Looking through the right lens – What is next for you?

Are we looking through the right lens? Many of the online students are asking that question as we become more comfortable with our cameras and the photos that we are taking! It’s an exciting feeling when we realize that we need better equipment to accommodate our growing talent of making photos! Seriously! Who needs a better reason to spend money?!

Let’s ask the question: What is our favorite type of photography?

Do we love those portraits or do we find joy in the majestic beauty of landscape photography? Maybe we get a rush with sports photography or find it hard to keep from drooling when it comes to stunning automotive photos.
Even if we like it all – we have to realize that we cannot go after it all at once and need to focus on just one area to start with. But let’s look into these different areas and what lens would be best for us:

Portrait Lenses

It’s no secret that a 50mm prime lens is what we want. However, there is a cheap version and an expensive option. Apart from the slightly smaller f/stop number and metal body on the more pricey option – the glass is the same and will virtually take the same photo! Go with the cheaper one – we can buy two more at the cost of one.

Also – we might want to consider getting a really nice telephoto lens (70-300mm) to take those amazing portraits. The ability to be farther away from our clients can increase their comfort level because we are not right in their face. This lens can also prove to be very versatile for us!

Landscape Lenses

Getting that wide shot is very important! Look into getting a really wide lens (10-24mm) so that we can be really close be see a lot through our lens. These can be expensive, but worth the money because of our growing talent!

Sport Lenses

Feel like going pro down on the field? We need a prime 400mm lens to stop that action dead in its tracks! To be considered a sports photographer, we need to have a serious telephoto lens so that we can be close without actually being a part of the action. Depending on the big leagues we want to get in to, it is required that we have a certain lens.

Automotive Lenses

There isn’t a special lens that we would need for this type of photography. A wider lens would be nice to have on hand – but it depends on the photos we are trying to capture with a car.

Now we talk about the brand you want to buy! So many of us are on a budget when it comes to getting some new gear – then we look at the prices of some of these lenses we need and decide that we really have no budget (it kind of gives a whole new meaning to jaw-dropping prices). However, we accept that fact that Canon is going to make the best lenses for your Canon camera… the same goes for our Nikon cameras. Finding a “more affordable” lens does not mean we are going to get the same results. We might have the focal length we need but the photo will still be blurry. And no one wants a blurry photo!

As a disclaimer – there are really good alternative lenses that take really good photos. We just have to test them out before putting all our eggs in one basket!

What is the next lens we are going to get? Depends on what we love the most right now!

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6 Tips On Choosing Lenses For Your Digital Camera

While every digital camera has a lens, digital SLR cameras have several lenses to choose between. Changing lenses is perhaps the biggest advantage of a digital single-lens reflex camera, particularly if you need wider, deeper, longer, closer shots, or even wish to shoot in low light conditions. If the primary lens on your camera isn’t suited for what you want, you can have the flexibility to simply replace it with a lens that is (but specialized optics aren’t cheap).

The Craze For Lenses

 The term ‘lens lust’ is used on the internet often. It describes the state of dSLR owners who start thinking over and over about a lens that they don’t own. There is no lens that can take a perfect shot in every situation. The lens that probably comes the closest is a 18mm to 200mm zoom lens. This lens still won’t work optimally at all light levels and it won’t be able to provide ultra-wide shots or super-zoom capabilities. You have to think about what lens you need for a particular shot. Here are a list of items that a lens can do for you.

Tip 1: Lens Varieties

The basic zooms in most digital SLRs have maximum apertures of f/3.5 to f/4.5, which is too slow in low light levels. Choose either zooms with f/2.8 maximum apertures or select fixed focal length lens with f/1.4 to f/2.0 even if you have to pay more. The most affordable are $100 or less which are the 50mm f/1.8 lens in most digital cameras. But if you can expend more money on your digital camera buy a 28mm, 30mm, 35mm, 50mm or even 85mm f/1.4 lenses that work well even in extremely dark conditions and are optimized to perform well wide-open.

Tip 2: Lenses For Increasing Sharpness

Lenses designed for producing sharp images will give you better results than a lens designed to do everything reasonably well. Your 50mm f/1.8 lens that only costs $100 might be the sharpest lens in your kit. Maybe you invested in a lens optimized for macro photography that is designed to produce extra sharp pictures at very short distances.

Tip 3: Wide-Angle Lenses

To get a broad view in your pictures, you should consider a wide-angle lens to get the job done. Using this lens lets you take pictures in a broader field of view- perfect for those times when there just is not room to back away from your subject. Your camera probably came with a lens that is no wider than the 28mm standard lens on a full-frame SLR. A dSLR combined with a wide-angle lens can enable you to get a wider look.

Tip 4: Telephoto Lenses

A telephoto lenses can capture images from much farther away. The average lens that comes with a camera usually provides 70mm and a crop factor of 1.5 providing a slight telephoto capability which is equal to a 105mm telephoto lens on a 35mm camera. You can find lenses that allow you to capture images from further away and they are fairly cheap.

Tip 5: Interchangeable Lenses

To give your camera great close-up capabilities, you can buy an interchangeable lens that enables the camera to focus on subjects that are a lot closer to the lens. This interchangeable lens literally opens up a whole new world of subjects that before could not be captured, as well as pictures of familiar objects taken ultra-close.

Tip 6: Primes And Zooms

The digital camera has evolved. Digital SLRs can use one of two basic kinds of lenses: prime lenses and zooms. Primes are fixed focal length lenses, and zooms are variable focal length lenses. Prime lenses were the best for sharpest, fastest optics, but today zoom lenses are faster, sharper and much more practical. Your lens kit will usually contain a few lenses of each type for the different uses of your digital camera.

Situations That Call For Lenses

When shooting architecture you need a broader range. In that case a wide angle lens will be needed, it helps you shoot without a tripod. With sports you may again need that wide angle lens to capture the image. From far away you need a fast telephoto prime lens shooting soccer for night games. A sharp short telephoto lens is used for taking portraits. When doing macro work a prime lens with close focusing does the job nicely. When decorating your home a wide angle prime lens creates a wonderful crisp image that can be blown up to a 20×30.

The Appeal Of Digital Camera Lenses

You can understand why people like zoom cameras. You can take pictures at different magnifications without moving about. Instead of having to use software later to crop the image, you can adjust your magnifications right there while taking the photo. There are many different zoom cameras. A zoom camera with a focal length from about 10-20mm or 12-24mm is known as a wide-angle zoom camera. These can be compared to a digital camera or full-frame film camera with a lens of 15-30mm or 18-36mm. These extra wide shots should only be used in certain instances so that a regular shot won’t look odd.

Carrying around multiple lenses is a pain. Having the right lenses on your camera to capture what you want is great. It’s important to know what lens best suits your photo-taking style however. Users of DSLR cameras need to be cautious about owning too many lenses, as one that simply collects dust is useless.

Posted in: Making Purchases

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