If you do any photography, you are occasionally going to hear that you need to have ‘a fast lens.’ That sounds great. Fast is good, right? But what does it really mean? Well, the lens speed essentially is how wide the maximum aperture of that lens is. The greater that max aperture, the faster your lens is going to be.

When we speak about a lens, we very often will describe it by focal length; it might be a lens that is 50mm or 200 mm. We also will mention its max aperture. It will normally be a number that has an ‘f’ just before it. Some examples will be f/2.0 or f/5.6. The lesser that number is the larger your max aperture will be. Make sure you bear in mind that the aperture is how big the hole is in the lens that allows light inside once you press the shutter button. The larger that aperture, more light is allowed into the lens.

A lens with a bigger max aperture is called ‘fast’ since it lets in a great amount of light. Therefore you can use shutter speeds that are faster even in dim situations. The ability to shoot a photo in lower light conditions without a flash is a great advantage in a lot of situations. A fast lens really shines in a low light area. For instance, you might be in an art museum where there isn’t a lot of natural light, but flashes are not allowed. This will allow you to get better shots

As a rule, a lens is ‘fast’ if the max aperture is f/4 or greater. A fast lens may be a great thing, but they are almost always more costly.

One more big thing to remember is that the larger aperture of a fast lens is going to have a big effect on the depth of field in the images. Bigger apertures will give you a depth of field that is shallower. This is great if you are wanting to have the object of your photo stand out the most from the background.

Overall, a ‘fast lens’ is usually a desirable thing to have on your SLR camera. However the prices of the faster lenses may be a deciding factor for many people.

There are positive and negatives with all subjects in life, and the same applies to DSLR cameras and normal cameras, but the main difference between DSLR and a fixed lens camera, is the trade off between convenience and quality. There use to be a massive difference between the two cameras but these days you don’t really have much difference. The main quality with DSLR cameras is they allow you to capture better high quality pictures and allot more flexiblity, but of course there is a cost that comes with these, and it is that they are allot bulkier.

The DSLR camera come from the old school SLR film cameras. The SLR is for single lens reflex which means that there is only one lens that allows the camera to capture a photo.

If you plan to use a DSLR camera then the view finder is optical. The best thing about the DSLR is what you see is what you get, you take a picture with one of these bad boy’s and you will get the same picture. There is a mirror that reflects the light through your camera’s viewfinder, and then it flips up to expose the digital sensor.

Choosing a Lens

The flexibility of being able to use a variety of camera lens is one of the key features of a digital SLR camera. The camera is only part of the picture that you take. The lens itself is very important in how every photo looks that you take. If you are taking a lot of sports action photos, you will want one type of lens. If you are taking a great deal of wildlife or nature pictures, you would probably want another type.

You can purchase two basic types of lens:

• Prime: These lenses have fixed focal lengths, are fast and bright, and are extremely high quality. They are designed for only 1 focal length.
• Zoom: These allow you to choose from many focal lengths, making this lens more versatile. However, zoom lenses are not as fast, and there are more aberrations in their photos than with prime lenses.

Many SLRs now come with a standard zoom camera lens that ranges from 35-70mm, or 28-55mm.

In prime lenses, the basic ones are:

• Standard (50 mm): This is the lens that will come with most SLRs. This is a lens for general picture shooting, and gives you a view that is similar to that of the human eye. These are compact and lightweight, and provide nice, sharp images.
• Wide Angle: (less than 50mm): People who shoot landscapes, wildlife and outdoors usually select a wide angle lens. One of these lenses gives you a depth of field that is very deep, so you do not need to adjust your focus all the time.
• Medium Telephoto (85-135mm): This is the lens of choice for a portrait. This one will isolate the subject of your picture more from the surroundings. The greater focal length also will flatten the image somewhat.
• Long Telephoto (more than 135mm): This is what you use for sports shots, or other types of shots where you have to have an up close image but you cannot actually be physically up close.

If you want a zoom camera lens, consider one of these:

The Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II is a starter lens and does not do everything well. However it is quite a good value if purchased with an SLR camera. It is often the lens paired with many entry level SLRs.  It is inexpensive, small and very light. It has pretty good image stabilization and has a good focal length range for general purposes. This camera lens will function fairly well in a low light setting, as long as the subjects are not in motion. This lens is fairly slow, meaning that the aperture is narrow.

The Canon EF-S 17-55mm F/2.8 IS USM has a fixed, fast aperture of f/2.8, extremely superior image quality, as well as image stabilization with three stops. This is one of the best general purposes lenses on the market. This lens has many great features, very high image quality and is the choice of many amateur and professional photographers.

It has been said throughout the lifetime of the camera that the quality of a picture isn’t about the device, but the photographer. A great photographer can get you something out of a low-end camera better than a novice on a high-end device if he or she adheres to certain fundamental laws of quality picture-taking. In the past couple of summers I’ve taken this to a new level of art—I actually love seeing how much I can squeeze out of lesser cameras. By simply understanding the stock lens of your picture-taking device, you inherently understand so much about what it can and can’t do. Does your lens bring out the best in cool tones? Take morning pictures and play in the winter. Warm tones? Summertime rules, so go to the beach or stay outside as much as possible. Does your lens have a special knack for picking up artificial lights? Objects under streetlamps at night become majestic.

Of course, it also helps to understand your ISO and shutter settings, but if you’re either a true novice or if you really want to understand what your camera can do on its own, stick to environments that don’t require a flash and adjust your contrast and saturation settings as needed. Pretend AUTO is a bad word, and while you shoot remember that your goal isn’t necessarily to take good pictures, but to understand what your camera can and can’t do. Because once you really understand what it can do, it won’t matter what you’re shooting with.

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