm going to Tanzania, I take with me AF-S NIKKOR 600mm f/4G ED VR or AF-S NIKKOR 800mm f/5.6E FL ED VR, if I'm going to South Africa or Botswana, AF-S NIKKOR 200-400mm f/4G is enough ED VR II. This is the most versatile lens, one of my favorites.

If I could only take one lens with me, it would definitely be the AF-S NIKKOR 200-400mm f/4G ED VR II. In Africa, you usually shoot from a car and you never know where things will start to unfold, but with a zoom you are always ready to work. Also, I try not to shoot at the same focal length all the time. Firstly, the picture should be varied, and the shots should be diverse. Secondly, it happens that you change 600 mm to 70–200, and you get completely different shots, more interesting.

NIKON D3S / Nikon 200-400mm f/4G ED-IF AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor SETTINGS: ISO 1000, F4.5, 1/3200 s, 380.0 mm equiv.

You shouldn’t get carried away with televisions; lenses need to be combined. I always have 2-3 cameras with different lenses, so I can shoot the same scene using different techniques, with different focal lengths. This allows you to better reveal the moment, and in the future, if the shooting ends up in a book, this approach makes it possible to choose the most catchy shots and angles.

If you are just starting to shoot and are thinking about buying a long lens, 80-400 mm, 200-500 mm are good, they are optimal. The next step is the AF-S NIKKOR 200-400mm f/4G ED VR II, a top-end lens that will cover all the basic needs of a photographer. If a person wants to continue filming wildlife, develop, then another step forward - long-range lenses with a fixed distance.

Accessories for long focal length lenses

A tripod and a good tripod head are very important, which will allow you to avoid “shaking” and get sharp, clear shots. I usually hang a rock on a tripod to more weight. I once took an ordinary Soviet string bag with me on such trips: I threw stones into it, hung it on a tripod by a hook, and got an indestructible design. And it didn’t take up any space at all in my luggage.

NIKON D4 / Nikon AF-S 800mm f/5.6E FL ED VR Nikkor SETTINGS: ISO 640, F5.6, 1/8000 s, 800.0 mm equiv.

Even when shooting with “long-range” optics, you should always use a cable, and if there is no movement in the frame, then perhaps raise the mirror, because this whole structure is very sensitive to both wind and any external influence. Photographing animals usually takes place early in the morning or late in the evening, when there is not enough light, you have to work at fairly long shutter speeds.

NIKON D4S / Nikon AF-S 800mm f/5.6E FL ED VR Nikkor SETTINGS: ISO 1600, F5.6, 1/250 s, 800.0 mm equiv.

I rarely use converters on long-focus optics. Still, the quality that is so important to me goes away a little with them. However, I have an AF-S Teleconverter TC-17E II, and I always take it with me. Rarely, but you have to use it. The AF-S NIKKOR 800mm f/5.6E FL ED VR has a native 1.25 converter. Wonderful! With it, I did not notice a decrease in quality, and the focal length increased to 1000 mm.

NIKON D4S / Nikon 400mm f/2.8E FL ED VR AF-S Nikkor SETTINGS: ISO 640, F2.8, 1/6400 s, 400.0 mm equiv.

Transporting "monsters"

In winter, I traveled around Wrangel Island on a snowmobile in search of polar bear dens. In such conditions, as a rule, the lens lies somewhere in the back on the trunk, tied and wrapped. You carry the camera and lens separately from each other, because there are different situations. Firstly, when assembled on the move, the equipment can break due to shaking. Secondly, along the way you might notice something interesting: for such situations, I always have a camera with a zoom of 200-400 or 200-500 mm ready.

Cases for long-focus optics - a big problem, because they do not fit in a regular backpack, you need to be prepared to buy special large backpacks. I have a friend in Slovakia who sews such trunks. He made me a backpack, which includes 400 and 800 mm - a rather large, rather heavy design, but comfortable, everything is in its place, you can carry the equipment on yourself. The lenses weigh 14 kilograms, plus you stuff all the little things in there, it comes out to 20–25 kilograms.

Survival in harsh climates

NIKON AF-S 600MM F/4G ED VR Lens

NIKON D300S SETTINGS: ISO 200, F4, 1/6400 s, 900.0 mm equiv.

When you shoot in harsh conditions natural conditions, temperature differences are a serious test for technology. For example, once in Kamchatka we were flying in a helicopter and suddenly we saw wolves. I immediately took the equipment out of my bag. It was warm in the helicopter, and the lens immediately fogged up. We hovered right above the wolves, they completely ignored us, ran, jumped and frolicked, and I couldn’t take a single shot, I missed the moment! It is necessary to ensure that the temperature of the optics matches the temperature environment, do not bring it into the warmth from the cold.

NIKON D4 / 80.0-400.0 mm f/4.5-5.6 SETTINGS: ISO 400, F5.6, 1/2500 s, 400.0 mm equiv.

Sometimes I store optics outside, and if it’s very cold outside, then I wrap up the equipment and bring it first into the vestibule, then into the room. And I leave it like that so that the temperature gradually equalizes. But if possible, it’s better to leave the lens in a cool vestibule (nothing will happen to it), but the camera needs to be taken into a warm place.

NIKON D300S / Nikon AF-S 600mm f/4G ED VR SETTINGS: ISO 320, F4.5, 1/4000 s, 900.0 mm equiv.

This happened on Wrangel Island: you go from cold to warm, suddenly a bear is walking, you jump back out into the street, and the equipment is already fogged up. This is probably the biggest challenge when shooting in cold conditions.

NIKON D3 / Nikon 200-400mm f/4G ED-IF AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor SETTINGS: ISO 200, F4, 1/2000 s, 400.0 mm equiv.

I had an experience many years ago in Taimyr (my friends and I have a long tradition: we have been going to the tundra to celebrate spring for 18 years). One day I was caught in pouring rain. There was no way to cover the camera, and when I returned to the house, water was pouring from the equipment in streams. I dried everything out, but a couple of days later I found myself in exactly the same situation again. Following the already established path at home, I hung the camera on a hook away from the stove and waited for everything to dry. In the end, the lens (it was an AF-S NIKKOR 600mm) had one wet spot of condensation left inside. I moved it a little closer to the stove, dried it completely and put it aside. At that moment, my friend came into the house and said that not far from us deer were crossing the river. It was late in the evening and it was very cold outside. I took the camera with a dried lens, went outside... And due to a sharp temperature change, the largest lens on the lens burst! You can't fool nature. And here, of course, I myself am to blame.

NIKON D300S / Nikon 200-400mm f/4G ED-IF AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor SETTINGS: ISO 800, F4, 1/1250 s, 420.0 mm equiv.

And sometimes technology is threatened not by the climate, but by animals. I had a funny experience when I was shooting in Botswana, although not with a long lens, but with a wide angle one. My favorite shooting point is from the ground. I installed the camera low on a tripod (I have special devices for this), and a young leopard came close to the camera and noticed its reflection in the lens. At first he began to make grimaces, touch the lens with his paw, and then grabbed the lens hood with his teeth and tried to chew something off. To save the situation, I pulled the tripod. The leopard got scared and ran away.

NIKON D4S / Nikon AF-S 800mm f/5.6E FL ED VR Nikkor SETTINGS: ISO 800, F5.6, 1/1000 s, 800.0 mm equiv.

At all, professional equipment rarely fails, and, as a rule, troubles happen due to your own mistake. I dropped it myself, drowned myself - anything can happen. It's a shame, but no one is immune from this.

Long focal length lenses are those whose focal length is noticeably longer than that of a standard lens. Among optics designed for a 24x36mm frame, lenses with a focal length of 70-80mm or more are usually classified as long-focus. The term “telephoto lenses” correctly refers to long-focus lenses of a particularly compact design. The rear component of telephoto lenses is a negative lens, due to which their length can be significantly reduced. However, the term “telephoto lens” has now become quite common in relation to any long-focus lenses, so we will also not fundamentally divide long-focus optics into lenses built according to traditional schemes and those built according to a telephoto lens.

At the very “beginning” of the long-focus range of optics are lenses often referred to as “portrait” lenses. This name for lenses with a focal length of about 85-135mm is directly related to their use for portrait photography. The increased focal length of portrait lenses compared to the standard one allows you to compose the photo normally without getting too close to the subject. After all, it’s more common for us to remember the facial features of a stranger from about one and a half to two meters, and not from 50 centimeters? And lenses in the portrait range make it possible to compose a photo well, while maintaining a minimum distance of one and a half to two meters that is “safe” for habitual perception. Therefore, it is portrait lenses that most correctly (more precisely, habitually for our perception) convey the proportions of a person’s face during portrait photography.

Long-focus lenses with a focal length of 200-300mm or more already fully justify the name “telephoto lens” in that they allow you to shoot on a fairly large scale without getting closer to the subject. This need arises, for example, during reportage and spy photography or wildlife photography. Self-respecting squirrels, hares or birds usually do not wait for the photographer to come closer to them in order to take a successful close-up shot. In addition, there are many objects that you cannot get close to even if you wanted to. For example, in order for the setting Sun to appear in the frame as a huge red ball, and not as a small white hole in the sky, you need a lens with a focal length of 300mm or more. By the way, a rule of thumb is that on a negative, images of the Sun and Moon have a diameter of about a hundred times less than the focal length of the lens. Therefore, you can get the sun “in the entire frame” only with ultra-long-focus optics with a focal length of at least 1000-2000mm.

The use of long-focus optics is interesting not only because of the ability to “bring closer” distant objects. Telephoto lenses convey perspective in a completely special way, “flattening” it and reducing the distance between the foreground and background. The closest thing to our perception is a road crowded with cars, a path lost in the haze, rails stretching into the distance, or an even row of house facades; it is best and easiest to convey with the help of long-focus optics. In addition, telephoto lenses are extremely good for focusing attention on some small details and close-ups of the subject, cutting off and blurring the unnecessary background beyond recognition.

When using long-focus lenses, you should remember that they are much more sensitive than wider-angle optics to the slightest trembling in the hands or vibration of the device, which ultimately leads to “blurring” of the image. Therefore, when shooting with telephoto cameras, using a tripod (monopod) and setting fairly short shutter speeds improves (sometimes even radically!) the sharpness of photographs. Another option for solving the problem of “blur” when shooting with long-focus optics is offered by Canon and Nikon - these are lenses with a built-in optical image stabilization system (IS - Image Stabilization and VR - Vibration Reduction, respectively).

Welcome to my blog. I’m in touch with you, Timur Mustaev. Today I’ll tell you about long-focus lenses – one of the types of photo optics. What it is? Do they really distort and easily blur the image if not handled properly? We'll find out everything. Along the way of our review, we will also consider examples of photos. Let's get started.

Definition and synonyms

A long-focus lens is an optics that has a focal length of more than 70 mm, which is where it got its name, and a viewing angle of 39 degrees or less. Long focal length lenses are also called telescopic lenses because the prefix “tele” means “far”.

Subspecies

Moderate TV range, the focal length ranges from 70 to 200 mm for and from 50 to 150 for .
Super telephoto lenses. Their shooting range starts from 200 mm, for cropped cameras from 150 mm.

Filming genres

1. Portrait photography

There are a number of advantages when using 85 mm:

Distortion of perspective and small details that have significant weight are minimal;
The proportions of the face and figure correspond to reality;
Optics allows you to focus on a person, making the contours sharp, and the background and unnecessary details blurred;
You can photograph a person either in full growth or just a portrait;
85 mm allows you to seamlessly create a connection between the model and the viewer when shooting, which is an important aspect.

2. Filming sporting events

Since fences often interfere with photographers, the distance to the main moving objects is too great. In this case, a telephoto camera comes to the rescue. It should be remembered that in order to avoid blurring, it is necessary to set a short shutter speed of 1/1000 sec. or mount the camera on a stable tripod or monopod.

I have a detailed article, be sure to check it out.

3. Wildlife Photography

Photographers often “hunt” for small wild birds and animals. To photograph them unnoticed and to be at a safe distance, long-focus optics will help.

Distinctive features and features of control when shooting

Magnifying the image

Long-focus optics resemble binoculars. If you compare the scale of a photograph when shooting with a telephoto lens, for example, with a focal length of 250 mm and a normal one - “fifty dollars”, then the image scale will differ by 5 times, since 250/50 = 5.

The appearance of teleeffect or aberrations (visual compression of the image)

What are aberrations? Everything is very simple. These are image deviations from the norm. To be more precise, in this case one of the types of aberration occurs - distortion. Are you tired of the emergence of new terms? And you can’t go anywhere without them! I try to explain as simply as possible.

This is a distortion of the image geometry. That is, the scale of the photograph changes, moving away from the center to the edges. All straight lines either become convex or tend to the edges of the photo ("barrel" distortion), or concave - towards the center ("pincushion" distortion).

Chromatic aberrations may also occur - the manifestation of an effect in the form of alien color outlines in objects. They can be eliminated later in Photoshop, especially if you shoot in RAW format.

The need to set minimum aperture units

At small aperture values, shutter speeds will be long and the following nuances arise:

It will be quite difficult to hold such a “colossus” with your hands, however, all “TVs” have stabilizers installed, but more on that later;
Any movement of the camera will negatively affect the clarity of the image and can lead to blurred images, especially when photographing at long focal lengths and in poor lighting conditions.

What to do? I will recommend the following:

Buy lenses with light weight and medium dimensions so that you can quickly remove and hold the lens using the belt rest method.
Use a stable tripod with a cable.
A telephoto lens usually comes with a tripod leg; if you don’t have one, I recommend purchasing one.

Controlling depth of field

Since long-focus optics are used to photograph objects that are at different positions from the photographer, it is necessary to control the depth of field. This feature helps to visually highlight an object while blurring the background.

Examples of optics from top manufacturers

1. Optics for Nikon

Nikon 70-200mm f/4G ED VR AF-S

Characteristic:

One of the best lenses in all its aspects, except for the price, which varies from 80 thousand rubles and reaches 100 thousand rubles at the end of 2016.
An excellent long-focus zoom lens with a constant aperture of 4.
The images are sharp and on par with images taken using a lens with the same parameters, only with an aperture of 2.8.
The camera itself is light in weight, although this is not typical for this type of camera.
The image stabilizer works like a charm - excellent.
The design is excellent. Everything is thought out to the smallest detail.
Quiet focusing operation.
The lens does not come with a tripod leg, which must be purchased separately.

If your wallet allows, then it is better to purchase a whiter lens for Nikon, this is Nikon 70-200 mm f/2.8G ED-IF AF-S VR

2. Optics for Canon

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM telephoto lens.

Character traits:

The lens weighs 1.5 kg, which is bad for long-term shooting. Photographers joke that the best addition to purchasing this lens would be a membership to a fitness club.
The dimensions of the lens are large, so it will not fit into every bag. In between shootings you will have to carry the camera around your neck or in your hands.
The cost varies from 116 thousand rubles to 170 thousand rubles at the end of 2016.
High quality glass.
The image stabilizer has two operating modes.
Autofocus is fast and virtually silent.
Has reliable protection. Can be used in poor conditions: in snow and rain.
Vignetting at an open aperture spoils the frame a little.
Low level of chromatic aberrations.
A tripod leg is included.

Features when shooting a portrait

I will list the criteria that your “telephoto” must meet before taking a close-up portrait:

Your optics should not produce strong distortions.
The image should contain soft shadows and low contrast - smooth transitions to hide small facial defects.
The smaller the field of view, the less distortion there is.
The depth of field should be shallow to focus attention on the person and the necessary objects, but to blur small insignificant details.

Below is a photograph taken with a telephoto camera with a focal length of 200 mm, taking into account all the requirements

Soon I will conduct detailed review the above long focal length lenses, consider their advantages and disadvantages, and also consider photographs taken with these lenses.

Camera lenses are always needed if you already have a good understanding of your DSLR camera. If you are a beginner, first get to know your camera and what it can do. I recommend the following courses:

Digital SLR for a beginner 2.0- for supporters of the NIKON SLR camera.

My first MIRROR- for supporters of the CANON DSLR camera.

With this I say goodbye to you. I wish you great success with your telephoto photography. Knowing all the pros and cons, you can use it correctly, focusing on its strengths. Share the article on in social networks and subscribe to my blog updates to learn all about other types of lenses.

All the best to you, Timur Mustaev.

Choosing a lens for a DSLR or hybrid camera is not an easy task, especially for beginners. There is so much information at once, so many different nuances that need to be taken into account! Where to start? How can you learn to “read” the technical characteristics of a lens and use them to understand whether it is suitable for your camera or your tasks? About all this in a series of articles devoted to camera lenses. And we’ll start it off by discussing the very basics - the most important characteristics photographic optics and their influence on the resulting images.

Why do I need another lens? I already have a whale one!

Interestingly, according to statistics, among users SLR cameras Only a few purchase and actively use more than one lens. Most amateur photographers, having switched to SLR or hybrid cameras, use a kit lens - often quite mediocre in design, "soapy" in terms of sharpness and "dark" in terms of aperture ratio, as well as with a slow autofocus. And they don’t even realize how much better their work can become with the right choice of high-quality optics! Thus, in essence, a DSLR camera turns from a tool with great creative potential into an expensive and very bulky “point-and-shoot” – and yet, as a rule, it is bought precisely with the goal of improving the quality and raising the level of one’s photographs.

When the abundance of choice is not pleasing

But novice users of SLR cameras can also be understood. After all, they have just solved the most difficult task of choosing a first camera, they still confuse aperture with shutter speed, they shudder at the words “photosensitivity” and “white balance”, and even the incomprehensible optical terms “zooming”, “chromatism”, “vignetting” - otherwise and, what’s more, “MTF”, “field characteristics”, “low dispersion glass” and “tilt shift” - can scare away even the most inquisitive from the task of choosing the next lens. So they have been shooting for years with the help of a single “whale glass”, periodically wondering why their work is quite far from the photographs of experienced photographers and craftsmen.

Of course, purchasing a new lens is unlikely to immediately make you a pro. After all, renowned minimalist photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson are known for capturing all their best images with a single 50mm Leica lens. But this will allow you not only to look at the world differently through the camera’s viewfinder, but also to shoot scenes that were previously simply inaccessible to your camera.

However, this matter, as has already been said, is not easy. Table technical characteristics for modern lenses it can contain dozens of lines with complex technical terms. But among them there are two most important ones, without understanding which the choice and use of a lens is simply impossible. This is the focal length and aperture ratio.

"Shiriki" and "teles"

Lens focal length determines its field of view - essentially, the angular dimensions of the space that can be conveyed in the picture with its help. There are wide-angle (wide-angle, “shiriki”, etc.), normal (standard, “standard”) and long-focus (telephoto, “telephoto”, telephoto) lenses. Already from the names themselves it is easy to understand what is what - wide-angle lenses allow you to capture a large area of space in a picture, telephoto lenses - by analogy with telescopes - are designed for shooting distant objects and zoom in well. Well, normal lenses convey space and perspective in much the same way as human eyes perceive them.

Thus, if sometimes it happens that you want to photograph an architectural landmark or an impressive landscape, and with regret you see in the viewfinder that it does not fit entirely into the frame even at the maximum zoom distance, then you need a wider-angle lens. If the subject of your photo turns out to be too small, and when you try to get closer it flies away or runs away, it’s time to think about purchasing a “television camera”.

The focal length of a lens is indicated in millimeters and is most often specified for the so-called “35mm equivalent”. It sounds complicated, but it’s much easier to remember: wide-angle lenses have an equivalent focal length of up to 36 mm, normal lenses - 36-70 mm, telephoto lenses - from 70 mm or more. Modern lines of lenses in the arsenals of their manufacturers are very extensive, and among them you can find both ultra-wide-angle 8-14 mm fisheye lenses (when shooting with which you have to be vigilant so that your own feet are not included in the frame), and super telephoto 300-1000 mm, very reminiscent of telescopes not only in their name, but also in appearance:

Where does the “crop factor” come from??

When photographers shot on 35mm film, the focal length numbers on the lenses were clear and unambiguous, and therefore it was easy to remember what a particular field of view corresponded to in the viewfinder. But our life has become significantly more complicated with the advent of digital photography - unlike standard photographic film, there are many variations on the size of the camera matrix.

Full-frame matrices measuring 35x24 mm (i.e., the size of a film frame) produce a very high-quality image and maintain the angle of view intended by the manufacturer for all 35 mm lenses installed on them. However, they also cost incredible amounts of money. That’s why among photographers, when talking about cameras, the word “full frame” is pronounced with a certain aspiration and a special intonation, implying both a different level of quality and a different price level.

Most DSLR and hybrid cameras for amateur photographers have APS-C, or half-frame, matrices. Obviously, a smaller sensor size, all other things being equal, narrows the field of view through the same lens, which leads to the emergence of the concept of crop factor, also called the focal length multiplication factor. For Canon APS-C DSLRs it is 1.62x, and for similar Nikon ones it is 1.52x. Cameras of the Four Thirds system (Olympus, Panasonic) have even smaller matrices, and accordingly, the crop factor is even greater - 2.0x. As a result, the same lens in combination with matrices of different sizes will give different viewing angles:

When talking about the focal length of a lens in terms of “wide-angle” and “telephoto”, it is always worth clarifying which camera it is installed on. For example, the old Soviet lens “Helios-44” with a 50 mm DF, thanks to the M42 threaded mount, can be used both on film “Zenith” and on full-frame digital camera(say, Canon EOS 5D Mark II via an adapter). At the same time, he will maintain the same angle of view. But you can also install it on APS-C Canon EOS 600D or Pentax K-5 DSLRs - in this case, the resulting angle of view will be equivalent to about 75 mm, and the lens will go from normal to “light telephoto”. If you “screw” it to the Olympus E-PL2 or Panasonic Lumix DMC-G3, then the focal length indicated on the lens must already be multiplied by 2, and from a 50 mm “standard” it will turn into the most “portable telephoto” with an angle of view equivalent to 100 mm FR at full frame.

Therefore, when choosing a lens, every DSLR owner should keep in mind the crop factor of his camera, and focus on the historically accepted 35 mm equivalent, multiplying the FR of the lens in question by it.

“Portrait” lenses: focal length and perspective

A small lyrical digression. Important rule, which every photographer should learn, is this: the focal length of a lens determines only its field of view. Which, in turn, does not in any way affect the transmission of perspective in the photograph. The nature of perspective, that is, the ratio of sizes between objects in the picture, is determined only by the distance from the camera to them, but not by the size of the lens's FR.

To shoot the same object at the same scale with a wide-angle lens, the photographer is forced to get closer to it. But at the same time, the nature of the transfer of perspective will also change.
(Photo: http://berniesumption.com)

So don’t believe it when they tell you that “you can’t take portraits with a wide-angle lens because of distortion.” The distortion in question does not arise from a wide angle of view, but from the fact that the photographer, trying to take a close-up, came too close to his subject. In fact, “taking portraits wide” is very possible - you just need to step back and include the torso, and sometimes even the legs, of the model in the composition.

But it’s really usually not worth photographing people’s faces from a distance closer than 2 meters (or better yet, 3-5). In this case, the proportions of the face are distorted, the nose and cheeks become larger, the ears become smaller, and it usually looks grotesque and unattractive.

In the photo on the left, the error is not that the wide-angle lens was selected, but that the shot was taken too close up at a close distance. In the photo on the right, the error has been corrected - the photographer has moved away from the model, but because of this he is forced to use a longer lens. (Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/crazytallblond/1196701508/)

And one more note. Focal distance is sometimes confused by beginners with the minimum focusing distance ( MDF, MDF, focusing minimum distance). Despite some similarity in Russian terms, these two quantities are in no way related to each other. FR determines the angle of view, and MDF determines how close the object can be to the camera in order to get a sharp picture.

Many photographers use wide-angle lenses and their features for portraits - but not classic ones, but creative, non-standard ones.
(Photo: http://leggnet.com)

"Zoom" and "fix"

The focal length of a lens is determined by its design, and therefore in ancient times all lenses had a fixed FR (hence the jargon “fix”). Then it was believed that in order to obtain maximum image quality, the optical formula of the lens (i.e., the number, shape and relative placement of the lenses of which it consists) should be different for wide-angle, normal, telephoto and other types of lenses. As experience has accumulated and optical technology has improved, it has become clear that sometimes quality can be sacrificed slightly for the sake of convenience - which is provided by a variable focal length. In Russian, this is officially called zoom, but among the people, tracing paper from English – “zoom” – has taken root.

The zoom lens has two rings: zoom and focus.
Markings indicate the limits of focal length change
and lens aperture in wide-angle and telephoto positions

The zoom range (zoom) is indicated as a pair of minimum and maximum FR (for example, 18-55 mm), or as a magnification factor (for example, 24x). In the latter case, it is impossible to understand what specific minimum and maximum focal lengths are inherent in this lens from the “24x” number alone, since it can be 10-240 mm, 20-480 mm, etc.

For many photographic tasks, the ability to quickly change the focal length without changing the lens has proven to be so valuable that over the past 30 years, zoom lenses have greatly replaced prime lenses. And most photographers would rather give up the ability to manually focus than the zoom lever on the camera or the ring on the lens. It must be assumed that banal human laziness also played an important role here, because “zooming in” or “faring out” a picture without leaving the same spot is most often much easier than approaching or moving away from the subject. Only very few people think about the fact that changing the focal length affects not only the size of the image in the viewfinder, but also the transfer of perspective (due to the different distance from the camera to the object). It has gotten to the point where inexperienced photographers blame distortions in the proportions of faces and body parts of people in photos when shooting at close range at a “wide angle”... “distortions of the whale zoom”, being in full confidence, that expensive zoom lenses do not have this effect. Although, in order to understand the reasons for this phenomenon, it is enough for any person to use his innate “lens”, taking a closer look and seeing with his own eyes the dependence of the transfer of perspective and proportions on the distance to the object at which you are looking.

On primes there is only one ring – the focusing ring.
The markings of such a lens directly indicate
constant focal length and aperture ratio

Lenses with a fixed FR, colloquially “prime lenses,” still have significant advantages over zooms. First, their design is simpler, so the lenses themselves are usually smaller, lighter, and less expensive than zooms in the same range. Secondly, the optical formula of the “fix” is specially optimized to obtain best quality image transmission on this frame, and is not a compromise, like zooms. Therefore, if you want to take pictures with the best resolution and virtually no distortion, it makes sense to choose a fixed lens. Finally, in lenses with a fixed FR it is much easier to obtain such a desirable characteristic as high lens aperture, which is discussed in more detail below.

Aperture and aperture

It’s not for nothing that photography is called light painting – without light it is impossible. In photography, it is also extremely rare that there is too much light - usually there is never enough of it, which forces us to use flashes, tripods and image stabilization systems, raise the light sensitivity of the matrix or lengthen shutter speeds, and hope that the photo will not drown in noise and will not be blurred from the movement of the camera or object in the frame.

The maximum amount of light that the lens is capable of transmitting to the matrix is actually called aperture ratio. It is indicated by the so-called aperture number, written after the letters “f/” or “F”, for example, “F2.0” or “f/16”. The lower this number, the higher the aperture - it seems counter-intuitive, but it’s just the way it is, and an f/2.0 lens lets in more light than an f/8 lens. Moreover, “f/8” and “F8” are simply different forms of recording the same value. Another synonym for aperture ratio and aperture number is relative aperture. All three terms mean the same thing - how “light” or “dark” the lens in question is, how much light it can let into the matrix.

Using the aperture, you can reduce the amount of light entering the matrix.
But it will not be possible to increase it beyond the maximum determined by the lens aperture.

Obviously, a high lens aperture is very desirable for all photographers. After all, you can always reduce the amount of light entering the matrix using the aperture - that is, in essence, temporarily reducing the lens aperture, artificially blocking the path of light. But, alas, it will no longer be possible to increase it beyond the maximum specified by the design.

Blurring the background: what determines the depth of field

In addition to the ability to shoot in semi-darkness without the risk of blur, at shorter shutter speeds (or without noise, at a reduced ISO sensitivity), the aperture (maximum aperture) of the lens affects another important parameter - depth of field. The higher the lens aperture, the narrower the area of sharply depicted space in the photo may be. This allows you to visually separate the subject from the background - “blur the background”. And when you need to increase the depth of field in the photo, on the contrary, you can always close the aperture.

Above: Photo taken at f/1.4.
Bottom: The same shot with the aperture closed at f/16.

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