Camera Lens

[Nottm_George]

I have just upgraded to a SLR camera with interchangeable lens's, I have a tele lens 40-150mm but I 'm not sure what this means with regards to distance, can anyone help me , I have seen a converter that gives 1.4 magnification and one that gives double magnification are these worth having. My other camera as 10 optical zoom and this is easy to understand but I find the more I read about these lenses the more the more I get confused .

[HWKE]

A standard lens on an SLR camera is 50mm. A short telephoto lens is 135mm (used for protraits). A lens for landscapes etc. would be about 35mm.
This means that the zoom lens you have is just about capable of most of the photographs the average person would normally take. In the same terms as your other camera, it is a 3.75x zoom.
Converters - depends on how good they are and what they cost compared to your other option, which is a 100 - 300mm zoom lens. A 2 x converter will make your current lens into a 80-280mm lens. Unless you want to photograph using a tripod and stay a long way away from the subject, they will do. I'm sure you understand the difficulties of using your other camera at the extreme of its zoom capability without a tripod or other support.
In my case I went for the 100-300mm zoom, to go with my 28-110mm, in the belief that I would get better photographs

[HWKE]

I am assuming that your camera is a 35mm, not a digital SLR.

[dustypuss]

hi if you are using a digital SLR dont bother with a converter just crop your image on your PC. a good telephoto lens i use is a tamron 70 * 200

[Nottm_George]

Thanks for that I understand it a bit more but realise that I have a long way to go.