MARCUS HAWKINS
PHOTO EXPERT
Marcus has been passionate about photography for more than 25 years. A former editor of our sister publication Digital Camera, he has written about photography and cameras for a wide range of clients, including Canon and Jessops, and uses a Canon EOS 5D Mk IV.
Telephoto lenses
Making the most of longer focal lengths
Telephoto lenses give you more ‘reach’, allowing you to capture distant subjects. They are a natural fit for wildlife and sports photography, where you often can’t get close to the action, but the unique qualities of these lenses make them useful for all sorts of photographing and film-making.
The reason telephoto lenses give you reach is down to the narrow angle of view they capture. A standard 50mm lens on a full-frame camera captures 46 degrees diagonally, whereas the RF 1200mm F8L IS USM – Canon’s longest focal length – has a diagonal angle of view of just over two degrees. Everything looks more magnified when viewed through a telephoto lens, which makes it more challenging to keep track of moving subjects.
Telephoto lenses also appear to give a more compressed view, with objects looking closer to each other than they are in
