[drc]

A news service photo is a general term for any kind of photos made by a news service like UPI and AP. News photos is another general term for photos from or used by news services, newspapers, magazines, professional news photographers, etc. News photos and news service photos are sometimes called Press Photos.

A wirephoto is a specific type of news service ('wire service') photo that is a copy of the original and sent through telephone wires. Wirephotos are often to usually the as old as the originals, but have lesser quality images. They can be vintage but not original They were same day sent from the news services to subscribing newspapers. The photos often have the term 'wirephoto' or 'telephoto' somewhere in the caption or stamp. Also, the date in the wirephoto caption is the date the photo was made-- so they're usually easy to date. Wirephoto was both the patented name of the machine and process for sending photos.

Though copies and of lesser quality than originals, most wirephotos are vintage to the image. Meaning, they were usually made very soon after after the image was shot. That was the very purpose of inventing the wirephoto process-- to send current news images asap to newspapers.

Wirephotos weren't widely made until the 1930s. So if you have a 1910s or 1920s Ty Cobb photo, it wouldn't be a wirephoto. The wirephoto machine and process was invented in the 1920s, but they didn't get it working well until the 1930s.

Many people erroneously use wirephoto as a generic term for news photos including the originals, but it's a specific type of photo.

Original = Type 1. Different names for the same thing.