Guide to Buying Your Next Camera Lens

Guide to Buying Your Next Camera Lens

Despite having all sorts of lenses, there’s always another one that you feel you must have. Looking at the available options out there, it’s overwhelming to choose your next lens. An important question to ask yourself is, “Does my current camera give everything that I want?” If not, then you need something else. There’s every chance that your dream lens will fall in any of the two broad categories – zoom or speed.

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Rapid Prime Lenses

These lenses usually have a bigger maximum aperture (e.g. f/2.8 and above). By having a larger aperture, they’re capable of letting in increased amount of light. As a result, they’re quite suitable in low-light situations. However, their focal lengths are fixed, and you can’t zoom in or out. They are ideal for capturing videos with DSLR cameras, and they’re also relatively cheap.

Furthermore, prime lenses can create wider shots. If you’re looking for an affordable second-lens with an aperture that’s wide enough to shoot a group of people in a room and a focal length that’s long enough to make headshots, (50mm f/1.8) might be a perfect lens choice for you. However, if your goal is to shoot objects which are far away or making portraits, then you need a fast lens that has a longer focal length (e.g. 85mm f/1.8).

Telephoto Zoom Lenses

These are extremely useful when shooting images of birds, theater, sports, or any other subject that’s far away from your camera. If you realize that you’re missing important shots because of your inability to zoom in close to your subject, consider buying telephoto lens during your next shopping. A telephoto lens is ideal for action photography because of its ability to freeze the movement of your subject. The 18-300mm f/4, 70-200mm f/2.8, 70-300mm f/4 and 70-200mm f/4 are some of the great choices available on the market.

Wide Zoom Lenses

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You might be asking yourself this, “How will I squeeze more people into my frame?” or “How am I going to capture unique landscape photos with my DSLR camera?” Wide zoom lenses are what you need. You should choose a lens that offers much about range. There are several great options out there. The most common super-wide lens is that with a focal length of 24-70mm. Others include 11-16mm f/2.8, 12-24mm f/2.8, 16-35mm f/2.8, 17-50mm f/2.8 and 24-70mm f/2.8.

CamLabs Camera Lens Mugs

CamLabs makes the highest quality camera lens mugs I have even seen.  They make amazing mug replicas of real DLSR lens for Canon 24-105mm, Canon 70-200 F4 (in black and white), Canon EF 24-70mm, Nikon 24-70mm and Nikon 70-200mm.  Variations include clear lens lids and sippable lids.  Some models even have a zoom feature where you can twist the mug and it becomes bigger or smaller like a real lens!

These are real mugs that you can use to drink coffee, tea and other beverages.  They are insulated and made of stainless steel, and FDA and SGS approved food grade plastic.  CamLabs makes the best camera lens coffee mugs on the market.  Imagine having this mug sitting beside your DLSR lens … awesome!  You can buy a CamLabs camera lens mug on Amazon and in top photography stores.

 

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Choosing a Lens – Camera Lenses Explained

The process of choosing the right lens is as daunting as selecting your preferred DSLR camera. It becomes even more challenging when you look at different lenses on the same paper, they seem very similar but their prices vary remarkably. In most cases, just the process of reducing the entire list to fewer options is enough to frustrate you, especially when you consider third-party options available at much affordable prices.

What Can Fit and Work With Your Camera

Check for compatibility. The lens you’re about to buy should be able to fit and work with your camera. Several camera manufacturers’ design a variety of lenses for different cameras sensors, and are normally categorized into two – cropped-sensor and full-frame sensor lenses. Nikon for instance, categorizes its full-frame sensor lenses as FX and cropped-sensor lenses as DX. On the other hand, Canon classifies its full-frame sensor lenses as EF moniker and its cropped-sensor lenses as EF-S.

Concentrate on Your Focal Length

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It’s essential to understand how a lens works in a specific camera. Without a doubt, the size of the sensor can change the effective focal length. For instance, if you use a 50mm lens on a full-frame sensor, the resultant focal length will be that of a 50mm lens. With the same lens on a cropped-sensor, the resultant focal length will be around 75-80mm. This is because the cropped-sensor uses only the central part of the lens. As a result, the edges will be effectively cropped away and you’ll be brought closer to your subject.

How Wide is the Aperture?

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The amount of light that gets into the lens is specifically determined by the extent to which the aperture is open. Therefore, prime lenses with only one focal length will provide one aperture. To show the maximum aperture, zoom lenses will provide two apertures. Prime lenses may show an aperture of f/2.8 while zoom lenses may show an aperture of f/3.5-5.6. On the lens barrel, the maximum aperture is always indicated after the focal length.

Image Stabilization

You should consider a lens with image stabilization technology built into it. This allows you to shoot sharper images at reduced shutter speeds.

Protection

Just like your camera, the lens you’re going to buy should have some degree of weather-protection.