Camera Lenses 101 – Everything You Need to Know About Camera Lenses

They say, a picture is worth a thousand words – the visual medium is extremely powerful, but the quality of that picture will be dependent on several factors, including the type of camera you use and whether you have chosen the correct lens. When you want to achieve the perfect shot, you need to make sure that you have the perfect camera lens as well.

However, finding the right lens can often be a tumultuous task, simply because you don’t know what to look for and where to find it. Let’s begin with how to select the right camera lens:

·         Focal length - Whether you are looking for Canon camera lenses or something for your Nikon camera, the first thing you will have to pay attention to is the focal length. The focal length is the distance (generally measured in millimetres) from the centre of the lens to the sensor when you are focusing on the subject. If the number is low, the shot would be a wide one and if the number is high, then it would be a longer zoom. Now depending on what kind of photography you are dabbling in, you will have to make your choice – want more in the frame; then look for wide-angle focal lengths such as 14mm, 20mm or 35mm. But if you want a closer view of your subject, then you will want to look for focal lengths that could vary between 50mm to 135mm or higher all the way up to 300mm, which is perfect for wildlife or sports photography. 

·         Aperture – This is a reference to the measurement of how much light can enter into your camera and that in turn will affect the depth of the field. A large opening will create a shallow field and a wide opening will show the image more in focus. Aperture is generally represented by the small letter ‘f’ – so if you look at your Nikon camera lenses and you can see a number like a f1.2 or f2.8, you will know that this is the aperture and most lenses will indicate the maximum aperture on them. Depending on what kind of photography you want to do, you will have to make your choice – lenses with wider maximum aperture are perfect low light situations, such as night time or early morning, but could cost slightly more.  

·         The types of lenses – There are 2 basic categories and 5 types of lenses for almost any brand of camera – there are prime lenses and zoom lenses. A prime lens would have fixed focal length, which is why they tend to be sharper and faster; however, they will not be as flexible as zoom lenses, but they are generally lighter than specialised zoom lenses. Now let’s say, you are looking at Sony camera lenses and you want to use them for specialised photography, then you will want zoom lenses. The first important aspect is that zoom is a series of lenses which will allow you access various focal lengths, using just one lens. This means that they are more flexible than prime lenses, but they are generally heavier and bigger.

Moving onto the types of lenses:

§  Standard – The most popular type, the standard lens can be used for a wide variety of photography because their focal lengths can vary anywhere between 35mm and 85mm.

§  Macro – When you want to take really close up shots, for instance, you want to photograph a bee or the pollen grains on a flower, this is the lens you will want.

§  Telephoto – Sports and wildlife photography – where you need to have clear photos, from a distance, you will need telephoto lenses. While the field of view will become narrow, you will be able to achieve high magnification. But, these lenses can be expensive and quite heavy. 

§  Wide angle – These lenses are ideal for when you want to fit in a large area into a single frame; imagine, you want to take a landscape photo or real estate photos, where everything is in focus.

§  Speciality – This is actually an umbrella term because there are several types of lenses that are categorised as speciality lenses, each of which can offer a special or unique look and effect to the photographs. Fisheye lens offers ultra-wide angles, allowing you to take photographs that offer a 180-degree effect. The infrared lens can alter the light and tilt-shift lens can make things look tiny!

This table will give you a reasonably good idea of what lenses mean and what you be able to attain from each one of them:

It is also imperative to remember that a Pentax camera lens will not work with a Nikon camera, so while shopping for a new lens, you need to remember that even though lenses might fit into the body, they might not give you the kind of results you are looking for. So, the lens of a particular brand will work best for the camera of the same brand and only then can you expect the best results.