The best telephoto lenses in 2024: top zooms for bringing your subjects closer

Best telephoto lens
(Image credit: PhotoPlus)

If you're looking for the best telephoto lenses for your camera, look no further. I've drawn on experience of testing and reviewing lenses to bring you this indispensable guide to the most capable long lenses for all major camera systems, while keeping an eye firmly on the budget. I'm after the most bang per buck, so I've bypassed really exotic glassware that costs a fortune.

The long focal length of a telephoto lets you fill the frame with distant subjects, meaning its most common applications are wildlife and sports photography. However, telephotos have plenty of other uses, as a narrow perspective can be handy in all sorts of fields. They're great for portraiture, flattering subjects and separating them nicely from the background. They even have a place in landscapes and architecture, providing a very different perspective than the wide-angle lenses more commonly used in these scenarios.

Matthew Richards
Matthew Richards

Matthew Richards is a photographer and journalist who has spent years using and reviewing all manner of photo gear. He is Digital Camera World's principal lens reviewer – and has tested telephoto lenses for every major camera system.

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Matthew Richards

Matthew Richards is a photographer and journalist who has spent years using and reviewing all manner of photo gear. He is Digital Camera World's principal lens reviewer – and has tested more primes and zooms than most people have had hot dinners! 

His expertise with equipment doesn’t end there, though. He is also an encyclopedia  when it comes to all manner of cameras, camera holsters and bags, flashguns, tripods and heads, printers, papers and inks, and just about anything imaging-related. 

In an earlier life he was a broadcast engineer at the BBC, as well as a former editor of PC Guide.