Does focal length determine the maximum shooting distance of a lens?
Asked 11/15/2013
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Is there a relationship between a lens’s focal length and how far away you can photograph a subject? For example, with a 55–300mm lens, what is the maximum distance I can shoot from, and how does focal length affect that?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
12y ago
2 Answers
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The minimum and maximum focus distances have no direct relation to the focal length of the lens. All lenses have a minimum focus distance. For Macro lenses this is closer than for normal lenses (is the main part of what makes them Macro).
The majority of lenses have an infinite maximum focus distance (focus at infinity). Under certain conditions however, such as the use of extension tubes, it can become impossible for the lens to focus at infinity. In this case, there would be a maximum focus distance determined by the limit of the distance the lens can move the focal plane away from the camera and would be a distance less than the hyperfocal distance.
Originally by user11392. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user11392
12y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Focal length does not determine a lens’s maximum focusing distance. For most normal lenses, the maximum focus distance is effectively infinity, regardless of whether the lens is set to 55mm or 300mm.
What focal length does change is the angle of view: a longer focal length shows a narrower portion of the scene and makes distant subjects appear larger in the frame. So a 300mm setting won’t let you focus farther than 55mm, but it will frame a far subject more tightly.
The more important focusing limit is usually the minimum focus distance, which varies by lens design. Special cases like extension tubes can prevent a lens from focusing at infinity.
If what you really want to know is how large a distant subject will appear in the photo, use a field-of-view calculator. Enter the focal length, sensor size, and subject distance to see how much of the scene fits in the frame.
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