Zoom Lenses

This is in response to thots about stuff's comment on another post. It seemed like it might be useful information, so I thought I'd put it up as a post.

"Zoom", when talking about lenses, refers to the ability to change focal length. Large (long) focal lengths bring things closer to you, and small (short) focal lengths provide a wider field of view.

The 18-55mm lens that comes with entry-level SLRs is an example of a zoom lens. There are wide-angle zoom lenses (Ex: Nikon's 12-24mm), normal zoom lenses (Canon's 28-80), and there are telephoto zoom lenses, which is anything longer than about 100mm* (Nikon's 600mm).

The opposite of zoom lenses is a prime lenses (Ex: Sigma's 30mm f/1.4) which are always stuck at one focal length. In other words, if you're using a prime lens, you have to move the camera to zoom in and out. They are generally cheaper than a zoom lens that includes the same focal length, in addition to being much smaller and lighter. From what I know, you can't buy a zoom lens that will go to f/1.4, but there are prime lenses that actually have f/1.0, which means that they have the same focal length as they do aperture, and will have a very small depth of field when at maximum aperture. Keep in mind that smaller aperture numbers indicate larger aperture sizes, which means more light hitting your film, sensor, AF, or eyes.

*This is not strictly true. Telephoto lenses have special optical properties, but I suspect that most photographers don't know or care about this.

Ramen Shop and Train

Went and took some pictures tonight. Had my 18-55mm on first, then went to my 50mm 'cause it just doesn't get any use here.

Despite the title of this post, the train crossing is up first, 'cause that's what I was taking pictures of first. All of these were taken with my 18-55mm.

You can see in the warmer picture that I tried to get a picture of myself. Then I realized that my remote only has a working range of about ten feet in this kind of weather. If I had held completely still for long enough, I could've just exposed myself into the picture anyway, but I didn't think of that at the time. I was counting on the flash to go off while I was standing there, and the flash set to rear sync goes off at the end of the shutter. To trigger the shutter to close again, I had to move from where I was to closer to the camera.
Weird problem, but hey, lesson learned.

Here's a ramen shop near my apartment building. The ramen isn't that great, but their gyouza is pretty passable and they have a spicy sauce that I haven't seen or tasted anywhere else that's pretty good. Some kind of chili... goo.
I got some more today since the owner put up with me. He thought there was lightning, 'cause I was using my flash as a way of knowing when the camera was opening and closing it's shutter.
The one I'm posing in at right was taken with my 50mm, while the one at left was taken with my 18-55mm at... 35mm.

Honestly, these were taken mostly just because I wanted to take a picture of something else on this walk.

Japanese and English Camera Terminology Equivalents

Alright, it's been bothering me for a while now, but I can't find any resources online that have Japanese camera terminology. So... while I was down buying my camera bag, I questioned one of the employees until long enough after closing time that they had to reopen to let me out. This list is hardly exhaustive, but it should be a good starting place for anybody having problems with this kind of thing.
If you don't know what the word is, it's probably just the English word, said very slowly. As examples, if you take the first four words, they are pronounced kamera, lenz, frash, and maunto, respectively. Creative, right?

In Kanji (漢字で)	Reading (読み方)	English meaning (英語で)
	カメラ	camera
	レンズ	lens
	フラッシュ	flash
	マウント	mount (する verb)
大きくする	【おおきくする】	to zoom in (lit: to make bigger)
広くする	【ひろくする】	to zoom out (lit: to make wider)
レンズを付ける	【つける】	to attach a lens
明るいレンズ	【あかるいレンズ】	fast lens
露出	【ろしゅつ】	exposure (する verb)
露出不足	【ろしゅつぶそく】	underexposure
望遠	【ぼうえん】	telephoto (する verb)
広角	【こうかく】	wide-angle (する verb)
絞り	【しぼり】	aperture
絞る	【しぼる】	to stop down aperture
半押し	【はんおし】	to half-press the shutter button
立て位置	【たていち】	portrait (vertical) orientation
横位置	【よこいち】	landscape (horizontal) orientation
	ピンぼけ	out of focus, off the point
	ぶれ	camera shake, picture blur
	てぶれ	hand shakiness

This is the fourth post in about four hours, so I'm going to call it a night and let you guys catch up.
[Edit: Thanks to thots about stuff for pointing out a typo.
I'm going to print this out and have a couple pros at the school check over it, if they're willing, so hopefully I can get some more feedback and more terms.]
[Another edit: This guy that's accidentally posing at right checked through the list for me and put up my Japanese for almost an hour. Good man.]

Camera Lenses

By email, I received a question on which lens I use the most. In the states, I use all three about equally, but everything here is very compact, so my 55-200 telephoto sees little use, and my prime sees little use, as it's in the same range.

Ironically, the lens that I use the most - again, this is only here in Japan, where everything is about half as far apart from everything else - is the standard, cheap-ass, comes-with-the-camera 18-55mm. It is a rare case where you need any more zoom than that, so for anybody with an SLR who's planning to come to Japan, you should know that you probably don't need to bring your 600mm, gyro-stabilized, heat-seeking, laser-guided, artillery lens. Just have your 18-55 on your camera all the time, 'cause it's almost the only one you will ever use while you're here.