Lenses Guide

When purchasing a lens for your interchangeable-lens camera consider the following factors. 1. The Lens Mount Each camera manufacturer has its own lens mount with proprietary physical and electronic connections. Consequently, one company’s lenses won’t work on another’s cameras, with the following exceptions: The Four Thirds System, which is now mainly seen as Micro Four Thirds (M4/3), is based on a ‘universal’ mount adopted primarily by Olympus and Panasonic. Third-party lens manufacturers, like Tamron, Sigma, Tokina, Voigtländer and Samyang produce lenses with mounts to suit different camera brands. Some third-party lenses can match (or better) camera manufacturers’ equivalent lenses, often at a lower price. Lens Choices Check out the range of lenses available for the camera you own (or plan to buy) when deciding which ones to invest in. Currently, manufacturers of DSLR cameras offer the…

The term ‘crop factor’ arose from a need to help 35mm film SLR photographers understand how their existing lenses would perform on cameras with smaller image sensors than traditional 35mm film. It’s still relevant for translating the listed focal lengths of lenses into 35mm equivalents, with respect to the camera’s sensor. ‘Crop’ is a useful term because for a given lens and subject distance, subjects will be imaged at the same size on the sensor plane. The smaller the sensor, however, the larger the proportion of the frame the subject occupies, as shown in the illustration on this page. The actual resolution of the image sensor is irrelevant; what matters is the relationship between the sensor size and lens focal length. The smaller the sensor format, the shorter the focal length must…

Most people buying an interchangeablelens camera for the first time will opt for the ‘kit’ lens bundled with the camera. When you’re buying an entry- or midlevel camera, it’s a convenient way to get a lens (or two) that suits the camera. Professional and pro-sumer cameras are usually sold in body-only configurations, although some manufacturers may bundle suitable lenses with them. Bundled lenses are usually affordably priced and they generally cover popular focal length ranges for everyday photography. The most popular kit lenses have zoom ranges that extend from a moderately wide angle of view to a modest telephoto (typically 28mm to around 85mm in 35mm format). Kit lenses are relatively small and light, so they are a popular starting point for building a camera kit since they enable you to sample…

The second lens in a twin-lens kit is usually a telephoto zoom lens that picks up where the range of the standard zoom lens (which we covered in the previous chapter) ends. These lenses take in focal lengths that are ideal for portraiture, sports and wildlife photography. Like standard lenses, kit telephoto zooms are usually built to a price and typically cover 35mm equivalent focal lengths of 55-200mm. They also tend to be relatively compact and portable and make a versatile addition to a basic kit of camera plus standard zoom. Telephoto Zoom Characteristics Telephoto lenses narrow the photographer’s field of view and, in doing so, make distant subjects appear closer. Nearby objects also appear to be closer in size to more distant objects of the same size because the angle of view…

There are many reasons to buy a camera with just one lens – and not all of them are economic. It’s very convenient to have an ‘all-in-one’ zoom lens that covers most, if not all of the angles of view you’re likely to require, particularly when you’re travelling. For travelling photographers the socalled ‘convenience ‘ zooms provide a camera-plus-lens combination that is compact and easy to carry, yet versatile enough for most situations. It’s also less likely to attract thieves in crowded areas. Today almost all lens manufacturers have at least one convenience zoom lens in their ranges. And many of them cover a wider zoom range than the 7.1x offered by the original lenses. So-called ‘super-zoom’ lenses often span a range of up to 19x magnification and even larger zoom ratios…

Although just about any lens can be used for photographing landscapes, most photographers prefer using wide-angle lenses because they better encompass scenic panoramas. But that doesn’t mean they’re the only option. Your choice of focal length will depend on how you want to interpret a particular scene – and this can vary with the type of scene, how much of it you wish to record and the presence (or absence) of objects in the foreground. There’s no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ approach. You may prefer using an ultra-wide angle lens and moving in closer, or fit a more conservative focal length and step back. And it can pay to change your shooting position to see how the scene in the frame changes, regardless of the lens you use. Popular focal lengths range from 10mm…