Wide-Telephoto Lens

What on earth does a Wide-Telephoto Lens do exactly? And what is the best lens for top quality rich photography for weddings, field work, etc.? Also, what are people using to get that "story book" affect in their photography?

Alright, you are asking a bunch of questions here. Let me start out by saying that you would do good to get a nice introductory book to photography, like The Joy of Photography, or two that I used starting out, The Photography Bible, and The Complete Photography Manual.

That being said, the lens you are referring to does not actually exist. It is either a wide angle lens (low numbers 10mm-50mm) or a telephoto lens (bigger numbers 200mm-400mm). This refers to the focal length of the lens. For more, you can read here.
http://journals.aol.com/radar446/PhotoTrek/entries/ 2006/09/02/tips-and-trick-focal-length/980

To answer your question about the best lens, I am going to need more information. You are looking to cover lots of different types of photography. You have to ask whether low light shooting will be done (need a fast lens), whether you will be doing straight portraits (a prime 50mm or 100mm), and what kind of camera system you have.

The story book look is achieved through photoshop. Somebody else will have to chime in and give you some pointers about how that works. I've never seen the program opened before.

Thanks for the reply the info was helpful. The lens I was looking at is a:

Cosina AF 28-300mm f/4-6.3 MC Wide-Telephoto Lens for Sony Alpha

I have a Sony Alpha DSLR-A100 and I am one of those guys that know enough to be dangerous. Just snap what I think looks good, know the affects I want but have no clue the technical aspects to get the affect.

I am a huge Photoshop guy and can always "fake" and affect but always wondered how guys get those affects from the camera only.

I am transitioning from field web photography to portrait, weddings, family reunions and stuff. I like to "capture" those sweet shots with a story book quality rather than over posed. With that in mind, I need a fast lens, that can handle low light conditions and still capture rich details.

The lens above confused me to because I thought a wide angle and telephoto did different things which is why I got on the forum. I was actually shopping for a good all around lens and a wide angle lens to get those huge wedding parties, stumbled on this lens. If you google, its on <email> but very little info on what it gives me.

Help!?!?!?

I would steer away from a Cosina lens. While I don't know anything about them specifically, I also put very little faith in glass made by small manufacturers. If you are not going with Sony/Konica/Minolta glass, I would recommend Tokina or Sigma glass, as those are as good as it gets in none OEM lenses.

If you are needing a fast lens, one that is only f/4 at the wide end is not going to be what you are after. f/6.3 is getting very slow considering 300mm. Also keep in mind that the sensor size on the Sony will add in a conversion factor to the focal length. Your wide will not be as wide, and the long end will be longer.

Another pitfall in these "do it all" lenses is that quality suffers when a manufacturer tries to get that wide of a focal length coverage in one lens. You would do much better to get an 18mm-75mm f/2.8 lens and then get a 50mm-200mm with a wide aperture in the neighborhood of f/3-4. This will do you better on the fast end of the spctrum.

Photography is not cheap, and if you take the cheap way out (buying a single lens for everything, and an off brand one at that) your final product will be no better than a cheap pocket camera. It is the lens more than the camera that makes the picture. Sony lenses are using Carl Zeiss glass, which I can personally attest to being very high quality. That is what my F828 uses. The Sigma and Tokina lenses are on par with other Cannon and Nikor lenses for the most part. The Konica/Minolta lenses that fit the Alpha will be just fine as well.

I would spend some time at Popular Photography (http://www.popphoto.com/) reading some of the reviews of the lenses before you start dropping lots of money.

i bought the exact lens you speak of, and have the same camera a100. the lens works amazingly well, it has losses of image on the outside edges for sure. it is a bargain and works fanastic for some great shots, needs a lot of light though, it is not good enough for pro work, but fun and useful for everyday travel, i have a pile of great shots that i couldnt have got with another lens. i actually would buy another one, but i dont think they are available anywhere, i looked around a bit online. shoot across the street and capture someones facial feaures well.
the guys who tell you to spend lots of money for a great lens are correct. highest quality images are NOT cheap