Digital Photography Equipment – Lenses

Let’s touch the subject that many digital photography enthusiasts may struggle a bit at the beginning of their journey. You have bought your first DSLR and most likely had a kit lens with it. You have played around with it quite a bit and now are prepared to do a step forward and explore what other lenses have to offer.

Now, the dilemma is which one to buy? And how many should you get? Are they that different from each other? These and some other similar questions are bugging your mind. And going the trial-and-error way doesn’t seem right too as these pieces of equipment are expensive.

To make your choice easier you need first decide what type of photography you like the most. If you are looking for just a better everyday use lens you should consider a decent zoom of mid-range length. Something that is between 30mm and 140mm. This is the most commonly used focal length. What you really should invest in is the F number. Try to get as fast lens as you can (with the smallest F number). This will allow you to shoot at faster shutter speeds without increasing your ISO, which automatically means better quality images.

Zoom lenses can be roughly divided into three focal length groups:

1. Wide angle (lowest to 30mm) – great for landscapes and cityscapes, but will skew people faces if abused
2. Regular Zoom (30 to 140mm) – great choice for everyday shots including the above and below types
3. Telephoto (140mm to infinity) – for sports, wildlife and sometimes portrait (!) photography

Also there are “primes” (not Optimus Primes J ) or prime lenses.  These pieces of equipment have fixed focal length, but they do produce an outstanding outcome as well as are more expensive.  Why is that? We will talk about primes in our next post. Stay tuned!