Telephoto vs. Zoom vs. Telephoto Zoom lenses

Help! I've been reading countless articles and forum posts of people trying to explain the differences between these types of lenses and I'm getting nowhere. What I have now is a crappy HP 35mm digital zoom camera but I'm going to get a camera with interchangeable lenses in the near future. I'm looking at the Canon Powershot A85, but I'm not 100% sure yet.

I really like wildlife photography, but with limited options from my camera now it's hard to get in close enough to get good pictures sometimes depending on the species. So here's what I want to be able to do: Get tight pictures from a relatively far distance (I'm not talking miles here, I'm talking more than the 10ft away I would have to be to get comparable shots with my current camera). I've had some of my stuff published, but it would make the whole process a lot easier if I had a camera that was suited more for what I want to do.

I know how to take decent pictures, but I'll be the first to admit I know NOTHING about how a camera works and that's why all those articles and threads I've read didn't do anything for me.

So my question is, if I got the A85 or a similar camera, which of those lenses would work best for what I want to do?

Thanks!
Jeff

First off, the Powershot A85 does not allow you to change lenses .... (and may I ask where you got that impression?) .....

You'd need to look at a 300D or a 10D or 20D and up for that option (at least, for digital Canon bodies).

Secondly, I'd really try hard to go from "know NOTHING about how a camera works" (which really makes me wonder how you "...know how to take decent pictures..." - I'm still working on knowing how to take decent pictures, and I've been doing it awhile!) to getting at least a rudimentary knowledge of how a camera works .... that knowledge will only serve you in the best way in deciding on a camera to suit your needs ....

As was stated earlier, the A85 is not an interchangeable lens camera. However, it will allow you to attach wide-angle and telephoto lens adapters to the front of the lens to give you wider or farther reach than the normal lens would. So, if you really did want to go with the A85, there aren't too many options available to you. You can either get the attachment from Canon or you can try looking for 3rd party attachments but then, you have to know what you want in terms of specs so that you can be sure that it'll work with the A85. One other thing I should mention. To use the lens adapters, you will also need to get an adapter tube that mounts to the body. The adapter lens then mounts to the other end of the tube.

Dear Mr. Almighty Camera Guru,
According to Canon's website there is a telephoto lens that works with the A85. That's what I was talking about.

I'm not trying to make a living with this or anything. I take pictures for myself, and I think they're decent because I enjoy seeing results when I take one that I like. Maybe that doesn't fit your definition of "decent" but luckily I didn't ask that. By the way, doing everything short of calling me stupid is a nice way to get more people interested in the hobby. I think if everyone on these forums have the same kind of people skills as you, I'm going to go elsewhere for advice.

<bows down>

You need to define wildlife photography.

It takes different equipment depending on whether you are going after an African elephant or a hummingbird.

Lately, I have been using focal lengths from 400 to 800mm for birds, and I want to see how you are going to get there with a small camera and any lens arrangement.

---Bob Gross---

My aplogies ....
Your definition of "interchangeable" must be different than my definition of "interchangeable" .....

Come on, Cecil. It's obvious how interchangeable the word interchangeable is. I mean it's right there: "interchangeable." Heck, it could mean anything, really, since it's interchangeable.

What *I* want to know is why "abbreviation" is such a long word... I just don't understand that one.

OK, Mr. Almighty Semantic Guru .....

Point taken .....

Just trying to lightent the mood, Cecil...

Now to get back to your issue JRH...

As Bob said, define wildlife. No P&S out there is going to be good for anything less than large birds, and you'd better be good at camouflage techniques even still. I actually don't know the effective length of the A80, but it's didn't come up in my search for P&S with > 300mm lenses. One that did seem very interesting is the Panasonic DMZ-720 (I think that was it) with a 432mm equivalence and 5.4 megapixels. That's getting into the range of "wildlife" - but be warned that I do a 640mm equivalence all the time for smaller birds. I don't know if you can get a telephoto adapter for the Panasonic.

Another thing you want to consider is low-light performance. Many/most of your wildlife shots will be early morning or late afternoon - within an hour or two of sunrise/sunset. If the camera won't focus in low-light it will be quite irritating.

Support for the RAW image format is also a must, IMHO, as it will give you better abilities to resuce an underexposed image.

Image Stabilization is also very nice for wildlife, again often due to low-light situations.

The A85 (and I have the not dissimilar A80) is a 35 mm. equivalent of 35-105 mm zoom. That's nowhere near close to what, as the others have said, you'll need for real wildlife photography, where you'll want something up in the 300-600 mm range. There are clamp-on adapters that will effectively double that, but at the expense of image quality. Don't even think about trying to use "digital zoom"; what that amounts to is taking a crop of the center of your picture and blowing that up 2 or 3 times. But you can't enlarge details that aren't there to begin with, so this is frequently described as "empty magnification". At the very least, you'd get better results post-processing your picture with a high-end photo editor.

As Scottes said, you also need lens speed, and the A85 just doesn't have this either (f/4.8 at maximum telephoto). For all these, you might consider looking at the PowerShot S1 IS, with image stabilization and a 38-380 mm equivalent lens and a maximum f/3.1 aperture at maximum telephoto if a full-blown digital SLR like the Digital Rebel or 20D are outside your price range.

Why do I have an A80 then? I carry it around in my backpack to and from work, in case I see something interesting; it's handy when I'm trying to get a good portrait of a new rescue dog and don't have much time (swivel screen). But it won't cut it for more than back yard wildlife, like that birdfeeder on your windowsill the squirrels are always raiding.

How many posts until I attain this ^^^...lol