I recently acquired a new and sort-of-exotic lens; a Pentax 100mm “Macro”. This is what people my age may remember used to be called a “telephoto”. When you look through it, you don’t see much of the landscape; so it’s for zeroing in on a flower not a bush, a face not a crowd, a ship not a harbor. I’ve been having tons of fun with it so I’ll load up the Internet with a few more pictures and share some.
When people are showing off the capabilities of “Macro” lenses, it’s traditional to start with a close-up of a flower or an insect. So let’s do both!
Yeah, there’ll be a few more flowers in this series; but telephotos are useful for lots of other kinds of things too.
Comment feed for ongoing:
From: Devdas Bhagat (Apr 10 2011, at 07:10)
One technical nit (telephotos are not macros):
http://digital-photography-school.com/forum/general-chit-chat/63408-difference-between-zoom-macro-telephoto-lens.html
[link]
From: EricH (Apr 10 2011, at 08:25)
I'm not sure what kind of lens that is, but in general, "macro" and "telephoto" indeed meant (and probably still mean) somewhat different things. A telephoto (I think) simply has a longer focal length than normal; a macro, on the other hand, is able to "achieve a reproduction ratio of 1:1", which in plain English means: if you take a picture of a postage stamp, the actual image formed on the film or sensor will be the same size as the stamp itself. (Assuming you're close enough, of course).
[link]
From: David R (Apr 10 2011, at 09:42)
And one botanical nit: that's not a violet. At least, not where I come from, who knows up in Canada.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viola_(plant)
[link]
From: Tim (Apr 10 2011, at 10:07)
Oops, wonky title. I was referring to the color. In fact, that's a rhododendron.
[link]