Post #4051236
2026-07-23 15:50 UTC
One of the challenges of very long lenses is that they tempt you to compose images of subjects that are very far away. But the farther away something is, the more the atmosphere can distort the image. The effects of heat distortion, pollution, humidity, and weather are amplified across longer distances, no matter how sharp the lens is or how high resolution the sensor.
Replies (1)
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@mattblaze@federate.social 2026-07-23 15:51
A quick and very pedantic note on long lens nomenclature: Lenses with a narrow field of view and a long focal length (> ~90mm or so on 35mm cameras) are called, appropriately enough, "long" lenses. Many, but not all, long lenses employ an optical design where their physical length is shorter than their optical focal length. These are called "telephoto" lenses. Most, but not all, telephoto lenses are long, and most, but not all, long lenses are telephoto. But he terms aren't interchangeable.