Lenses

The average digital camera these days comes with a built in lens that usually can zoom in and out to give a range of view. More professional cameras come with detachable lenses. Lenses are catergorized by their size. Their size determines their field of view, or how much fits inside the viewfinder.

50 mm: The Normal Lens

These lenses imitate the human eye.

They are for close proximity shots without being too close or too far.

Smaller than 50mm: The Wide Angle Lens These lenses are anything smaller than 50mm. A wide angle lens has a much wider field of view. The smaller the number, the wider the scene. These are good for landscape shots, or large groups of people. These lenses tend to create a distortion in the distance within the photograph.

Bigger than 50mm: The Telephoto Lens

Telephoto lenses are much bigger and work like telescopes. The bigger the number the further one can see. However the deeper into a picture you can see, the less you can see around it so the field of view with a telephoto lens is very small.