Lenses For Digital SLRs [BOOK REVIEW]

When interchangeable lens digital SLRs became a practical and attractive financial reality, many long time Nikon and Canon fanciers; already loaded up with very valuable and high quality glass thought that their day had come.

At last — great lenses and digital capture. Sadly, the picture was not entirely rosy.
First up, the sensor size on most cameras was below that of the well-established 24x36mm Leica frame that 35mm camera owners had lived with. This dramatically affected lens coverage: suddenly a 20mm lens became a 30mm or worse, a 40mm.

Secondly, there was the little recognised factor of digital capture versus film capture. The digital frame and its pixels was different to the film frame its grain structure, demanding that the image to be captured was presented to the light sensitive surface differently.

Author Hoddinott explains it this way: In film photography, light falling on the film is recorded accurately across the frame irrespective of the angle of incidence. However, the imaging sensor employed in a digital camera is a micro-chip with photodiodes laid out on a regular grid. The photodiodes sit in a depression, meaning that light can only reach them effectively if it comes through the lens from straight ahead.” Further, Hoddinott adds, insufficient light may reach the sensor, degrading quality. Wide angle lenses suffer most.

Aside from this startling and, to film lens owners, dispiriting factor, the book ploughs through a lot of basic and advanced detail which should enliven the experienced photographer’s knowledge base and educate the newbie’s.

The book walks through the basics of lenses, different types and their uses, as well as touching on such little known topics as zoom lens creep, where the internal elements can move when the lens is tilted up or down.

Useful for the knowledgeable and the learner.

Author: R Hoddinott.
Publisher: Ammonite Press.
Distributor: Capricorn Link.
Length: 160 pages.
ISBN: 978 1 90667 276 8.
Price: AUD39.99. Get a Price on Lenses for Digital SLRs at Amazon (currently 22% off).