Compared to a wide-angle lens, a telephoto lens has a greater angle of view.

• A. True
• B. False
• C. It depends on focal length
• D. Both have the same angle of view

Answer: (B)

A longer focal length narrows the field of view. The angle of view is how much of the scene the sensor captures, and it’s determined mainly by the lens’s focal length (and secondarily by sensor size). A telephoto lens has a long focal length, which magnifies distant subjects but captures a smaller portion of the scene, giving a narrow angle of view. A wide-angle lens has a short focal length, which captures a broader scene with a wide angle of view. So, compared to a wide-angle, a telephoto lens does not have a greater angle of view; it has a smaller one. If you’re using a crop sensor, the effect is even more pronounced, since the same focal length yields an even narrower field of view.