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Interchangeable Digital SLR Camera Lenses

BUYER’S GUIDE

Choosing Digital Camera Lenses

Take The Guesswork Out of Choosing An Interchangeable Digital SLR Camera Lens

By William Sawalich

So you’ve made the leap from a point-and-shoot pocket camera to a digital SLR. Or perhaps you’ve upgraded an old manual film SLR for something a little higher-tech. Now you’ve got a problem: to get the most out of that new camera, you’ve got to choose the right interchangeable SLR lenses to go with it.

Manufacturers are constantly making improvements to interchangeable lenses—both in the glass that goes inside and in the extra features that make them more user-friendly. What, where, when and how you shoot will determine the features that are most important to you.

Normal, Wide And Telephoto
The first step in choosing the right lenses is to understand the different effects created by wide-angle, normal and telephoto lenses. Sure, everyone knows that a wide lens shows much more of a scene, and a telephoto allows you to get up close for details, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

A wide-angle lens spreads the scene apart, creating the impression of more distance between subjects that actually may be closer together—à la “objects in the mirror may be closer than they appear.” By getting close to a foreground subject with a wide-angle lens, you’re still able to incorporate the surroundings into the shot. This can add a tremendous sense of context in your images. Wide-angles also provide greater natural depth of field than longer lenses, so it’s easier for the average shooter to keep the scene sharp. They’re used every day by architectural and landscape photographers who need to show complete interiors or structures when they can’t get far enough away to use a normal lens.

A normal lens is designed to provide a natural perspective like the human eye sees. In the 35mm film format, normal is anywhere from 40mm to about 55mm, with 50mm being the most common option. They’re great for many situations, but they just can’t expand a scene the way a wide angle of view can, nor can they condense elements like a telephoto.

Choosing An Interchangeable Lens

There’s a discomfort that comes from someone sticking a lens right in your face. That’s why a telephoto lens is ideal for portraits; they allow the photographer some distance from the subject. Also, because they compress the background and produce an inherently shallower depth of field, they’re perfect for simplifying a composition in order to draw attention to the subject. In addition to portraiture, telephoto lenses often are used when small or faraway objects need to be enlarged. That’s why they’re so common among bird photographers, sports shooters and journalists.

For concentrating on small objects, however, a telephoto alone won’t do it. Macro and micro lenses allow focusing as close as a few inches from the subject; a standard telephoto lens may only focus at a few feet. Generally, the longer the focal length of a lens, the farther away its closest focusing point will be.

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