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Telephoto lenses – a paparazzi weapon: sit far away and shoot close up

For a long time the image of a professional photographer armed with a big and long lens was shaped in the minds of people, both in and out of the field of photography. It makes a certain amount of sense: even without the superficial cogency, the need for such optics for amateurs is minimal.

telephoto lens

Over the years telephoto lenses have become part of the amateur optic arsenal, but the perception of the man with the “shaitan-tube” hasn’t changed much. Still the measure of a photographer’s coolness is determined by the size of the camera and the glass object sticking out of it. Despite many jokes, telephoto lenses are still held in high regard.

The need for long-range photography appeared along with the advent of photography, but the specially designed optics came much later. In the beginning, a simple principle was used which is still valid today. A format camera simply had to be equipped with the quite normal lens and an extra mech to extend the length of the device according to the focal length and the problem was successfully solved.

Even in recent years you can see images of similarly stretched gimbal cameras in advertisements. The disadvantages of this solution are obvious: oversized dimensions, complicated operation and complete impossibility of taking pictures on the spot. Various kinds of tubes were used for folding road cameras, but they didn’t solve the problem, making the design slightly cheaper.

The advent of film cameras led photographers and later lens designers to seek ways of reducing the size of their optics by calculating new optical designs and frame structures. As a result of numerous variants there are two basic schemes: classical with telecomponent and mirror-lens scheme.

In a simplified form, the classic configuration has a front component that acts as the lens, which creates the image, and a rear component that enlarges the image while reducing the overall length of the optical system. The vast majority of today’s telephoto lenses are based on this principle.

The second scheme is based on the use of two optical mirrors and due to the refraction of the light flux it makes it possible to reduce the length of the lens by at least three times. In spite of its certain advantages and relative cheapness, it was not very widespread.

The impossibility of using a iris diaphragm in this circuit to change the luminous flux, the design restrictions on aperture ratio, and the peculiar pattern and large diameter of the back of the frame limit the use of such optics. There is only one mirror-lens lens in our review, but in the past every manufacturer had such optics in their range.

As cheaper variant of teleoptics more universal telezooms are used now, but if you need really good result, telephoto with constant focus is still out of competition.

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John Techno

Greetings, everyone! I am John Techno, and my expedition in the realm of household appliances has been a thrilling adventure spanning over 30 years. What began as a curiosity about the mechanics of these everyday marvels transformed into a fulfilling career journey.

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Comments: 2
  1. Marigold

    Are telephoto lenses widely used by paparazzi photographers? How do these lenses enable them to capture close-up shots from a distance? What are some ethical concerns surrounding the use of telephoto lenses in paparazzi photography?

    Reply
  2. Andrew Hill

    How does the use of telephoto lenses in paparazzi photography affect the ethics and privacy of individuals being photographed?

    Reply
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