Lenses for D70

My father is shopping around for a Zoom Lens for his D70 camera. Same camera
I have. I am confused just as he is with all the "wording" of these type
lenses. On Nikon's website they list several groups of lenses. I thought
"telephoto" was a zoom lens? Which meant it brings things in a lot closer
then they really are. But then I also see ZOOM lens. What the heck is the
difference between Telephoto and Zoom? I have searched online for these
explanations, but places just are selling hardware. Actually these are the
groups:

Wide Angle Lens
Standard Telephoto
Super Telephoto
Wide Angle Zoom
Standard Zoom
High Power Zoom
Manual


I mean, damn. For a new guy that's over whelming when shopping and when some
store owners your green they will take full advantage of you. I don't even
know what's high power or not. O well, if you are technically advanced or
can even point me in the right direction on what all these mean that would
be great.

schreef in bericht
...

snip

What the heck is the
difference between Telephoto and Zoom?

Hi,

A zoom lens is a lens with a variable focal length - with which you can
'zoom in' and 'zoom out'. This is in contrast to a prime lens, which has a
fixed focal length.

"Telephoto" generally indicates long focal lengths - the subject will appear
larger or closer - while "Wide angle" indicates short focal lengths. This is
not linked to being a zoom lens or not.

So you can have, for example, a telephoto zoom lens (like a 70-300), but
also wide-angle zoom lenses, "regular" zoom lenses, prime telephoto lenses,
....

One also speaks of the telephoto and wide-angle end of any zoom lens, when
the lens is respectively fully zoomed in or fully zoomed out.

So, if you want a lens with which to frame far-away subjects, search for
telephoto lenses.
If you want a range of focal lengths for versatility, search for a zoom
lens.

HtH,
-Bart

wrote in message
...
My father is shopping around for a Zoom Lens for his D70 camera. Same
camera
I have. I am confused just as he is with all the "wording" of these type
lenses. On Nikon's website they list several groups of lenses. I thought
"telephoto" was a zoom lens? Which meant it brings things in a lot closer
then they really are. But then I also see ZOOM lens. What the heck is the
difference between Telephoto and Zoom? I have searched online for these
explanations, but places just are selling hardware. Actually these are the
groups:


The longer the focal length of the lens the more telephoto it is.
Conversely, the shorter the focal length of the lens the more wide angle it
is. Some lenses have focal lengths that can be changed with a "zoom" ring,
so they are called zoom lenses. A zoom lens is not necessarily a telephoto
lens. There are wide angle zooms.

Wide Angle Lens

Lens having a wide field of view. Generally, any lens with a focal length
equal to or less than 28 mm for the D70. A super wide angle lens would be
less than 12 mm.

Standard Telephoto

A lens having a significantly longer focal length than a "normal" lens. A
normal lens on the D70 is about 38 mm. Thus, a standard telephoto on the D70
would be anything from 80 to 200 mm.

Super Telephoto

A really long telephoto. On the D70, anything over 200 mm. On 35 mm film
cameras, anything over 300 mm. They can run out to 1000 mm or more. Super
telephotos pretty much have to be mounted on a tripod to get any kind of a
clear picture, which is one reason why they are different than telephotos.

Wide Angle Zoom

A lens having a variable focal length over the wide angle ranges. Thus, a
14 - 38 mm lens would be a wide angle zoom lens.

Standard Zoom

A lens having a variable focal length over the middle ranges. On the D70,
the kit lens goes from 18 mm (wide angle) to 70 mm (telephoto). It would be
regarded as a standard zoom.

High Power Zoom

A lens having a variable focal length over the upper telephoto and super
telephoto ranges. The 80 - 400 mm VR Nikkor would be a typical high power
zoom lens.

Manual

A lens that does not have autofocus. You must focus the lens manually using
the focusing ring.

There are many other kinds of lenses:

Fish-eye: a very wide angle that makes a circular image with a lot of
distortion. The field of view for such lenses is typically 180 degrees. You
have to be careful that you don't get your own feet (or even your tummy) in
the picture. Nikon makes a special 10.5 mm fish-eye just for its digital
cameras.

Macro: Nikon calls these "Micro." Used in close-up photography, the image
they put on the sensor is life size, called 1:1. That is, an object half an
inch across will cover half an inch on the film or sensor. They are
typically either standard or telephoto.

Shift: Special lenses used to correct perspective when photographing
buildings and such, so they don't appear to be leaning away from you. Also
useful in a variety of other situations, such as shooting over crowds.

Teleconverters: A lens that goes between another lens and your camera,
effectively increasing your lens' focal length by a factor printed on the
teleconverter. A 2.0x teleconverter will double the focal length of the lens
that it is attached to.

Close-up lenses: Lenses that screw on the front of your lens like a filter,
enabling you to focus closer. They don't give you true macro capability, but
they can be handy.

VR: Canon calls them IS. Image stabilized lenses that actually dampen the
tiny movements caused by your shaky hands and breathing. Nikon makes wide
angle, normal, and telephoto zoom VR lenses.

And, just to make things more interesting, there are attachments for your
camera that allow you to use a microscope, telescope, or even binoculars as
lenses. You can even get fibre optics like doctors use to take pictures of
the insides of your arteries, if you want.

All lenses are also categorized by their widest aperture, such as f4.5. The
smaller the f number the 'faster' the lens is, meaning it lets more light
into the camera. You can use faster shutter speeds and shoot in dimmer light
with a fast lens. The fastest lenses are typically f1.4 or f1.2 normal
lenses of fixed focal length.

Minor quibble:

The optical* definition of a telephoto lens is a lens that is shorter
than the effective focal length of the lens. Under this definition a
telescope used as a camera lens is not a telephoto lens. However, it
seems that almost any camera lens longer than 85mm is a telephoto lens,
so in practical terms, your definition is just fine.

At the other end of the scale is the retrofocus (or reversed telephoto)
lens. SLR cameras use these optical designs for wide angle lenses so
that the rearmost lens group is far enough away from the flip up mirror
to avoid mechanical contact during operation. Practically every SLR
camera lens shorter than 28mm uses a retrofocus design.
Mitch[*] as opposed to the camera definition