Lens Selection |
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A quick look at available lenses shows that there are far more lenses to chose from than DSLR cameras, yet there is a lot less information about them. Most people know by now that kit lenses only get you so far, if anywhere at all. Here we discuss how to create a personalized set of lens. Remember, those are not the only possibilities, so feel free to adapt those to your needs. Remember than photographs are taken by a whole camera system, plus the photographer. Any weak link will detrimentally affect the end-result. A poor camera, a poor lens or poor photography skills all result in disappointing pictures. A frequent mistake of first-time DSLR buyers is to spend most of the budget on a camera body and then buy the only lens that still fits the budget - or worst, the kit lens. The first rule in choosing lenses is to allocate enough money for them. Lets start with the practical. How often are you willing to change lenses? Are you willing to do it in the field? Are weight and size important? One who does not want to change lenses, should not get more than one. Too heavy lenses often end-up left behind. Having too many lenses also results in many of them being left behind. The second rule is to think of how many lenses are you willing to have. Watch out, based on your needs, you may have to exceed that number.
Next comes the needs. Needs vary in terms of angle of view, maximum aperture and other features like stabilization and tilt-shift mechanism. Since DSLR cameras vary in crop-factor, the angle-of-view requirements will translate into different focal lengths. For the sake of simplicity, examples here are quoted for the most common crop factors of 1.5 or 1.6. Now think about the widest and the smallest angle of view desired. This is very personal, some people always want a wider angle-of-view and some people always want more zoom. With a 1.5 crop, wide-angle photography requires 19 mm or less. Lenses which start between 24 and 28 mm are satisfactory for many. Ideally, portrait should be taken with an 60 to 80 mm lens. Distant subjects and wildlife are easier to photograph with 200+ lenses. Lenses also vary according to maximum aperture. A wider aperture means less depth-of-field and more light gathering. Remember that lenses are generally at their sharpest 2-stops down from their maximum. An F4 lens, is therefore sharpest at F8, while a F2.8 lens at F5.6. Another important feature is stabilization which is not available in all lenses. Owners of cameras with built-in stabilization, such as the Sony Alpha A100 or the Pentax K100, are lucky since they get stabilization on all lenses at no additional cost. Last but not least, lenses vary tremendously in terms of quality. Price though is generally proportional to quality.
Ultra-Wide Angle Lenses
While many general purpose digital lenses start at wide-angles, none are truly ultra-wide lenses. An ultra-wide lens adds an unusual perspective to images, one that does not approach human vision. Note that no ultra-wide lens is stabilized and none has a large maximum aperture. Stabilization with ultra-wide lenses requires a camera with built-in stabilization. The most common ultra-wide lenses are 12-24mm with either constant F4 aperture or variable F4.5-5.6. There are also a few such lenses starting at 10 or 11mm. 
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A set of one lens can be very light and fast to use since lens changes are not required. On the other hand, single lenses with long-zoom ranges are of limited quality and feature narrow maximum apertures. Here are some flexible single lens kits:
With two lenses instead of one, it is possible to cover a wider-range of focal lengths or to cover a similar range with higher quality optics. Of course, the hassle is carrying both lenses and having to swap them. Swapping lenses in the field can be minimized by matching each lens to different subjects. This will reduce the risk of getting dust on the camera sensor. Several wide lenses exist to complement medium lenses. One can be chosen either to complement a quality medium lens or a regular medium-to-tele lens. A lens ending with a medium focal length can be paired with a telephoto lens for extending your reach without compromising quality at medium focal lengths. Here are some good lens pairs:
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