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Choosing Camera Lenses
Choosing Camera Lenses
R. Dodge Woodson
The lenses you use with your camera are critical components of your photography system. Cheap lenses are never a bargain. Inexpensive lenses produce inferior pictures. You don’t have to pay thousands of dollars for an anti-distortion lens to get good pictures, but don’t expect much from an $89.95 lens that you buy at some sale. Photography is an inexpensive hobby. If you want to play, you have to pay.
Fisheye Lenses
Fisheye lenses can be fun to work with. They allow you to create great special effects. However, they don’t have many practical purposes. Of all the lenses available to you, fisheye lenses are one of the least important.
Lenses are rated by focal length. This is measured in millimeters. The smaller the rating is, the wider the view is through a lens. For example, a 16mm lens has a much broader view than a 50mm lens. When you drop down to fisheye status, your pictures are going to have a round perspective. They will no longer look like typical photos. You can use this creative aspect to your advantage.
People are often captivated by images made with a fisheye lens. The reason for this is simple. Fisheye photographs are different. Any subject you shoot with a fisheye lens will attract attention. The downside to this is that part of the subject will be distorted. This is both the appeal and the disadvantage of fisheye lenses.
Wide-Angle Lenses
Wide-angle lenses are very useful for a number of photo situations. If you enjoy taking scenic pictures, a 24mm lens is an excellent choice. This lens will allow you to include a great deal of coverage in your pictures. Unlike a fisheye lens, a wide-angle lens produces pictures that are basically normal. Perspective can be lost in super wide-angle shots, but the general effect is pleasing.
You don’t have to chase after landscapes to gain benefits from a wide-angle lens. If you’ve ever wanted to get a large group of people in a single picture, a wide-angle lens can help you do it. Any time that you want to take pictures of an expansive subject will be a good time to use a wide-angle lens.
A 24mm lens is about as much of a wide-angle lens as you can use without distracting distortion. It is my favorite wide-angle lens, but some people prefer a 28mm lens. You won’t capture as much of a scene with this lens, but distortion will be less than what is experienced with a 24mm lens. Many photographers opt for a 35mm lens to meet their wide-angle needs. This is a useful lens, and it’s not a bad compromise, but it can’t include nearly what a 24mm lens can.
The best way for you to determine which type of wide-angle lens is right for you is to go to a camera store and try some out. With a single-lens-reflex system, which is what we are talking about, what you see is what you get. Try different focal lengths to see which ones suit you best. There is no better way to compare lenses than to try them, one after another, on the same subject matter.
Normal Lenses
A 50mm lens is considered normal. This lens is supposed to depict the world in the same perspective as the human eye sees it, photographically speaking. There are very few occasions when a 50mm lens is the ideal one to use. Its focal length is too long for wide-angle work and too short for telephoto work.
One good thing about a 50mm lens is that it’s cheap when compared to other lenses. According to mailorder ads, you can buy an auto-focus, 50mm lens for a major brand of camera for less than $75. Getting any lens this cheap is rare, especially when it’s brand new and offers auto-focus capability.
If you are buying a 35mm camera that is being sold without a lens, you might want to buy a 50mm lens to keep your cost down while you are getting your feet wet in the photography hobby. Personally, I think you should invest more money and get a zoom lens that can give you more features and benefits. There is nothing wrong with owning a 50mm lens, but once you have zoom lenses or an assortment of fixed-focal-length lenses, I doubt if you will have much use for your “normal” lens.
Super Telephoto Lenses
Can you imagine spending more for a lens that what some people pay for a car? Well, there are lenses with price tags that do compete with some cars. The last time I looked, a 600mm, 4.0 lens for my brand of camera was selling for more than $7,600. A 300mm 2.8 lens was going for about $4,100. In either case, the price of these lenses is steep, and some lenses cost considerably more.
You can buy a long lens at a reasonable price if you are willing to sacrifice a fast aperture. In other words, if you are willing to work with slow shutter speeds when lighting is poor, you can get a lot more lens for your money. For example, I could by a 100-300mm no-name brand for less than $130. A Canon® 100-300 zoom lens is just under $300. What’s the difference between a 300mm zoom lens at $130 and a 300mm fixed lens at $4,100? About $3,970! The big difference in the field is the minimum aperture. The expensive lens operates at 2.8 and the cheaper lens operates with a sliding aperture rating of 5.7 to 6.7. In common terms, the cheap lens needs a lot more light than the expensive one to take the same picture under the same lighting conditions. You can set a faster speed on your camera, but this can create “noise” that detracts from an images appearance. And, the expensive lens has much better glass elements in it for clearer pictures. This may not seem like a lot of difference, but it can be to some photographers.
If you need a lens that will allow fast shutter speeds in low-light conditions, you have to pay handsomely for it. Why would you need a fast aperture? If you were a sports photographer, your subjects would be moving quickly. To capture them without having their images blur due to motion, you need a fast shutter speed. On a bright, sunny day, this would not be a problem with most lenses. However, a cloudy day could render lenses with slow apertures useless. If you make your living taking fast-moving or low-light pictures, you have to be prepared to pay steep prices for you equipment.
How Long
How long of a lens do you need? It depends on what you want to do with it. A 200mm lens is very effective for many types of telephoto work. Using a 300mm lens will allow you to take the same picture that you could with a 200mm lens without being as close to your subject. Few amateur photographers carry lenses that are longer than 300mm.
If you want to take pictures of elusive wildlife or similar subjects that are difficult to approach, a longer lens may be called for. Some wildlife photographers use extremely long lenses. Lenses in the 400mm, 500mm, and 600mm ranges are all common equipment with professional wildlife photographers. However, you can accomplish a lot with a 300mm lens if you learn the habits of animals well enough to anticipate them and to hide from them.
Experimentation
Knowing what you want or need may require some experimentation. You can buy used equipment or cheap lenses to get a feel for what that do. Once you settle on specific lenses that you know you will use, sell the cheap and old lenses and buy the best lenses you can afford to fill your desires.
About the Author
R. Dodge Woodson is a full-time internationally-known, best-selling author and photographer. Dodge recently entered semi-retirement and created the World Photographers Organization (WPO). Photographers of all skill levels come to WPO to learn, to increase their sales, and to take advantage of the extensive resources offered to the general public and members. He also created an e-commerce site, www.ccionlinesales.com to showcase his brainchild. the Book Buster e-books. The site offers a full selection of Book Busters, e-books, used bound books, new bound books, stock photography, and much more. Having been a pro photographer for more than 30 years and a full-time writer for 17 years, Dodge now feels it is time to share his tricks of the trade with up-and-coming freelancers.
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