The Joys and Challenges of Super-Telephoto Lenses

We welcome back Chris Williams, of Lens Therapy Live, and photographer David Speiser, of lilibirds.com, to the B&H Photography Podcast for a discussion on the applications, techniques, and specific features of super-telephoto lenses. Super-telephotos lenses are most often used by sports and wildlife photographers—however, photojournalists, law-enforcement, and even landscape photographers are known to use them, as well. They offer the build quality to withstand tough conditions and the optical quality to capture distant subjects clearly.   

For this conversation, we define super-telephoto as a lens with a six-degree angle of view, which, on a full frame sensor, corresponds to a 400mm lens. On APS-C format DSLRs you can get an even longer reach with your super telephotos and, while Fujifilm, Olympus, and Panasonic offer a few super teles for their mirrorless cameras, the ultra-long lenses are still the domain of the professional DSLR. There are high-quality super-telephoto zooms from Sigma and Tamron, but our conversation concentrates on the fast-aperture, prime lenses made by Nikon and Canon. We discuss their unique features, image stabilization systems, filters, methods of support, and the techniques used to handle them effectively.

Join us for this very informative episode and, while you are at it, subscribe to our show and check out the B&H Photography Podcast: Canon 5D Mark IV Sweepstakes for your chance to win a Canon 5D Mark IV DSLR or a Canon 80D DSLR!

 Guests: David Speiser and Chris Williams