what is the purpose of a 300mm lens, high points and lows? Any help would be much appreciated?

Answer 1

A 50mm lens is pretty close to what the eye sees, anything above this is zoom/telephoto and below is wide angle.
300mm is going to need a tri/monopod most of the time. It's purpose is to "get up close" to a distant subject so is good for wild life/birds. The zoom can be used to frame the picture, eliminating peripheral objects that you don't want in the final image. The higher the zoom the more light will be needed for proper exposure.

Answer 2

In simple terms, a 300mm lens is used in sports, wildlife, candid shots, and other areas that need that long telephoto.

In wildlife and sports terms, the 300mm is kind of short. They usually require a 400mm-60mm.

The high points are the great bokeh that comes with all telephoto lenses. And you don't have to be so close to your subject matter, making it great for candid photography.

The low points are numerous:
1. Most 300mm lenses are variable aperture. It is usually not just a 300mm, but a 70-300mm.
2. Unless a fixed focal length, most lenses with a max of 300mm are not that optically sound.
3. You cannot get any cool angles found on wide angle lenses. This means, architecture photography, and most indoor shots are off limits.
4. The long focal length means you have to have a higher shutter speed to compensate for hand shake. This means either widen the aperture, or raise the ISO speed. Usually, do to the poor aperture you'll end up having to raise the ISO. This causes the images to be grainy.

This is what I consider when using long telephoto lenses like the 70-300mm. Now, if it is a fixed 300mm, then it's a whole different story. I love using fixed lenses and apertures. Great stuff.

Hope this helped.

Answer 3

For 35mm film, a 300mm lens is a telephoto lens, meaning you can take pictures of things really far away. You can expect a cheaper lens to have a much larger aperture, like F/5.6, which is less desirable than say, F/4 or F/2.8. For medium or large format it becomes less of a telephoto lens and more of a regular portrait lense.

Consider that an 18mm lens is super wide angle.

Also, note that a telephoto lens will be 1) heavier, 2) harder to hold steady, so an IS function would be ideal 3) 300mm fixed is impractical unless you will only be shooting things far away 4) your depth of field will be much more limited with a telephoto lens than it will be with a wider angle lens.

If you are shooting with a Canon, invest in a 70-200mm F2.8L IS USM lens. It's a fantastic lense and with a doubler giver you a maximum range up to 400mm at F/5.6 which isn't too shabby.

Answer 4

See: http://www.flickr.com/photos/samfeinstein/476181737/

and: http://www.flickr.com/photos/samfeinstein/1245831147/

to get an idea about the view of a 300 mm lens as opposed to other focal lengths. This will tell you part of the "why."

Besides the "conventional" long shots, like this one:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/samfeinstein/535497558/
the 300 mm focal length is useful for many other views:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/samfeinstein/1297280824/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/samfeinstein/1198936061/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/samfeinstein/948091056/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/samfeinstein/935595819/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/samfeinstein/536590467/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/samfeinstein/534140564/

A low point would be the difficulty in holding the thing steady. The rule of thumb would be that you want to never hand-hold this lens at slower than 1/300th of a second. This might be rather limiting in lower light situations and you will find that you need ot increase the ISO to allow faster shutter times or use a tripod to allow slower shutter times. One consideration in a 300 mm lens is to look for "IS" or "VR" to reduce the need for speed. With a good "VR" system, you can often go down to 1/125 or 1/60 with a 300 mm lens. All of my samples are made with a VR lens - the Nikon 70-300 VR lens. It's a "prosumer grade," which means it's not the top of the line, but it's not the cheapest either. Nikon makes 2 "lesser" 70-300 lenses, for instance, without VR. Canon makes a comparable 70-300 lens, if you are interested in a zoom lens.

A prime lens (single focal length) will give sharper images, but it will cost loads. Their outstanding 300 mm f/2.8 lens costs $4,500, for instance. A 300 mm f/4.0 costs $1,125.

Answer 5

Purpose: makes things small or far away look larger and closer

High: lets you see things that you couldn't see with your eyes

Low: Many cheap xx-to-300mm lenses have poor resolution and contrast and suffer from colour shifts. Good ones are heavy and expensive. Also, depth of field can be an issue.

Hope this helps.

Answer 6

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Answer 7

To photograph wildlife or sports. Unless its a really fast lens (f3.5, f4.5) plan on using a tripod or at least a monopod. Ignore cheap ones - buy the one offered by your camera company.