Camera Digital SLR

There are many types of camera lenses you can buy for your SLR digital camera. A prime lens has a fixed focal length and is fast, bright and usually high quality. A zoom lens lets you select from various focal lengths. These lenses are slower and their photos tend to have more noise and aberrations.

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.

I have three devices that have the capability of taking photos: a cell phone, a Kodak EasyShare and a Canon SLR. The Canon is essentially a vacation camera for me; when I leave New York for longer than a day it comes with me. The Kodak (a pocket-sized point-and shoot) was my first real digital camera. At 8 megapixels it took the clearest photos I’d ever seen before upgrading to my SLR camera. The Kodak was also my “going out” camera, the one that I’d take to parties, gatherings and weekends with friends. I used this camera almost exclusively around town until I upgraded my cell phone to a smartphone about a year and a half ago. While the megapixel quality (5) didn’t touch that of my two “real” cameras, I loved the portability of carrying only one device. What became almost instantly noticeable to me was not the clear differences in the quality of the photos­ . . . I mean, you’d automatically assume the difference between the three would be completely different. What I realized was that the difference in clarity did not necessary have to mean quality.

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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