What the lens is for. Everything about lenses. Keep the diaphragm close where possible

03.12.2011 28575 reference Information 0

The modern camera has undergone very few changes in comparison with those large-format machines that saw the light in the form of the creations of Niepce or Prokudin-Gorsky. Yes, they got smaller, got autofocus, an image stabilizer, and then the photographic plate was replaced by a film that itself became a victim of the digital matrix ... but globally nothing has changed: the image on 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 they shoot, naturally, with the lenses they like most - and for some reason they like, as a rule, rather expensive optical instruments. Enthusiasts have been building a collection of lenses over the years, clinging to one system, changing from year to year some of the items in the collection for a number of reasons ... but these are all 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 common sense and does not understand the words "wide-angle" and "long-focus", but he is perfectly bought for "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 standpoint of universality, a large zoom is really 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”), this is exactly the Kodak that you used to shoot with when you were a film camera. It is this standard that has therefore become a reference point for photo producers in the consumer sphere, and it is about it that we will talk in the article below, “forgetting” that there is still 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 far from it as never before - today less than 1% of all cameras that are guided by this standard are produced for a similar frame size (24 × 36 mm) ... Moreover, the overwhelming majority of manufactured cameras (more than 90%) are compact, in which the size of the photosensitive matrix is 4-6 times less than the area of the same film frame. And yet, in order to follow some standard, 35mm film has become a reference point for everyone.

If you look at the lens of a compact device, 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 size of the lens), recalculated 35mm equivalent. It is according to him that the lenses differ (all other parameters are not as important as they are said about them).

To understand this, let's imagine two cameras: an old film "soap dish" and a modern digital compact with a resolution of 10 megapixels. We shoot in both the same frame at a focal length of 38 mm from the same position and print it in 10 × 15 format. Looking at the frame and not paying attention to the difference in quality, we understand that there are practically no differences in the covered space - and therefore, is there a 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 (FD) is simply multiplied by the corresponding factor ("crop factor"), which can be obtained by dividing the size of the film frame diagonally by the corresponding matrix size - 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 who understand the essence of the issue, none of the manufacturers of lenses for DSLRs even bother 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, under which a lot of lenses have already been released that do not support full-frame coverage ... Nevertheless, the indication of focal lengths even on them remained standard for "mirror" lenses - the user simply in each case needs to multiply the focal length by the corresponding crop factor (× 1.5). By the way, if you crop a picture in the editor, you also change the EGF (if this is interesting, of course) - after all, you print the picture on paper of the same size or look on the web at the same monitor resolution ... For example, if you took 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 to be 100 mm.

We hope this is all clear, so further we will talk just about the effective focal length, and for SLRs we will indicate both numbers - it will be more convenient for everyone, and what you shoot is completely unimportant. It's just that you can always choose the appropriate lens in a DSLR, but for a compact it will be quite difficult to set an appropriate focal length - so do it at random. However, the article is addressed just to novice "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 (conventionally, 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 is worth buying and for what purpose.

Fisheye, ultra wide angle lens

Lenses of the " fish eye»Are characterized by a very wide angle of coverage of the surrounding space - with a standard 180 ° diagonally cropped frame, they simply have no competitors. In this direction, the record holder is Sigma, which released a lens with a focal length of 4.5 mm and a relative aperture of 2.8 - of course, and it costs fabulous, but it also gives a picture that covers more than 180 °.

However, for such a wide angle of coverage (almost everything that our eyes are able to see without moving, along with peripheral vision), you have to pay a good price. No, we do not 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 was not for nothing that it was called the "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 the perspective and has an almost infinite depth of field from half a meter already at aperture of 5.6, i.e. you can shoot a person from a level of 20 cm above your head, and the head in the frame will be huge, and the legs will remind us of dwarfs. It also distorts linear objects in an interesting way - 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 tool (almost 100% of its use is spent on experiments) than a serious tool - which is true, even in a cramped room a person will not like being curved around the edges of the frame, even with the columns.

Wide angle lens

"Shirik" - necessary tool landscape photographer and reporter shooting close corporate events or parties. EGFs here start from 15-16 mm (for example, Tokina 12-24 is presented, 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 argued that a “big hole” 2.8 is completely unnecessary for shirik - however, corporate professionals who often have to work except in pitch darkness are unlikely to agree with this, but you can meet different people here, including those who are afraid of daylight with which they can confuse the flash pulse.

The advantage of a conventional linear wide-angle lens over a fisheye lens is that the picture is almost distortion-free (the higher the price, the less spherical distortions and the larger the relative aperture), and the disadvantage is almost half the angle of coverage.

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 saw how a 16: 9 picture is shown on a 4: 3 TV, you will understand), since the eye perceives the picture as normal (shot with a “normal” lens), but it's wide-angle. However, this effect also occurs in some computer games.

Please note that people standing at the edges of the horizontal frame noticeably gain weight and lose weight only as they approach the center of the frame.

Normal lens

In film times, the "normal" (standard) lens was considered "fifty kopecks", but with the advent of reduced matrixes (after all, full frame now expensive for an enthusiast) it is replaced by a 35-mm lens, although many continue to use fifty dollars, even though the angle of coverage they have reduced to quite a moderate portrait lens.

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

In fact, of course, there is nothing to replace the fifty-kopeck piece - 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 it is made quite aperture, about f / 1.8, and for ridiculous money, about 100 bucks, which many are willing to do - however, when everything is around with zooms, the lens is still inferior in versatility, but it quickly teaches the photographer to play within the frame. In other words, lenses of this type are more for teaching than for everyday use in different situations - and the angle is not enough for a room, and a normal portrait is not very easy to shoot.

Universal lens kit

When buying your first DSLR, be sure to take it complete with a "whale" - manufacturers are making a cunning move aimed at selling their own, "native" glasses, reducing the price of a staff below it market value(that is, if you buy such a lens new separately from the camera, the total difference will be $ 100-200, which can be spent just for fifty dollars). The quality of the staff is not so hot, but you will see it only after a year or two of shooting, and even then, if you are lucky - and by that time, maybe its plastic case will not serve as faithfully as in the old days.

In fact, the functional standard zooms have replaced the standard fifty-kopeck pieces - the EGF 50 mm is now in the middle of their range (in the case of 18-55, of course). It turns out that the same fifty dollars was simply expanded with the possibility of zoom, and that's all, leaving the fifty dollars itself. See number 35? This is it.

The advantage of the "whale" over the "fifty kopeck piece" 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 - in terms of quality, it always loses, however, this at the beginning of the creative path can be safely discounted, since there is no better lens for study.

Portrait lens

Don't look for the portrait type lettering on this lens - there are no such things. 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 used to seeing a completely certain angle, and only people with one-sided visual impairments see opponents differently - however, no one has ever reckoned with the minority, and cynics- photographers are no exception. To understand these people without changing position, close one eye with your hand and see how much the angle has changed: cheekbones widened, ears hid, nose spread ... like it? And the reason is simple: looking with two eyes, the light from an object (naturally reflected - during life, few people glow personally) spreads in one direction, practically not converging, and with one we make it converge at one point at an angle. The situation can be corrected by making this angle sharper, so that the extreme rays are closer to parallel lines, which we have when looking at an object with two eyes - not a fountain, of course, but this is the best that we have ... because the lens has only one organ of vision.

Naturally, portraits are shot from a certain distance (again we recall the "zoom with feet"), depending on what is needed: close-up, chest, waist or full-length - the narrow angle of the lens will "bring" us closer to the subject.

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: the “portrait lens” should not only give a sharp picture in the focus area, it should also blur the background beautifully (if you know what "bokeh" is, you will understand), while the "macrique" is required only for sharpness.

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 for you much better - 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 from others as a tough kid, but simply allows him to focus with more close range... If you look at the lens specifications table, you will see the parameter "minimum focusing distance", which for modern lenses can be 35-38 cm, and for macro lenses - 5 cm or less. Naturally, what kind of lens, such is his work in macro - if you do not want to do a lot of shamanism in Photoshop and fine-tune the results, buy a good one right away, although macro games, probably, should also not be made a hobby for life.

Of course, it is good to have a fast focusing motor, but this is not at all necessary - catching a bee on the fly, even with a fast autofocus, will not work, and you need to use the pre-focus and its lock function, coupled with continuous shooting. But the open aperture plays a double role here: the "big hole" allows you to shoot in low light, but does not give the desired depth of field required for macro, so you still need to pinch the hole. However, in some cases, the ultra-small depth of field, characteristic of a macro, gives good results. Please note that the most budget lenses (like the one in the photo) “wash” the picture, i.e. the clarity for which the macro is valued does not give - yes, this can be compensated for in the editor, but it will still not be the same.

In theory, a macro lens, like a portrait lens, simply does not have the right to be universal - both have a very narrow application and, as a result, design and quality features, and therefore should be bought only for these purposes. Naturally, bad manners to shoot portraits with a macro lens, but if there is no other, who will forbid? Personally, I did not buy myself a mackerel on purpose - I just used the one that I got from the film era.

Long focal lens, telephoto lens

A lens that often allows you to "get closer" without doing it - as a rule, such lenses, by themselves, are longer in comparison with all of which we talked about above. It is with them that photographers are often measured, although, it would seem, it makes no sense - well, you shoot a bird in the sky or the moon in the same place, and then go to any hosting and fill it in there, supplying it with the appropriate tags, but then, after sorting by these tags, you will get a couple more thousands of similar shots from other users, and the ego will suffer a lot. Yes, reporters will not agree with us - they are fed by such lenses (not the same as in the photo, but longer and thicker - just in their work, the size matters), because they allow you to get closer to the president and puff on his forehead with a powerful strobe. not everyone.

However, no one bothers to buy this toy - after all, there are things that you need to get sick yourself: this is chickenpox, puberty and men's "measure". Even if you don't get rid of it later, you will still be satisfied.

They shoot with this lens, as a rule, statesmen, fashion shows, neighbors from the house opposite in negligee and without him :). Oh yes, and the moon and birds - after all, we rarely see them in our life.

Hood

It would seem that it is another useless thing in the arsenal of a photographer, 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 this is what it was made for, seemingly). It happens either simply in the form of a small cylinder screwed into the mounting thread of the light filter, or advanced, with a bayonet connection and on plastic lenses, with which many displaced the front movable part, trying to remove it from them, especially from new ones (the connection is strong, reliable and undeveloped, and hands are not used yet) - in fact, this is an opportunity to earn extra money for repair shops of optical devices and manufacturers thereof, who will gladly sell new ones.

However, there is still a benefit from the hood: although it is inconvenient to put a cap on the lens with it, the hood can sometimes protect the lens from damage (when you forgot to put it on), sometimes even if it is dropped slightly, or from children's fingers. Moreover, it gives the lens the appearance of a more serious optical device and immediately gives out a beginner in the photographer, since most of those 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 trips to which tripods are often not taken - when you need to put something under the lens so that it does not fall down when installing the unit on slippery stones.

By the way, it is better to remove an unused hood and, turning it over, do not fix it on the lens. it tends to close the zoom ring or manual focus, depending on the lens arrangement.

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

1. The aperture is better than the image stabilizer

Let's see what the stub does and what the aperture does. Firstly, the stabilizer helps to get long enough exposures 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 gimbal works on one axis only. 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 not to smear everything entirely, it is not able to prevent the sudden movement of the subject. The aperture allows faster light to pass through the lens, faster to form an image. In this case, the more the aperture is open, the faster the image is formed, and the shallower the depth of field. The aperture that gives short exposures helps, for example, freeze a subject in motion. But in general, to be honest, comparing a stub to aperture is the same as comparing skis and snowboards. These are two different tools that can show their strengths depending on the specific task. Convenient when both tools are available in one lens.

2. The steeper the lens, the more expensive it costs

Many modern budget lenses can compete with much more expensive lenses in sharpness, but this is not the only parameter for a lens. Today, manufacturers pay a lot of attention to the functionality of the lenses - they are equipped with a stub, a wide range of focal lengths, dust and moisture protection. Moreover, in conditions of tough competition, they often deliberately degrade 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 is not such a rarity today.

There are great lenses when it comes to optical quality, but when it comes to durability, they'll be 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. It is he who is spoken of as a "hidden elke", 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, automation often smears with focus, a bayonet mount made of plastic, and so on, but at $ 100 it's just 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 quality of performance + functionality. If we buy an expensive model, then all three parameters will be at a high level, but not the fact that at the highest. If we buy a relatively inexpensive lens, we are definitely making a compromise. It can be anything - workmanship, functionality, optical quality, aperture, focal length range, or even a brand. Therefore, it is important to prioritize and buy exactly what you need, while trying to make the last compromise with optical quality.

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

There are plenty of examples when third-party optics turn out to be at least as good as native lenses. And to say that Sigma, Tamron, Tokina are trash is just stupid. It's all about market positioning specific brands. For example, Sigma, which in the past has earned fame as a relatively unreliable manufacturer, is focused on making cheap zooms with low apertures and mainly for cropped cameras. Recently, the manufacturer has significantly improved quality control and expanded its range of lenses. Now the range includes excellent quality and design fixes Sigma 50mm F1.4 EX DG HSM and Sigma 85mm F1.4 EX DG HSM. The optical design of these lenses is proprietary. Another manufacturer, Tamron, is also pleased with the excellent quality of the top line products. The pride of the company is high-aperture 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 huge market success, and the Tamron SP AF 90mm f / 2.8 Di macro lens is considered one of the best in its class. ... Tokina is much less well-known to a wide range of amateur photographers, but it is perhaps the only third-party manufacturer focused primarily on quality and competes directly with the best lenses from Canon and Nikon. I can only name the disadvantage of a relatively small range of products. Honestly, it's even a little offensive for a decent brand that is so underestimated by the photographic community, although it produces lenses of the "electronic" level.

4. Fix is better than zoom

No that's not true. Perhaps it was possible to say so once, but now - definitely not. Previously, the quality of the zoom was much lower than it is now. Today there are such excellent zooms 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 give out a much better picture than many fixes. No wonder, the best zooms are jokingly called "a set of fixes".

True, fixes 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 is needed, then it will be preferable to use a fix. There are also tasks when it is necessary to use an 800mm super telehandler, for example, for wildlife photography. Then the Canon EF 800mm f / 5.6 L IS USM is indispensable and no zoom can adequately replace it. The situation is similar with specialized macro lenses and tilt-shifters.

5. The more you hold down the aperture, the better the sharpness, and when open - always soap

This is the most common misconception of aspiring photographers. Firstly, at an open aperture there is not always soap, and secondly, the main thing is that each lens has its own "sweet points." a physical phenomenon such as diffraction (the phenomenon of deflection of light from the rectilinear direction of propagation when passing near obstacles).

Most often, the peak of lens sharpness occurs when the aperture is covered by 2-3 stops. But this rule should be taken very conditionally, since there are 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 sec, 800.0 mm equiv.

When photographing wild animals (as a rule, very shy and cautious), you cannot 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. The models I own are: 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 in my work they are irreplaceable.

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, often everything happens very quickly - it is impossible to have time to rearrange the optics. The zooms allow you to instantly change the focal length and frame the frame. The picture quality obtained with modern Nikon zoom lenses is not that much inferior to the picture quality of "fixes".

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 is 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 covers 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 have shot with all Nikon telephoto lenses and I can say that the advantage of each of them manifests itself depending on the task, 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 an AF-S NIKKOR 800mm f / 5.6E FL ED VR. If I miss it too, 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 at its quality. He has great VR, very good glass, the picture is sharp. The only drawback is that at full zoom it becomes very long and starts to "peck" a little, it is 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, while on the AF-S NIKKOR 200-400mm f / 4G ED VR II one hand movement is enough. This is not so critical, but sometimes situations arise where you need to react quickly, twist 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 work on the Taiga project and purchased an AF-S NIKKOR 400mm f / 2.8E FL ED VR lens for it. To be honest, I'm impressed with how beautiful, high-quality picture it gives. The picture at f / 2.8 is a feast for the eyes. You can shoot with it in almost any lighting conditions! It is always dark and gloomy in the taiga, where you need a high-aperture lens.

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 travel to Tanzania, I take AF-S NIKKOR 600mm f / 4G ED VR or AF-S NIKKOR 800mm f / 5.6E FL ED VR, if in South Africa or Botswana, AF-S NIKKOR 200-400mm f / 4G is enough ED VR II. This is the most versatile lens and one of my favorites.

If I could take just 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 events will start, and with a zoom you are always ready to work. Also, I try not to shoot at the same focal length all the time. First, the picture should be varied, and the shots should be versatile. Secondly, it happens that you change 600 mm to 70-200, and completely different frames are obtained, 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.

Televisions should not be carried away, lenses need to be combined. I always have 2-3 cameras with different lenses, so I can shoot the same subject with different techniques, with different focal lengths. This allows you to better reveal the moment, and in the future, if the shooting falls into the 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 telephoto 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-of-the-line lens that will cover all the basic needs of a photographer. If a person wants to keep filming wildlife, evolve, then another step forward - long-range fixed-distance lenses.

Long lenses accessories

A tripod and a good tripod head are very important, which will allow you to avoid "shake" and get sharp, clear shots. I usually hang a rock on a tripod for more weight... Once I took with me on such trips an ordinary Soviet string bag: I threw stones into it, hung it on a tripod by a hook, and got an indestructible structure. And in the luggage, she did not take up space at all.

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

Even when shooting with "long-range" optics, you always need to use a cable, and if there is no movement in the frame, then perhaps the mirror is raised, because this whole structure is very sensitive to both the wind and any external influences. Shooting of animals usually takes place early in the morning or late in the evening, when there is not enough illumination, you have to work at rather long exposures.

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 carry 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. Great! 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 rode a snowmobile across Wrangel Island in search of polar bear dens. In such conditions, as a rule, the lens lies somewhere behind on the trunk, strapped and wrapped. You carry your camera and lens separately from each other, because situations are different. Firstly, when assembled on the move, the equipment can break from shaking. Secondly, on the way, you may notice something interesting: for such situations, I always have a camera with a zoom of 200-400 or 200-500 mm at the ready.

Long Focus Cases - a big problem, because they do not fit into 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 structure, but comfortable, everything lies in its place, you can carry the equipment on yourself. The lenses weigh 14 kilograms, plus you stuff every little thing there, it turns out 20-25 kilograms.

Survival in a harsh climate

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

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

When you shoot in the harsh natural conditions, temperature difference is a serious test for technology. For example, once in Kamchatka we were flying in a helicopter and suddenly saw wolves. I immediately took the equipment out of the bag. It was warm in the helicopter, and the lens immediately fogged up. We hovered right over the wolves, they did not pay attention to us at all, they ran, jumped and frolicked, and I could not take a shot, I missed the moment! It is necessary to ensure that the temperature of the optics coincides with the temperature the environment, do not carry out in the heat 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 keep the optics outside, and if it's very cold outside, then I wrap up the equipment, first put it into the vestibule, then into the room. And so I leave it so that the temperature evens out gradually. But if there is a possibility, it is better to leave the lens in a cool vestibule (nothing will happen to it), but the camera needs to be taken into the heat.

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

It happened on Wrangel Island: you walk into the warmth from frost, suddenly a bear walks, you jump out back into the street, and the equipment is already fogged up. This is probably the biggest problem 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 sec, 400.0 mm equiv.

I had a case many years ago in Taimyr (my friends and I have a long tradition: we have been going to the tundra to meet spring for 18 years). One day I got caught in a pouring rain. There was no way to hide the camera, and when I returned to the house, water was pouring from the equipment in streams. I dried everything, but after a couple of days I again got into exactly the same situation. Along the already knurled path of the house, I hung the camera on a hook to the side of the stove and waited for everything to dry out. In the end, there was one wet speck of condensation left on the lens (it was the AF-S NIKKOR 600mm). I moved it a little closer to the stove, dried it to the end and put it aside. At that moment, my friend came into the house and said that deer were crossing the river not far from us. And it was in the evening, it got colder outside. I took a camera with a dried lens, went outside ... And the largest lens on the lens burst due to the sharp temperature drop! You can't fool nature. And here I, of course, myself, 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 not threatened by the climate, but by animals. I had a funny case when I was shooting in Botswana, however, not with a telephoto lens, but with a wide-angle one. My favorite vantage point is from the ground. I set 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. First, he began to make grimaces, touch the lens with his paw, and then grabbed the hood with his teeth and tried to gnaw 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 sec, 800.0 mm equiv.

Generally, professional technique rarely fails, and, as a rule, trouble happens because of your own mistake. He dropped it himself, drowned it himself - anything can happen. It's a shame, but no one is immune from this.

Long-focal lenses are lenses whose focal length is noticeably longer than that of a standard lens. Among the optics designed for a 24x36mm frame, lenses with a focal length of 70-80mm and more are usually referred to as long-focal ones. The term "telephoto" is the correct term for long-focus lenses of an especially 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 taken root quite well in relation to any long-focus lenses, therefore, we also will not fundamentally divide long-focus optics into lenses built according to traditional schemes and according to the telephoto lens scheme.

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

Long-focus lenses with a focal length of 200-300mm and more fully justify the name "telephoto lens" in that they allow you to shoot at a sufficiently large scale without approaching the subject. Such a need arises, for example, when reporting and spy shooting or shooting wildlife. Self-respecting squirrels, hares or birds usually do not wait for the photographer to come closer to them in order to take a fifty-kopeck piece of a successful close-up. In addition, there are many objects that cannot be approached close even with all the desire. For example, in order for the setting sun to appear on 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, the rule of thumb is that on the negative the images of the Sun and the Moon have a diameter of about a hundred times less than the focal length of the lens. Therefore, it is possible to obtain 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 for the possibility of "getting closer" to distant objects .. Telephoto lenses convey perspective in a completely special way, "flattening" it and reducing the distance between the foreground and background. The closest to our perception of a road clogged with cars, a path lost in a haze, rails going into the distance or an even row of house facades are 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 unnecessary background beyond recognition.

When using long-focus lenses, remember that they are much more sensitive than wide-angle lenses to the slightest tremor in the hands or vibration of the apparatus, resulting in a "blur" of the image. Therefore, when shooting with telephoto lenses, the use of a tripod (monopod) and setting sufficiently fast shutter speeds improves (sometimes - even radically!) The sharpness of photos. Another solution to the problem of blurring 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. We are in touch with you, Timur Mustaev. Today I will tell you about long-focus lenses - one of the types of photo optics. What it is? Do they distort and blur the image easily if mishandled? 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, from which it got its name, and an angle of view from 39 degrees or less. Long lenses are also called telescopic lenses because the prefix tele means far.

Subspecies

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

Shooting genres

1. Portrait photography

There are a number of advantages when using 85 mm:

Distortion of perspective and small details that carry 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 in;
You can shoot a person both in full growth and 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. Shooting sports events

Since fences often interfere with photographers, the distance is too long to the main moving objects. In this case, a telephoto comes to the rescue. It should be remembered that in order not to get blur, 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

Often photographers "hunt" for small wild birds and animals. Long-focus optics will help to photograph them discreetly and to be at a safe distance.

Distinctive features and features of control when shooting

Image enlargement

Long focus optics resemble binoculars. If we 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", then the scale of the image will differ by a factor of 5, since 250/50 = 5.

Appearance of tele effect 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 is encountered - distortion. Tired of new terms? And without them, nowhere! I try to explain it as simply as possible.

This is the curvature of the geometry of the image. 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 can also occur - the manifestation of the effect in the form of alien color outlines in objects. These can be fixed later in Photoshop, especially if you are shooting in RAW format.

The need to set the minimum aperture units

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

It will be rather difficult to keep such a "colossus" from hands, however, stabilizers are installed on all "telephones", but more on that later;
Any "shake" of the camera will negatively affect the clarity of the picture, can lead to blurring of the image, especially when photographing at long focal lengths and in poor lighting conditions.

What to do? I will advise the following:

Buy lenses that are light and medium in size so you can quickly remove and hold the lens using the waist-rest method.
Use a stable tripod with a cable.
The kit with a telephoto lens usually comes with a tripod leg, if it is not there, then I advise you to get it.

Depth of field control

Since long-focus optics are used to shoot objects that are at different positions from the photographer, you need to control the depth of field. This feature helps to visually highlight the subject, 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 telephoto zoom lens with a constant aperture of 4.
The images are sharp and are on par with images taken with the same lens, only with an aperture of 2.8.
It itself is lightweight, although this is not typical for this type of camera.
The image stabilizer works like a clock - 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 has to be purchased separately.

If your wallet allows, then it is better to buy a whiter lens for Nikon, this is a Nikon 70-200mm 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 up to 1.5 kg, which is bad for long-term shooting. Photographers joke that the best addition to the purchase of this lens would be a fitness club membership.
The dimensions of the lens are large, so not every bag will fit. In between filming, 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 modes of operation.
Autofocus is fast and virtually silent.
Has reliable protection. It can be used in bad conditions: both in the snow and in the rain.
Vignetting at open apertures spoils the frame a little.
Low level of chromatic aberration.
A tripod leg is included.

Features when shooting portraits

I will list the criteria that your "telephoto" must meet before shooting a close-up portrait:

Your optics should be free of strong distortion.
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 is.
The depth of field should be shallow in order to focus on the person and the objects, but to blur small insignificant details.

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

In the near future I will spend detailed overview the aforementioned telephoto lenses, consider their advantages and disadvantages, and also consider the photos taken with these lenses.

Camera lenses are always a must if you are already well versed in your DSLR. If you are a beginner, first get to know your camera and what it can do. I recommend the following courses:

DSLR for Beginner 2.0- for supporters of the NIKON SLR camera.

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

On this I say goodbye to you. I wish you great success with your telephoto lens. Knowing all the pros and cons will help you use it correctly, focusing on the strengths. Share the article on in social networks and subscribe to my blog updates to learn all about other lens types.

All the best to you, Timur Mustaev.

Choosing a lens for an SLR or hybrid camera is not easy, especially for beginners. There is so much information at once, so many different nuances that need to be taken into account! Where do you start? How do you learn to “read” the technical characteristics of lenses and, with their help, understand whether it is suitable for your camera or your tasks? All this is in a series of articles dedicated to camera lenses. And we will start it with a discussion of the very basics - critical characteristics photographic optics and their influence on the resulting images.

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

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 complete ("kit") lens - often quite mediocre in design, "soapy" in terms of sharpness and "dark" in the sense of aperture, as well as with a slow autofocus. And they don't even know how much better their work can become with a good choice of high-quality optics! Thus, in fact, a SLR camera from a tool with great creative potential turns into an expensive and very bulky "soap box" - and it is bought, as a rule, with the aim of improving the quality and raising the level of their pictures.

When the richness of choice is not happy

But novice DSLR users are understandable too. After all, they have just solved the most difficult task of choosing the first camera, they still confuse aperture with shutter speed, flinch at the words "light sensitivity" and "white balance", and the incomprehensible optical terms "zoom", "chromatism", "vignetting" - otherwise and, what good, "MTF", "field characteristics", "low dispersion glass" and "tilt-shift" - can scare away even the most curious from the task of choosing the next lens. So they shoot for years with the help of a single "whale glass", periodically wondering why their work is rather far from the pictures 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 of their best shots with a single Leica 50mm lens. But this will allow you not only to look at the world in a different way through the camera's viewfinder, but also to shoot scenes that were previously simply inaccessible to your camera.

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

"Shiriki" and "TV"

Lens focal length determines its field of view - in fact, the angular dimensions of the space that can be conveyed in the image with its help. Distinguish between wide-angle (wide-angle, "wide", 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 the image, telephoto - by analogy with telescopes - are designed for shooting distant objects and bring them closer. Well, normal lenses convey space and perspective in much the same way as human eyes perceive them.

Thus, if it sometimes happens that you want to photograph an architectural landmark or an impressive landscape, and you regret to 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 object of your shooting in the 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 "telephoto".

The focal length of a lens is indicated in millimeters and is most often indicated for the so-called "35mm equivalent". It sounds difficult, but it's much easier to remember: wide-angle lenses have an equivalent focal length of up to 36 mm, normal - 36-70 mm, telephoto - 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 removing them, you have to be vigilant so that your own feet do not get into 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 were shooting on 35mm film, the focal length numbers on the lenses were clear and unambiguous, making it easy to remember which field of view in the viewfinder corresponded to. But our life has become much more complicated with the advent of digital photography - unlike standard photographic film, there are many variations on the size of the camera sensor.

Full-frame sensors with a size of 35 × 24 mm (i.e. with a film frame) give a very high-quality picture and retain the angle of view intended by the manufacturer for all 35-mm lenses installed on them. However, they also cost fabulous money. Therefore, among photographers, when talking about cameras, the word "full frame" is pronounced with a certain aspiration and special intonation, implying both a different level of quality and a different level of prices.

Most DSLR and hybrid cameras for amateur photographers are equipped with APS-C, or half-frame sensors. 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 a crop factor, also called the focal length multiplication factor. For Canon APS-C DSLRs, it is 1.62x, and for similar Nikon - 1.52x. Cameras of the Four Thirds system (Olympus, Panasonic) have even smaller matrixes, respectively, the crop factor is even larger - 2.0x. As a result, the same lens in combination with matrices of different sizes will give different angles of view:

When talking about the focal length of a lens in terms of "wide-angle" and "telephoto", you should always specify which camera it is mounted on. For example, the old Soviet lens "Helios-44" with 50 mm FR, thanks to the M42 threaded mount, can be used on both a Zenith film and a full-frame digital camera (for example, a Canon EOS 5D Mark II via an adapter). In doing so, it will retain the same angle of view. But you can put it on APS-C DSLRs Canon EOS 600D or Pentax K-5 - in this case, the obtained angle of view will be equivalent to about 75 mm, and the lens will go from the category of normal to “light telephoto”. If you "screw" it to the Olympus E-PL2 or Panasonic Lumix DMC-G3, then the focal point indicated on the lens must be multiplied by 2, and from a 50-mm "staff" it will turn into the most "telephoto-portable" with an angle of view equivalent to FF 100 mm in a full frame.

Therefore, when choosing a lens, each owner of a DSLR should keep in mind the crop factor of his camera, and be guided by 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. An important rule, which every photographer should learn, sounds like this: the focal length of a lens determines only its field of view. Which, in turn, does not in any way affect the transfer of perspective to photographs. 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 in no way by the magnitude of the lens FR.

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

So don't be fooled when they tell you that "you can't shoot portraits with a wide-angle lens because of distortion." The distortion in question is not due to a wide angle of view, but due to the fact that the photographer, trying to take a close-up, came too close to his model. In fact, “shooting wide portraits” is very possible - you just need to move away and include the body, and sometimes the legs of the model in the composition.

But photographing the faces of people from a distance of closer than 2 meters (and preferably 3-5), in fact, is usually not worth it. At the same time, the proportions of the face are distorted, the nose and cheeks become larger, the ears are smaller, and it usually looks grotesque and unattractive.

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

And one more remark. The focal distance is sometimes confused by beginners with the minimum focusing distance ( MDF, MDF, minimum focusing distance). Despite some similarities in Russian-language terms, these two quantities are not related in any way. FR determines the angle of view, and MDF - how close the subject can be to the camera in order to get sharp in the picture.

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

"Zooms" and "fixes"

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

The zoom lens has two rings: zoom and focus.
Marking indicates the range of change in focal length
and the aperture of the lens in the wide-angle position and in the telephoto position

The zoom range (zoom) is indicated as a pair of minimum and maximum AF (for example, 18-55 mm), or as a magnification (say, 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 turned out to be so valuable that over the past 30 years, zoom lenses have strongly pressed "fixes". And most photographers would rather give up the manual focus option than the camera's zoom lever or lens ring. Presumably, banal human laziness played an important role here, because it is often much easier to "bring closer" or "distance" the picture without leaving the place than to approach or move away from the subject. Very few people think about the fact that changing the focal length affects not only the size of the picture in the viewfinder, but also the transmission of perspective (due to the different distance from the camera to the object). It got to the point that inexperienced photographers accuse the distortion of the proportions of the face and body parts of people in the photo when shooting at close range at a "wide angle" ... "distortion of the whale zoom", being in full confidence that this effect is not in expensive zoom lenses. Although in order to understand the reasons for this phenomenon, any person needs to use their innate "lens", carefully looking closely and making sure with their own eyes that the transmission of perspective and proportions depends on the distance to the object you are looking at.

On "fixes" there is only one ring - focusing.
The marking of such a lens directly indicates
constant focal length and aperture

Lenses with a fixed AF, in common parlance "prime lenses", still have significant advantages over zooms. First, their design is simpler, so the lenses themselves are usually smaller, lighter, and cheaper than zooms in the same range. Secondly, the optical formula of the "fix" is specially optimized to obtain best quality transmission of the picture on this FR, and is not a compromise, as in the case of zooms. Therefore, if you want to take pictures with the best possible resolution and almost no distortion, it makes sense to prefer the "fixed". Finally, in fixed-phase lenses, it is much easier to achieve such desirable characteristics as high lens aperture, which is discussed in more detail below.

Aperture and aperture

It is not for nothing that photography is called light painting - it is impossible without light. In photography, it also rarely happens that there is too much light - usually it is always not enough, which forces us to use flashes, tripods and image stabilization systems, raise the sensor's light sensitivity or slow shutter speeds, and hope that the photo does not drown in noise and smudge from the movement of the camera or an object in the frame.

The maximum amount of light that the lens is able to transmit to the matrix is actually called the aperture ratio. It is designated 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 counterintuitive, but it is so customary, and an f / 2.0 lens lets in more light than an f / 8 lens. In this case, "f / 8" and "F8" are simply different forms of recording the same value. Another synonym for aperture ratio and f-number is aperture ratio. All three terms mean the same thing - how “light” or “dark” the lens under consideration is, how much light it can transmit to the matrix.

Using the diaphragm, you can reduce the amount of light entering the sensor.
But to increase it beyond the maximum, determined by the aperture of the lens, will not work.

Obviously, a high aperture lens is highly desirable for all photographers. After all, it is always possible to reduce the amount of light falling on the matrix with the help of a diaphragm - that is, in fact, temporarily reducing the aperture of the lens, artificially blocking the path of light. But to increase it beyond the maximum, given by the design, alas, will no longer work.

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 exposures (or without noise, at a reduced ISO sensitivity), the aperture (maximum aperture) of the lens affects another important parameter - the depth of field. The higher the lens aperture, the more the area of sharpness can be in the photo. This allows you to visually separate the subject from the background - “blur the background.” And when the depth of field in the photo needs to be increased, on the contrary, you can always close the aperture.

Above: Captured at f / 1.4 aperture.
Bottom: Same shot at f / 16 closed.

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