Buy Dslr Lens
This is a comprehensive DSLR lens guide that will help you through the steps of shortlisting, comparing and deciding on your next DSLR lens. Whether you are an amateur or a professional this guide will help you understand the different parameters that you need to consider before finalizing a lens.
buy dslr lens
Zoom lenses, on the other hand, have the ability to change their focal length within a maximum and minimum value. Therefore with a single lens, you are able to get a wide-angle shot and then adjust the focal length (zoom in) to capture a subject that is much further away.
The one that comes first denotes the maximum aperture that the lens is able to open up to when shooting at its shortest focal length. The one after suggests the maximum aperture that the lens is able to open up to when shooting at its longest focal length. This happens more with the cheaper lenses than the top-end lenses.
The 24-70mm has a constant aperture across the focal length range. If possible buy a lens that has a constant aperture because that will allow you to get a constant depth of field across the focal length range and there would be no visual jerk.
Also, insist on lenses that have minimal to no focus breathing. Focus breathing is a mechanism where changing the focus tends to change the focal length (and therefore the field of view) of the image. Cheaper lenses have massive focus breathing issues.
Cheaper lenses tend not to handle small apertures well. We have already read how a poor-quality lens tends to get affected by lens diffraction very easily. This happens when you stop the lens down and that results in the light rays getting bounced off the aperture diaphragm blades thereby reducing the overall sharpness of the image. This is the reason it is advised not to invest in cheaper lenses. Their inherent defects are very easily exposed when you use a high-resolution camera with a cheap lens.
Macro lenses are a special lens type that has extremely small working distances for focusing. Normal lenses have a slightly longer working distance. The working distance for focusing denotes the minimum distance from the subject at which the lens is able to make a sharp focus. The shorter that distance, the greater is the magnification. Magnification refers to how large the image of a subject would be when it is projected onto the focal plane (sensor). A true macro lens will be able to produce a 1:1 representation of a subject when focused on its closest working distance.
Tilt-shift lenses are another special-purpose lenses. They have a limited utility in photography. They are very difficult to master. But having said that, these lenses will allow you to accomplish certain tasks where all other lenses will fail. One of the many optical illusions that this lens tends to solve is the problem of the Ponzo illusion. This illusion will show up parallel lines as merging in a distance. Examples are railway tracks, tall twin skyscrapers, and even tram lines. Another critical advantage of tilt-shift lenses is that they can create selective focusing at an extreme level.
Normal lenses have the plane of focus running parallel to the image sensor (the focusing plane). With these lenses you can move the plane of focus around, shifting it perpendicularly or even horizontally. You can thus, create an image where the plane of focus is perpendicular to the focusing plane. Therefore, elements in the image vertical to the focusing plane (back to front) are in focus and those parallel to the focusing plane are out of focus.
A tilt-shift lens can counter common issues like merging train tracks or tall skyscrapers appearing leaning on each other and so on. They are great for architecture photography. They are also great for selective focusing techniques.
The second mode is known as a panning assist mode. In this mode, the lens will activate image stabilization when it detects that there are any movements that are perpendicular to the panning movement. This mode is perfect for planning purposes. Such as when you are following an athlete running past you or when panning a bird in flight and these sort of things.
Usually, a lens that is labeled as weather-sealed comes with a series of rubber sealing around the lens mount, switches, and buttons. Basically, these are the places that can leak water and or let the weather in. Different lens manufacturers use different acronyms to mark that their lenses are weather sealed.
A fully weather-sealed lens is what you need when working in outdoors and in inclement weather. Such as if you are shooting landscapes, seascapes and fog and basically any photography pursuit that require you to expose your photography equipment to the mercy of Mother Nature.
Usually, outdoor photographers, such as those who do landscapes, water sports, sports in general use equipment that is weather sealed. And not just the lens they prefer using weather-sealed camera bodies as well. If you plan on doing the same you have to ensure that you get yourself a weather-sealed body along with a weather-sealed lens. You should also get yourself a filer that will protect the front element otherwise weather sealing will not be complete.
Sometimes photographers jump platforms, such as a Nikon user switching to Sony or vice versa. For them keeping lenses from the older platform makes no sense at all. These lenses end up getting listed on eBay. Which, incidentally, is a good place to look for great quality optics at a bargain price. Another good place is to look for manufacturer refurbished lenses
This is probably not so important when buying proprietary lenses as proprietary lenses will mount without issues except for a few exceptions. This is particularly important when buying lenses made by third-party manufacturers. Such as Sigma, Tamron, Tokina, Lensbaby, Lomography and so on.
Every lens mount is different. You cannot mount a lens that has been designed for the Canon EF mount on a Nikon F-mount camera or vice versa. That is without an adapter. Third-party lens manufacturers would routinely manufacture the same lens for two or more lens mounts. Thus, it is imperative that you double-check that you are picking up the version for the specific mount that your camera has.
Mounting a larger lens on a smaller camera gives you a slightly longer effective focal length. This depends on the crop factor of the camera. The reason why this happens has already been explained before. In the case of Nikon systems, the crop factor is 1.5x. So, a 50mm FX lens becomes a 75mm lens when mounted on a DX body.
Please note that the actual focal length never changes. It is only that the lens uses a shorter crop of the image coming through the lens which mimics the effect of a tighter composition (longer focal length).
Next, on our list, we bring up Sigma. Sigma makes lenses not only for its own camera system but also for Nikon, Canon, and Sony. Sigma uses two acronyms that highlight whether the lens has been designed for full-frame or APS-C cameras. The DG acronym is used to identify lenses that have been designed for full-frame digital cameras. These lenses will work with film cameras as well; to some extent but have been optimized mainly for full-frame digital sensors.
The acronym DC is used to denote lenses that have been designed for the smaller APS-C sensor cameras. These lenses should not be mounted on full-frame camera systems though as you will face a serious amount of vignetting. And just for your knowledge, Sigma also makes lenses that are optimized for mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras. These lenses are marked as DN.
Different manufacturers use different acronyms to denote the image stabilization technology on their lenses. Nikon, e.g., uses the acronym VR which stands for Vibration Reduction to denote that their lens has image stabilization. Canon, on the other hand, uses the acronym IS which means Image Stabilization. Sigma uses the acronym OS which stands for Optical Stabilization. Tamron uses the term VC which stands for Vibration Compensation.
Tokina, on their part, uses an acronym VCM which stands for Vibration Correction Module. Sony uses a special acronym for their mirrorless format lenses. It is OSS or Optical Steady Shot. Although we are not concerned with mirrorless systems in this discussion, I just wanted to give an idea as to what acronym the major players are using.
I have already discussed that some optically stabilized lenses have one or more stabilization modes. It is just that not all lenses have them. Some lenses have only one mode, while others have two and still others have three.
Lenses originally did not auto-focus. Not until very recently. Older camera lenses had to be manually focused. The first 35mm camera with an auto-focusing mechanism integrated was the Pentax ME-F. This camera came with tiny focus sensors as well as paired with lenses that had focusing motors inside them.
These lenses are known to have a slightly slower and yet more reliable Stepper Motor AF technology. These lenses, Canon states, have been designed to work in tandem with the new dual-pixel CMOS auto-focusing technology.
Sigma uses the term HSM which stands for Hypersonic motor. Tamron uses the term USD to denote the lenses that have auto-focusing motors in them. This refers to the Ultrasonic Silent Drive auto-focusing motor.
The next logical set of steps would mean that you start looking for a suitable second lens. For many, the second lens is a standard prime. Not the norm though. There are photographers who have preferred a macro lens to a standard prime. Still, others have preferred a telephoto lens. It depends on the path that each photographer takes. There is no hard and fast rule about it.
Fast aperture will ensure that you are able to capture a reasonable amount of light even when there is not enough to go around. Lenses that have a smaller maximum aperture struggle in these situations. Another advantage of fast lenses is that you are able to freeze a moment. 041b061a72
