Telephoto lens facts for kids

A telephoto lens is a special type of camera lens used in photography. It makes distant objects look much closer and larger in your photos. Imagine you're trying to take a picture of a bird far away; a telephoto lens helps you get a clear, close-up shot without having to get too near the bird.

There are two main ways people use the term "telephoto lens":

• Sometimes, it just means any camera lens that has a longer focal length than a normal lens. The focal length is like how "zoomed in" the lens is. A longer focal length means the lens can see a smaller area, but it makes things in that area appear much bigger. This is why things look closer with these lenses.
• More specifically, a telephoto lens is designed in a clever way. Even though it acts like a very long lens, its physical size is actually shorter than its focal length. This special design makes the lens easier to carry and use.

For cameras that use 135 film (often called 35 mm cameras), a 50 mm lens is usually considered a normal lens. Telephoto lenses start from around 85 mm or 100 mm. These are often used for taking portraits, which are close-up pictures of people. Longer telephoto lenses, like 135 mm, 180 mm, or 200 mm, are also common. Many of these are zoom lenses, meaning you can change their focal length without changing the lens.

Very long telephoto lenses, ranging from 300 mm to 1200 mm, are popular for capturing subjects that are very far away. This includes things like exciting sports events or wild animals in nature photography.

How Telephoto Lenses Change Your View

A telephoto lens changes how much of a scene your camera can see and how big objects appear. This is called the "angle of view." A longer focal length means a smaller angle of view, making distant things fill more of your picture.

Here's how different focal lengths change a photo taken from the same spot:

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  This photo was taken with a 28 mm lens. You can see a wide area.

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  This photo was taken with a 50 mm lens. It's a "normal" view.

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  This photo was taken with a 70 mm lens. Things start to look a bit closer.

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  This photo was taken with a 210 mm lens. The distant objects appear much larger and closer.

These pictures were taken with a 35 mm camera, using lenses with different focal lengths.

Images for kids

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  A collection of different telephoto lenses.

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  A 150–500mm telephoto zoom lens, great for sports or wildlife.

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  A Canon F-1, 35mm camera with a telephoto zoom lens attached.

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  A very powerful 500 mm telephoto lens.

See also

In Spanish: Teleobjetivo para niños