Comments on: DSLR Lenses – An Introduction

By: SwordOfScotland

SwordOfScotland — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 05:32:40 +0000

Until I came to DPS I honoured myself with the title “Amatuer Photographer”. The more I read, the more I realize I don’t know, so, I am backing up to Square One and calling myself an Indentured Beginner!

This article is enlightening, but the commentary really broadens my understanding. Thanks,guys.

By: Fabien

Fabien — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 05:40:08 +0000

Thanks for all these articles and the precious advices that come along them… great site, keep on the good work.

By: Suzyseven

Suzyseven — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 13:48:31 +0000

I am an amateur photographer – looking to take better landscape photos with my Nikon D40 – My choices right now as I have done research are: Nikon 16-85 or the Sigma 10-20mm.

Any suggestions, pros!

Thanks.

By: pranav praveer

pranav praveer — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 04:01:15 +0000

hi this is very impressive site , a lots of information is stored here…good for learning

By: Manvendra

Manvendra — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 07:01:15 +0000

Telephoto lens refers to lenses which can take photos of objects far off. The word ‘Tele’ in Greek means ‘Far off’. The American Heritage Dictionary refers tele as distance or distant. So even a zoom lens with say 170mm-500mm could be called as a tele-zoom lens.

By: J. Sanders

J. Sanders — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 12:21:16 +0000

I have a question about macro lenses and portrait lenses.
When is a macrolens called a macrolens and when is a portrait lens called a portraitlens? Does it depend on the focal length? The clossenes you can get to the object?
I miss a bit explenation about this.

By: FFred

FFred — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 11:28:59 +0000

Macro lenses are definitely a special case. A macro lens will project the subject at a 1:1 ratio or larger on the focusing surface (film or sensor). This requires a prime lens. A zoom with a “macro” setting doesn’t actually do macrophotography, just close ups, or what is sometimes called “proxyphotography”.

By: Rudolf Leitgeb

Rudolf Leitgeb — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 12:32:18 +0000

Things that weren’t mentioned here (and also in related articles), but should be noted:

- Wide angle lenses are frequently bought so one can do group photos in tight environments. Note, that the shorter the focal length gets, the worse the distortion gets (and that’s not a flaw of the lens, that’s just optics laws), rendering those group photos ugly to useless. If you think you need such a lens for that purpose, at least try them out before you buy them!

- A zoom range that’s less than 1:2 is almost worthless, it’s so hard to see the difference when you zoom. Most of the time it’s better to take a fixed focal length lens at the wider end and crop the frame later. Multimegapixelcameras together with sharp lenses allow for that without serious loss of image quality.

- If you are shopping for a tele lens, make sure it’s not too long because you can’t use it hand held (unless you get really pricey IS/VFR lens). Using a long tele lens on a tripod is particularly tedious because the frame is so tight that it’s hard to find you target if it moves fast.

- If you get a fast lens, you won’t use it for low light environments too often, the depth of focus is just ridiculously thin (think a few cm, if that). A main advantage of fast lenses is that they allow you to focus at much lower light. Also they focus much more accurately at any light condition.

- If you are a beginner, don’t waste your money on expensive lenses. The main cause for lost or poor photos will not be the poor kit lens but the fact, that it takes so long to get your camera ready and mistakes like focussing on the wrong spot, bad exposures, motion blur and other common mistakes. Once your skills improve, you can still upgrade and will probably get more and better lenses for the same or lower price.

- If you are a beginner or intermediate photographer, don’t worry too much about the build quality which is mentioned so often. Most of us spend so much money on camera + lens, that we take proper care. Only pros bang their cameras against rocks or stairs all the time :-)

- Don’t spend all your money on lenses, save some for a decent flash and a tripod. With a decent flash you can remove or lessen shadows of highly contrasty motives even during daylight (the cheap builtin flash is too weak for that). A tripods works wonders if you want at least some decent pictures where you also appear on :-)

- If you shop for several lenses, make sure you don’t have too many different filter thread diameters. You will eventually like the effect of polarizer filters, they are expensive and using them with filter size adapters is tedious.

Note, that all these recommendations apply mostly to newcomers, pros may have totally different priorities.

By: Phil

Phil — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 00:52:52 +0000

I could see possibly calling out macro lenses as a special case. Other than that, I’m in agreement with Luis.

By: Andrew Ferguson

Andrew Ferguson — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 19:29:59 +0000

Solid article, but it sounds like theres a lot of confusion over your use of ‘Telephoto zoom lenses’ for that one section.

I’m with the majority of the commenters here, zoom and telephoto are two distinct separate qualitative categories. People get them confused a lot though.

Silverhalide makes a good point; why bother separating out kit lenses as a separate category? They aren’t really. They’re often just standard zooms of a lower quality.