DSLR 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 that photographs are taken by a whole camera system, including the photographer. A weak link negatively affects the end-result. A poor camera, a poor lens or poor photography skills all result in disappointing pictures. The most frequent mistake of first-time DSLR buyers is to spend most of their budget on a camera body and then buy the only lens that still fits the budget - or worst, the kit lens. The first rule for choosing lenses is to allocate enough money. As it goes for choosing a digital camera, the two most important things to consider are your subjects and your medium. Lets start with the practical. How frequently are you willing to change lenses? Are willing to do it in the field? The less you are willing to change lenses on location, the more generic your chosen lens will have to be. This often results in some compromise on image quality or versatility. One who does not want to change lenses, should not get more than one. Having too many lenses results in many of them left behind. Are weight and size important? Too heavy lenses often end-up left behind too. The second rule is to think of how many lenses are you willing to have. Even without a single heavy lens, choosing too many results in higher total weight in the field. Bulk may be equally important for certain environments. Watch out, based on your needs, you may have to exceed the number of lenses you want to have.
Next comes the needs. Needs vary in terms of angle of view, maximum aperture and other features like stabilization, tilt-shift, magnification and focus distance projection. Angle-of-view requirements translate into different focal lengths due to different sensor sizes. Examples here are quoted for the most common crop factors of 1.5 or 1.6. The equivalent need for full-frame DSLR cameras is noted as a tool-tip. Think about the widest and narrowest angle desired angle of view. This is a personal choice. Some people always want a wider angle-of-view and some people always want to zoom further. If you already have a DSLR and lens, think about how often you are at the widest setting and wished to go wider because you cannot back up further. How about at the long end, how often do you feel the need to get closer? With a 1.5 crop, wide-angle requires 19 mm or less. Lenses starting from between 24 and 28 mm are mostly satisfactory. Ideally, portrait are 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 sharpest 2-stops down from their widest. An F4 lens is normally sharpest around F8, while a F2.8 lens around F5.6. An important feature is optical stabilization. It is an available on some lenses. Digital SLRs with built-in stabilization like the Sony Alpha and most Pentax K-series are advantaged since they obtain stabilization on all lenses at no additional cost. Most importantly, image quality varies tremendously between lenses. More expensive lenses are generally of higher quality than cheaper ones of similar specifications.
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. Thus, stabilizing an ultra-wide lens requires a camera with built-in stabilization. The widest ultra-wide lenses for 1.5X or 1.6X crop sensors start at 10mm, although 12mm is more common start. For full-frame sensors, Sigma has a 12-24mm which gives the widest field-of-view. The next widest field of view come from the Nikkor 14-24 F2.8 full-frame lens and the Zuiko 7-14 F4 Four-Thirds lens.
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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 have narrow maximum apertures. Here are various single lens kits:
With two lenses instead of one, it is easier 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 a different subject. This reduces 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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