bpulv Loc: Buena Park, CA

No, I didn't miss your point. I just wrote "more" instead of "less."

cucharared Loc: Texas, Colorado

Sorry - you’re still not catching it. Words do have meaning.

You’ve gone from “more than 45 degrees” to a first correction of “about 45 degrees” to finally “less”.

If you’ve made this final correction to your initial post then that post will finally be solid. Thanks.

bpulv Loc: Buena Park, CA

Ok. Here is the fully corrected comment:

On a full frame camera, 50mm is considered a normal lens because it neither magnifies or compress the image. It's angle of view is about 45 degrees. A telephoto lens is a lens that magnifies the image and brings it closer. It's angle of view is less than 45 degrees. And a wide angle lens is a lens that has an angle of view greater than 45 degrees. There are also ultra-wide angle lenses that have an angle of view greater than about 90 degrees.

The 50mm "normal" lens is a compromise focal length. In actuality the normal lens should be about 43mm. A normal lens has a focal length equal to the corner to opposite corner length of the film plane or sensor. For a 24 X 36mm 35mm or full size DSLR sensor that is 43mm. Most likely, 50mm was picked as the "standard" for marketing (people like round numbers) and production cost reasons.

A zoom lens is a variable focal length lens. A zoom lens can be a telephoto zoom, such as a 70-200mm lens, a wide angle zoom, such as a 17-35mm lens, or a lens that can go from wide angle through normal to telephoto, such as the Nikon 28-300mm DX lens.

wj cody Loc: springfield illinois

no, incorrect. a prime lens is a lens which has a fixed focal length. a zoom lens has a range of focal lengths. there is no "either, or".

Hank Radt

Re read my sentence. Said another way, you can have a telephoto prime (fixed focal length, say 400mm) OR a telephoto zoom (range of focal lengths, say 100-400). You can also have a standard prime OR a standard zoom, and a wide angle prime OR a wide angle zoom.

But one lens can't be both, a prime AND a zoom.

So yes, there is an either / or...

That said, the way the OP phrased the question might have led to confusion (difference between a telephoto and a zoom, which are not mutually exclusive). My original answer might have been better stated as, "telephotos and zooms are not mutually exclusive; a telephoto can be a prime or a zoom, and a zoom can be a wide-angle, standard or telephoto; telephotos, standard and wide angles can be either primes or zooms.")

I think we're agreeing...