Using Different Lenses

There are four types of lenses that affect a photograph's angle of view, range of focusing, and perspective:

1. Wide Angle- extends the angle of view and increase the range of sharp focusing. They also distort shape by stretching distances.
2. Standard - gives an angle of view similar to your eye and does not distort perspective.
3. Telephoto- reduces the angle of view and decreases the range of sharp focusing. This also distorts shape by flattening perspective.
4. Vari-focal - offers a variety of angle of views by zooming in and out. These lenses can be wide angle to telephoto (35mm-150mm) or be just within the wide angle or telephoto range (24mm-35mm) (75mm-150mm). Vari-focal lenses offer more choice than fixed focal length lenses, but their limited widest aperture settings of  4 or 5.6 can limit you in taking pictures in low light.

Click to see some examples