What Can You Photograph with Each Lens?

How to use this guide

Choose a prime or zoom lens to browse matching photographs. Only lenses with suitable photos appear in the menu. A label such as 70–200/2.8 means 70–200 mm coverage with a maximum aperture of f/2.8. Focal lengths describe full-frame equivalent coverage.

Choose Custom prime or zoom to enter a prime’s focal length or both ends of a zoom range, from 6–1200 mm, and its maximum aperture, then select Apply custom lens. A zoom’s long end must be greater than its short end.

Swipe left or right on a photo, or click its left or right edge, to browse the selected lens’s examples. You can also focus the image and use the left and right arrow keys. Returning to a lens keeps your photo selection until the page is reloaded. Each caption shows that photograph’s own full-frame equivalent focal length.

Zoom selections include photographs within the stated range. Prime selections include nearby focal lengths within ±5%, so 34 and 35 mm photographs can both appear under a 35 mm prime. A photograph may appear under more than one lens selection. These examples illustrate focal-length coverage; they do not establish which lens model took a photograph.

A lens must be fast enough for the recorded photo aperture: 70–200/2.8 can show a photo taken at f/2.8, f/4 or f/8, but not f/2. Photos without a known aperture are excluded. Custom lenses with no matches show an empty-gallery message. Lens labels are generic coverage and constant maximum-aperture references, not claims about which lens model took a photo. Aperture filtering uses the recorded f-number, without a depth-of-field conversion between formats.

Framing and perspective

A shorter focal length includes more of a scene; a longer one selects a narrower view on the same sensor. Changing focal length from the same camera position changes framing. Perspective changes when you move the camera. Stepping farther back for a portrait, for example, changes the relative appearance of the subject and background.

Focal length alone does not determine background blur, close-up capability or how large a distant subject will appear. Aperture, subject distance, background distance and lens design also matter. For a geometric comparison from a fixed camera position, try the Field of View Calculator.

For more on focal length, angle of view and common applications, see Nikon’s guide to understanding focal length. The shooting ideas above are illustrative suggestions rather than limits on how a focal length can be used.