> Do magnified long-distance movies shot with normal focal-length lenses look like their telephoto equivalents? Generally, I think the answer is yes. But the m

> Do magnified long-distance movies shot with normal focal-length lenses look like their telephoto equivalents? Generally, I think the answer is yes. But the more complicated answer is that every lens design has its own flavor of distortion. An image from a lens optimized for telephoto shots is going to have slightly different characteristics than a cropped image from a lens optimized for wide shots. The compressed effect I think you are referring to is likely attributable to perspective, most noticeable when the movie does one of those zoom shots where they keep the subject at the same relative size in the frame while moving the camera in or out. Like on this shot: https://youtu.be/in_mAvHu9E4?t=19 https://youtu.be/in_mAvHu9E4?t=19