Focal length...(mm?)

What the heck is focal length? When i first started getting into photography this was definitely something that tripped me up and i had no idea what it meant.

Explanation?

Basically what it is, is a number to describe what kinda zoom your gonna get with your lens. If you think of it this way, 50mm-55mm is considered to be what you see with your eyes. So, if you are looking at your computer screen, what you see is equivalent to what you would see through a camera with the lens set to 50mm.

Now, if you wanted to zoom in on that screen without physically moving closer to the screen, you could zoom in from 50mm, to a higher number-100mm and through the camera you will be closer. If you wanted to get further away from the screen then the lower the number, say 18mm, the further away it will seem and the more you will fit in the picture.

So WIDE = lower number

TELE = higher number

WIDE = further away from subject

TELE = closer to the subject

Practicality!

Lets think about why we would use these. If i wanted to get down and dirty with good ol' nature and take some shots of whatever birds might be out there, i would need to get a good telephoto lens so that while im hiding in the bushes I can take a creepy secret shot of the bird without it knowing it.

If i was taking a landscape shot or a shot of a building, instead of me running back 100metres onto the busy highway if i have a good wide angle lens then i can zoom it out and fit all the building in, or all that rockin' mountain in.

I think thats an easy way to get your head around the some of the numbers that are written around a lens...but thats not all...there will be a number on there that has an f in front of it but i'll write that in another post.

Let me know if this was at all helpful!

Peace

Andy