Day 6 — Understanding Camera Lenses: Wide, Telephoto & How They Change Your Video

Gregory Thornberry
Dec 2
5 min read

Welcome to Day 6 of the series: 30 Days to Video Mastery: Picking Your First Camera to Making Pro Content

When you first get into video creation, it’s easy to think that the camera body is what determines the look of your footage. But very quickly, you discover that the lens you choose plays an even bigger role. Lenses shape perspective, depth, distortion, movement, storytelling, and the feel of every shot you record. If the camera is the tool that captures the world, the lens is the tool that decides how the world looks.

Understanding Camera Lenses: Wide, Telephoto & How They Change Your Video

In this lesson, we’re going to break down what lenses actually do, why focal length matters, and how wide-angle and telephoto lenses completely change the emotional impact of your video. Whether you're filming sports, events, interviews, or local community highlights, understanding lenses is one of the fastest ways to improve your footage.

What Focal Length Really Means

A lens’s focal length—marked in millimeters like 16mm, 35mm, or 85mm—determines two core things: how wide or tight your field of view is, and how the space within your frame appears.

Beginners often think focal length is just “zoom,” but the truth is that zooming only changes how close something looks. Focal length changes the relationship between you, the subject, and the background.

A wide lens expands space and makes the background feel further away.A telephoto lens compresses space and makes the background feel closer.

This concept—called perspective distortion—is what shapes the emotional tone of a scene. Your lens is playing with geometry as much as it is capturing light.

Use this to your advantage. If you’re filming a subject in a bustling location and want the viewer to feel immersed, use a wider lens. If you want the subject to stand out and the background to melt behind them, step back and use a telephoto. These choices separate amateur video from professional work.

Wide Lenses: The Power of Immersion

A wide-angle lens is typically anything between 10mm and 35mm. These lenses show more of the world and exaggerate the sense of space. They’re phenomenal for local sports, events, community features, and storytelling that relies on giving the viewer context.

Canon 50mm lens on Amazon (affiliate link)

Wide lenses make the viewer feel like they’re inside the moment. They show the energy of a crowd, the depth of a gymnasium, the scale of a football field, or the emotion of a busy classroom. If you’re filming locally, this sense of environment is extremely important. It helps your audience feel connected to the town, the school, or the event.

There is a tradeoff, wide-angle lenses can distort straight lines, and faces can appear stretched if you get too close. But when used correctly, they create dynamic, energetic video that feels alive.

If you’re shopping for a beginner-friendly wide lens, consider something in the 16mm to 24mm range. A 24mm lens is a classic everyday video focal length.

Telephoto Lenses: Compression, Isolation & Drama

Telephoto lenses—typically 70mm and higher—give you a tighter field of view and create beautiful background compression. This is incredibly useful for sports videography, wildlife, stage events, and any scenario where you cannot physically get close to your subject.

Telephoto compression is the magical look beginner creators notice immediately. The background becomes soft, blurred, and stacked behind your subject, almost painterly in its separation. This effect gives your footage a cinematic quality and helps viewers focus on exactly what matters in a busy scene.

Telephoto lenses also let you film moments discreetly and respectfully, perfect for local events, school games, or community ceremonies. They reduce distraction and help you anticipate motion. This is exactly why many professional sports and event shooters rely heavily on 70-200mm zooms.

Prime vs. Zoom Lenses: What Beginners Should Know

A prime lens has a fixed focal length such as 35mm or 50mm, while a zoom covers a range like 18-55mm or 24-70mm. Both have advantages, and both are worth understanding early in your journey.

Sony 50mm lens on Amazon (affiliate link)

A prime lens is sharp, bright, and great in low light. Prime lenses force you to think more about composition, which is a good thing for growing creators. A zoom lens is more flexible and lets you adapt quickly to unpredictable moments—something that is essential when filming sports or local events where you can’t control the situation.

If you’re trying to decide which to buy first, consider your environment. If you film high school sports, a flexible zoom helps you capture fast action. If you’re focused on interviews, product videos, or controlled indoor shoots, a prime lens might give your images a cleaner, more intentional look.

How Lenses Affect Motion & Storytelling

Motion behaves differently depending on the lens you choose. A wide lens exaggerates movement in the foreground. When a player runs toward the camera on a 16mm lens, it feels fast, exciting, and immersive. Telephoto lenses do the opposite, they compress motion. A runner filmed at 200mm seems to glide smoothly, giving the moment elegance and focus.

LENS BASICS – A Beginner’s Guide to Camera Lenses — general guide covering lens fundamentals, stabilization, focal length, and how to choose lenses for various shooting situations.

It’s the same event, the same player, and the same moment, but the lens determines how the audience experiences it.

Think of lenses as emotional tools. A wide lens is energetic, active, and immersive. A telephoto lens is controlled, focused, and dramatic. The more you experiment, the more natural these decisions become.

Lens Recommendations for Beginners

Below are widely accepted beginner-friendly focal lengths used across every major camera brand: with affiliate links, if you want to help us gain a small commission.

When you shop for lenses, look for words like “constant aperture,” meaning the lens stays bright throughout the zoom range, and “image stabilization,” which helps when shooting handheld.

External Resources

B&H Photo – Understanding Focal Length

A detailed breakdown of how focal length affects field of view, perspective, and depth in both photography and video.https://www.bhphotovideo.com/explora/photography/tips-and-solutions/understanding-focal-length

Adorama – What Is a Wide-Angle Lens?

Covers the characteristics of wide lenses, distortion, use-cases, and how wide-angle choices affect storytelling.https://www.adorama.com/alc/what-is-a-wide-angle-lens/

Digital Photography School – Telephoto Lenses Explained

A practical guide to telephoto compression, background separation, and when to use telephoto lenses creatively.https://digital-photography-school.com/what-is-a-telephoto-lens/

Cambridge in Colour – Perspective & Lens Compression

A technical but beginner-friendly explanation of perspective distortion and why telephoto lenses “compress” space.https://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/perspective.htm

Photography Life – Prime vs Zoom Lenses

Clear explanation of the strengths and weaknesses of prime and zoom lenses, helping beginners understand lens choices.https://photographylife.com/prime-vs-zoom-lenses

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