What To Know About Buying A Lens For Camera? Buying Guide

Do you intend to purchase a new lens for your camera? Stop and read this first to learn everything about What To Know About Buying A Lens For Camera? Clarity is one of the most difficult things to attain when Purchasing a New Camera Lens.

Why do you require a new lens, how much should you spend, and how does it fit into your overall gear purchasing strategy? When you’re clear on these aspects, picking which lens (or lenses) to buy next becomes a lot easier.

What To Know About Buying A Lens For Camera?

Before making a purchase, options for focusing, and compatibility with your present and future cameras, you should consider several criteria, including the maximum aperture, fixed or variable maximum aperture, picture quality, weather resistance, the lenses version, size, and weight.

Types Of Camera Lenses

Zoom Lenses

Zoom lenses are versatile tools that can be used for a multitude of purposes. Zoom lenses provide a convenient option by enabling a choice of focal lengths, whether you’re photographing landscapes or sports. You may use one lens for anything from landscape to portraiture, relying on the range.

Zoom lenses are well known for their versatility. Their zooming ability eliminates the need for numerous lenses. Instead, a single lens can be used for a range of tasks. However, you may find that convenience comes at the expense of quality and cost.

Zoom lenses are often more expensive than prime lenses, but they don’t give the same level of quality. They can also be hefty and large, and they don’t always have the same wide apertures as prime lenses.

Prime Lenses

The focal length of prime lenses is always the same. Prime lenses, which come in a variety of focal lengths, are known for producing high-quality photographs. In comparison to zoom lenses, they also have substantially wider apertures.

Prime lenses are typically smaller than zoom lenses, which might be a significant benefit if you wish to travel light. Prime lenses are frequently less expensive than zoom lenses since they have fewer moving parts.

Another advantage of utilizing prime lenses is that it encourages you to spend more time exploring your surroundings. Instead of experimenting with multiple focal lengths, you have to move to get the greatest composition when you’re limited to only one.

Prime lenses, on the other hand, have limitations. With only one focal length, you may need many lenses to suit all of your requirements, which can quickly add up in terms of both cost and weight.

Focal Lengths

The different focal lengths are listed below:

Ultra Wide Angle 

Ultra wide-angle lenses, which range in size from 8mm to 24mm, provide a very wide field of vision and are distinguished by their high distortion (especially noticeable in fisheye lenses).

As a result, they aren’t particularly well suited to portrait work. Interiors, huge panoramic vistas and cityscapes, and even more artistic and creative work are all possible with them.

Super Telephoto 

Super telephoto lenses are extremely specialized lenses that are commonly employed by professional sports and wildlife photographers. Their focal length spans from 800mm to 2000mm, making them suitable for Astro imaging and surveillance.

Telephoto

Longer telephoto lenses have focal lengths ranging from 100mm to 800mm. For sport or wildlife photographers, they are a popular choice. Their zoom capabilities make them an excellent all-around lens for a wide range of subjects.

Telephoto Lens (Short)

Short telephoto lenses with focal lengths of 85mm to 135mm are good for portraiture. They provide the most attractive and realistic perspective, as well as the ability to operate at a reasonable distance from your subject.

Standard Lens

When compared to ultra-wide and wide-angle lenses, standard lenses offer a more realistic reproduction of what the human eye sees in terms of perspective and fields of view starting at 35mm. Standard lenses, which range in focal length from 35mm to 85mm, are a popular and adaptable choice for many photographers.

Wide-Angle Lens

Broad angle lenses, as the name implies, provide a very wide field of vision, but with less distortion than ultra-wide-angle lenses. They come in a variety of focal lengths, from 24mm to 35mm, and are suitable for a wide range of photography, from landscapes to group portraits.

What To Consider When Buying A Camera Lens?

Let’s have a look at some things to think about before you go out and buy that new Camera Lens: First and foremost, think about what you want to capture when selecting a camera lens.

Do you enjoy photographing landscapes and travel destinations? A lens with a broad field of view might be the way to go. Are you planning a safari trip?

Or what about photographing sporting events? You’ll need a lens that allows you to zoom in quite far. A standard lens is a good choice for shooting portraits and events. What does it mean to have a “normal lens”? We’re not referring to the fact that there are typical and unusual lenses; rather, we’re referring to the sort of lens.

Third-Party Or Brand-Name

While buying a third-party lens for your camera can save you money, I believe it is always better to acquire a lens made by the maker of your camera.

Stick with OEM (Original Equipment Maker) lenses unless you have a specific need to acquire a third-party lens (typically because the sort of lens you require isn’t made by your camera’s manufacturer). They have a higher resale value, and their focusing performance is usually better.

Autofocus, Weatherproofing, And Build Quality

Most manufacturers provide low-cost, mid-range, and high-cost or high-end lenses. Inexpensive lenses may appear to be a good deal at the moment, but they aren’t built as well as more costly lenses, and they may have poorer autofocus motors (i.e., slower and noisier).

Expensive lenses, on the other hand, are more likely to be well-built, to use high-quality autofocus lenses (i.e., faster and faster), and to be weatherproofed (If you’re taking images in bad weather or in dusty settings, this is very critical).

When choosing a lens, keep these things in mind. Don’t forget to inquire about the lens’s construction, weatherproofing, and the autofocus motor’s speed and quality.

Don’t Forget To Consider Your Weight And Size

Consider the weight and size of your lenses before purchasing. You are, after all, the one who will be lugging them around. However, there is another factor to consider when it comes to size, and that is filters.

By purchasing smaller lenses, you can save a lot of money on filters. If you’re curious how much a circular polarizing filter costs, conduct a search for it and check prices for the same filter in 58mm and 77mm sizes.

If you’d like a lot of filters (landscape photographers take heed), getting a small lens (the diameter of the lens or the filter size is likewise smaller) might save you hundreds of dollars.

Is It Better To Buy A-Zoom Or A Prime Lens?

Zoom lenses have the advantage of being convenient. It’s a lot easier to zoom from a wide-angle to a telephoto when you need to as a wedding photographer than it is to change lenses.

It’s easier to utilize a wide-angle zoom to frame a picture accurately than it is to change prime lenses if you’re a landscape photographer (Alternatively, you might not be able to stand where you need to obtain the photo).

Image quality and wider apertures are two advantages of prime lenses. Consider the difference between an 18-55mm kit lens (usual maximum aperture f/5.6) and a 50mm prime lens (maximum aperture f/1.4).

Between f/1.4 and f5.6, there is a four-stop difference (16 times more light), which allows you to produce shots with blurred backgrounds and shoot in low light circumstances without increasing the ISO too much.

That’s why a 50mm prime lens is preferable to the 18-55mm kit lens for portraits (taking us back to the point about lens choice being driven by subject, not focal length).

What Are The Subjects You’re Planning To Photograph?

Continuing with the 18-55mm kit lens as an example, you might want to consider a 50mm prime as a portrait lens (for high-quality imaging and wide apertures), a macro lens for taking close-up photos of insects and flowers, wide-angle zoom for landscape photography, or a super-telephoto for wildlife and sports photography.

The important element to remember is that lens selection is linked to the subject. The focus is always on the subject. You can choose the best lens (or lenses) for the job once you know what you’re going to photograph.

A secondary consideration is focal length. To put it another way, don’t buy a lens just because you believe you should; buy it because you need it.

Don’t Get Caught Up In The Focal Length Trap

The focal length trap is the misconception that you need zoom lenses that cover all possible focal lengths. If you start with an 18-55mm kit lens and later upgrade to telephoto zoom, you may feel that you need one that starts at 55mm to cover all the focal lengths in between. This is absolutely not the case.

How Much Money Do You Have?

Each person’s budget is unique, and the amount of money available dictates which lenses are considered. But, regardless of your budget, keep that number in mind while you read this article.

After that, you might see things from a different perspective. My strategy is to have as few lenses as possible that are of good quality. To put it another way, don’t overspend. Remember to look at the big picture.

What lenses would you prefer to own for your camera in the future? What role does your next purchase play in this strategy? Ideally, you should have a solid notion of which lenses you’ll need before making any plans.

This way of thinking can lead to a significant change in the lenses you purchase. For example, I became dissatisfied with the size and weight of my Canon system a few years ago.

I was also thinking about some upcoming vacation plans and recognized how crucial it was to keep my gear as light as possible (In New Zealand airports, hand luggage allowances are extremely limited and severely enforced). As a result, the choice to use the Fujifilm X-Series system was made. I now have the travel-friendly equipment I need.

Are Cheap Camera Lenses Worth It?

Additionally, it will have more metal pieces and be heavier, which will lengthen its lifespan. Buy inexpensive things if that’s all your budget will allow you to purchase. That is preferable to not shooting at all. However, do not mistake a more expensive lens for merely paying for a brand name.

What Lenses Should I Buy As A Beginner?

The camera’s kit lens is the greatest first lens to purchase as a beginner. This lens is typically the 18-55mm lens for entry-level cameras. The kit lens is the most adaptable for someone just starting in photography because of its moderate zoom range and low price.

How To Choose A Lens For A Mirrorless Camera

It’s time to upgrade to a superior zoom lens if you have extra money to burn. The best option for most people is to get a fixed-aperture zoom with a focal length range between 24mm and 105mm. A more extreme option is to use models that can span the entire spectrum or telephoto or wide-angle zooms.

Conclusion

Finally, here’s all What To Know About Buying A Lens For Camera? If you want to improve the physical quality of your photographs, the greatest thing you can do is replace your kit lens as soon as possible (or don’t buy one at all).

Prime lenses will always produce higher-quality photographs at a lower cost. They’re great budget-friendly alternatives to kit lenses. Purchase the best lens you can afford for the focal length range you use most frequently.

There won’t be many complaints about that. Don’t be concerned if you’re using a crop sensor camera and a full-frame lens. Just make the best of what you’ve got. If you’re a talented photographer, these challenges won’t stop you from creating excellent pictures.

Frequently Asked Question