One of the biggest charms of photography is the gears. Especially when you are just getting started into the world of photography, you can get very excited about the lenses and all the fancy gears money can buy.
I have always said that ‘gears do not matter’ but to be fair, that is only true after I have gotten my perfect set of gears.
In photography, lenses are the product of passionate optical engineering but how do you choose the right camera lens? Well, that’s what we’re going to talk about today.
These are the two fundamental criteria for picking up any lens on the market. This applies to all cameras no matter which brand you have got.
1. Discover the style you love the most
Many DSLR cameras that you can purchase today come together with “kit lens”. This lens spans between 18mm to 55mm. With this lens you’ll be able to see if you like wide or tight frames. After some practice, you will start to see what focal length is best suited for you.
There’s a problem with using Kit Lens. Usually most people just ‘don’t get it’. Amateur photographers use kit lens by zooming in and out all the time without actually learning anything about them. Having said that, it is usually a good idea to start with a prime lens instead of a kit lens.
Using prime lens as a newbie will also motivate you to discover other lenses with different focal length. You will become familiar with the idea behind each and every one of the lenses you are going to invest in.
Types of Camera Lenses:
Super Wide angle Lenses: Here we can find radical focal lengths that are able of reproducing reality with a very singular aesthetic. Numbers here can go from 6mm to 16mm.
Wide Angle Lenses: These lenses are great for street photography and photojournalism, they span from 16mm to 35mm.
Normal Lenses: Normal lenses are the ones that reproduce reality with the same focal distance as our own human eyes, and are fixed at 50mm.
Telephoto Lenses: Everything that goes above 50mm is considered to fit inside the telephoto lenses family.
Zoom Lenses: Zoom lenses are all the lenses that are capable of zooming in and out and are constructed in order to cover specific ranges of focal lengths. Even the aforementioned kit lens is a zoom lens.
2. Do your homework
After defining the focal length that will suit your needs the best, you can start to look at the lens offer in the market. The economic criteria will be in the majority of cases the decisive buying variable, but at least you have narrowed down the options from the vast universe of available lenses.
Some lenses have legacy, and you can identify them simply by researching about the time they have been around in the market. These lenses have been engineered with such quality, that they have been building practically the same lens for more than a decade. This is a very good insight for investing in a piece of gear that will last more than your camera’s body.
Remember, lenses have a slower update ratio, because they are built to last. They also are simpler machines when compared with camera bodies, which tend to upgrade at a very fast speed. Every year we are bombarded with the “latest and greatest” when it comes to camera bodies, but lenses have a different behavior. If you dwelling between investing in bodies or lenses, you can base your decision on this fact, and stick to investing in lenses rather than bodies.
