• Matt Blaze@federate.socialOP
    1·
    2 months ago

    Very long lenses like the 400mm, with their narrow field of view, are essential for some compositions (such as this one), but I find I only rarely actually use them. In fact, the longest lens I have for my main medium format camera system is 180mm (which yields the 35mm equivalent view of about a 120mm), and I hardly ever use even that for the most of the photography I do.

    For wildlife photographers, on the other hand, 400mm is practically a wide angle.

    • Matt Blaze@federate.socialOP
      1·
      2 months ago

      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.

      • mhoye@mastodon.social
        1·
        2 months ago

        @[email protected] heavier, longer lenses also bring tripod quality into play. I have seen an $8k camera on a $45 tripod, next to a person quite frustrated with the image quality it gave them, blaming the camera.

      • Karl Auerbach@sfba.social
        1·
        2 months ago

        @[email protected] My astronomer friends might disagree that atmospheric effects are greater the further the astronomical subject.

        But aside from my poor (very poor) joke, has anyone doing terrestrial photography adopted the technique used by astronomers of using a laser beam to do real time measure of atmospheric conditions and use that either in real-time lens/mirror adaption or post processing?