tumbleweedprimitives

Hello!
I really hope someone can help me with this. I'm new to photography and I have a Canon 1000d. I have the lens that comes with the kit and I bought a lens 55-250mm. its ok but I want to get one that zooms more and takes better pictures at night. this one takes action pictures but MANY are blurry. I have been "trying" to understand the difference between lenses cause I may sell the 55-250 in order to get a better zoom one. But, I have NO IDEA what those numbers mean and every website i go to talks about the focal length between this and that....for a person just starting out...this is chinese! I JUST got the hang of aperture and shutter speed...can anyone help me understand what it means? I see lenses 70-300mm that cost $2000.00 and I'll see another lens also 70-300mm for $600.00 whats the difference? this has been frustrating me for a while and what better place to get help than here. ANY ANY clearing up would be so appreciated! thank you :-)

JimH Loc: Western South Jersey, USA

The lower the MM number, the WIDER the view you'll get when you look through the camera.

The Higher the MM number, the more "telephoto" or zoom you'll get. A 400mm lens is used to bring wildlife 'closer' without the risk of becoming dinner.

A 20mm lens is used to get ALL of that house in the frame, or ALL of your relatives.

Search ZOOM ZOOM on this site for pictures that may help...

Here, did it for you..

http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-7776-1.html

Awagner Loc: St. Louis

WOW! I can understand your frustration, as I was there about a year ago. To answer your questions in detail would require a book, so I'll refer you to two authors- Bryan Peterson and Scott Kelby. Look them up on Amazon.com and buy their beginner style books. Kelby has a paperback three pack of books entitled "Digital Photography" "how to make your photos look like the pros". Bryan Peterson has "Understanding Exposure", "Understanding Flash", and "Understanding Shutter Speed" and another book about how to "see creatively" (or something like that). These are all phenominal and will answer 99% of questions and give you in very beginner-style talk how to take great pics.

Now, to try to answer your questions quickly; "mm" means milimeter, a unit of measurement.

Your 55mm-250mm action shots are blurry because of either focus problems or your shutter speed is too slow to freeze action. Also, that lens should work great outside, but inside it will be a challenge because it may not open up as far as it needs to, aperture wise. You can take pics at night with the 55-250, but probably not action shots.
The main difference between the 70-300 lens at 2K and the 70-300 lens at 600.00 is the glass and other "guts" used in building the lens and whether the lens has a variable aperture or a fixed aperture. The variable aperture lens will be the 600.00 zoom lens.

photogrl57 Loc: Tennessee

They have both those authors books at my public library....I would check there first to see if the book will help you understand before buying it ... just a thought.

BIPSTER Loc: Virginia

Thank you jimh. This is great info.

Jimtebo Loc: Alhambra, IL

MM is the focal length of the lens, the smaller the number the wider angle the lens is, the larger the number the longer the lens and that is a telephoto lens.

The big differance between lets say a $600.00 lens and the same lens for $1200.00 is that the expensive lens will probably give you a larger lens opening by one or two fstops. This will allow you to shoot in lower light and can be used to get a shallower depth of field. Depth of field is the area of acceptable sharpness.

At the other end of the scale the larger number fstop will give you a much longer depth of field, but you get this with a trade off, you need more light, so it will mean using a slower shutter speed.

gessman Loc: Colorado

What you've been told is really good, especially JimH's example for what to expect. To be a little more literal:

1.) I have long been under the impression that "mm" stands for "millimeter" and it takes 10 to make a centimeter which takes 10 to make a meter, etc. My guess is using that measurement in lens refers to the distance between a particular part of a lens and the sensor or film, whichever camera you have. This measurement is referred to as "the focal plane." The focal plane is shortest with a 70-200mm zoom at 70 and at 200 the focal plane is longest or farthest and define the terms "wide-angle" and "telephoto." That won't likely affect very much that you will feel directly in the actual use of a lens. It's really pretty useless information unless for some ungodly reason you want to keep track of it - which your camera already does for you in what's called exif data. In any event, it's nothing to worry about when you're just beginning.

2.) At your level of sophistication, suffice it to say that, generally, the more you pay for a lens, the better the lens and the absolute highest price will get you the absolute best lens, all other things being equal like one 70-300 v. another 70-300. Not always true but mostly. The advantages of a $1300 lens over a $600 lens may not be evident to you now but it will be later if you stick with it.

I believe those are the answers to your main questions if I understood you correctly. The other information you got is a huge bonus even though you may not understand it all at this stage in your pursuit.

JimH Loc: Western South Jersey, USA

Well, almost. A Meter is 100 centimeters. (Hint: the centi- kinda gives it away...)

Go Broncos! (beat KC, anyway...lol)

gessman Loc: Colorado

Sticky key? Can I get away with that? :-) Thanks and thanks on the Broncos although at times we call them Doncos here. It's not a loyalty issue, it's performance related!

hobby62670

THIS site is information Heaven for beginners as well as not beginners. All answers are appreciated as well as the time everyone takes to help other photographers. Thank you!

Ronny Loc: Netherlands

1.) I have long been under the impression that "mm" stands for "millimeter" and it takes 10 to make a centimeter which takes 10 to make a meter

Sorry, but your info is wrong.
1 km (kilometer) equals 10 hm(hectometer), equals 100 dm(decameter), equals 1000 m(meter), equals 10,000 dm(decimeter), equals 100,000 cm(centimeter), 1,000,000 mm(millimeter). That means 1 meter is equal to 1000 millimeter!
It is a shame that the US is still not willing to adapt to the international Standard of measerment and willing to be isolated from the rest of the world. Talking about globalization, engineering wise we are here totally isolated from the rest of the world. (I have been an international design engineer in the petro chemical and refinery fields)

marcomarks Loc: Ft. Myers, FL

First, let me help you calm down before you do anything rash like selling your zoom lens.

If you don't even know what mm means yet, you certainly don't need to get a zoom that zooms more than 55-250 - plus you have the kit lens to cover the shorter end of things. So you have most of the lens range covered unless you want to specialize in something like sports, bird watching, etc.

Action pictures being blurry, night pictures not being what you expect, and taking "better pictures" are not related to that lens' quality or what it can do - it's related to YOU and what YOU can do with the camera body that is attached to the lens. You can't buy a lens that includes more operator knowledge inside it! You need to stop and take a breath, learn about shutter speeds, aperture, ISO, and other photography-in-general related subjects before buying or selling anything or things will just get worse for you instead of better.

Being that it's a Canon, I'm sure its lens quality is exceptional and you mainly aren't using the camera correctly. A zoom of that length needs to be used with a mono-pod or a tripod to avoid shake when you are at 100 through 250mm even if you have image stabilization. With a high shutter speed, very open aperture, and using high ISO, any camera can freeze action shots without blur, for example. But you probably don't know about that yet and are blaming it on the lens.

Yes, there are technical things to know about the lens too but that's secondary to knowing the camera body functions first.

Hope that helps and doesn't anger you.

frasher101 Loc: Houndsfield N.Y.

Well, now do you use the 3 count method, if not that could be your fuzzy photos. Hold your camera still as you trip the shutter that's 1 thousand one, one thousand 2, one thousand 3 now you can move the camera.

gessman Loc: Colorado

Thank you for that marvelous lesson on the metric system and your educated philosophy regarding it even though it really isn't relevant to my life or the point I was attempting to make. Ordinarily, I would have looked that stuff up to keep from laying myself open to what has just happened but I wrote that fresh out of bed with no coffee and perhaps I was a bit hasty and wasn't thinking too well - no excuse. I didn't figure, since I WAS NOT offering a lesson on the metric system, that it would be all that critical.

MY point was that this person didn't need to worry about "mm" and it's meaning with regard to the focal plane of a camera and lens in order to be a worthwhile beginner at taking photos and I was prepared to offer a "quick and dirty" explanation and let it go at that. Sorry if I abused your sensibilities with my impreciseness. It's nice to know you're out there and to know who you are.

photojim Loc: Kentucky

Your corrct of course. Millimeter, a 50 or 55mm lens is standard on a 35mm film amera. 25mm is about an inch and 55 mm about 2 inches. I t always suprised me that a country like United States never adopted metric standard altough IT IS the official standard in the USA. If your an engineer or metal worker, Metric is the world wide standard and I believe is one of the reasons we don't do so good in selling engineering to the rest of the world.
Jim