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How to choose a lens for your camera
Often, manufacturers supply cameras with universal lenses – they are also called “kit lenses. For beginner photographers, this is a good option to get acquainted with the technique. However, the full potential of the camera can be revealed only with the help of additional lenses.
How to choose a lens for your camera: the main thing
Consider the focal length. The shorter it is, the wider the angle of view. However, small focal lengths distort the real size of objects. Lenses can be super wide angle, wide angle, standard and long focal length. The most common are wide-angle, the most versatile are standard lenses.
Choose the type of lens – zoom or fix lens. Fixtures differ in that the latter have no picture scaling function. Fix lenses are suitable for those who want the best image quality, while zoom lenses are suitable for those who want flexibility and variety in cropping.
Make sure that the mount is the right size. This is the connecting device that is used to attach the lens to the camera body.
Before you buy, find out whether you have a full-frame or cropped sensor. A cropped lens may not be compatible with a full frame sensor, and vice versa.
Keep in mind the aperture setting. It is responsible for the amount of light that reaches the sensor, affects exposure, depth of field, and image quality. In most cases, the maximum aperture is about f/3.5, f/1.8 is good for portraits with a bokeh effect.
What do you need a lens for?
A lens in a camera is used to collect light and focus the image on a photo-sensitive material (in film cameras) or on a photo-sensitive element (in digital cameras). The angle of view, magnification, depth of field and other parameters of the picture depend on the characteristics of this device. Several lenses are usually used for professional photography.
Before you buy a device, decide for what purpose you buy it, in what genre you plan to shoot. This determines what focal length and what design you need. For portraits it is important to have high light power and wide aperture, for landscapes fit wide angle fixes or wide angle zooms, for versatile shots of travel – zoom with a large choice of focal lengths, for reports from sports events – long focal length models with zoom. After choosing the basic parameters of the lens, you need to choose a device that is compatible with the camera’s mount and sensor.