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Photography vocabulary · Lenses & Focus

Telephoto lens

Meaning in photography, with examples

/ˈtelɪfoʊtoʊ lenz/nounCore term

In photography, telephoto lens means: A lens with a long focal length, usually 70 mm or more, that makes distant subjects look bigger and closer.

In Turkish: tele objektif, teleobjektif

How it is used

Essential for sports, wildlife and events, and popular for portraits. Photographers often say a tele or a long lens. With a telephoto, the background looks closer and larger, an effect photographers call compression. It needs fast shutter speeds or stabilization.

Example sentences

  1. We shot the eagles with a 600 mm telephoto lens from the hide.

  2. A telephoto lens makes the mountains behind the couple look huge.

Common collocations

  • long telephoto lens
  • telephoto zoom
  • super-telephoto lens
  • wide-angle lensA lens with a short focal length, roughly 35 mm or shorter on a full-frame camera, that shows a wide view of the scene.
  • zoom lensA lens whose focal length can be changed, such as a 24–70 mm or 70–200 mm, so you can go wider or closer without moving.
  • focal lengthA lens measurement in millimeters, such as 24 mm or 200 mm, that tells you how wide or how magnified the view will be.
  • image stabilizationA system in a lens or camera body that reduces blur caused by small hand movements, so you can use slower shutter speeds handheld.

More terms: Lenses & Focus

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