Lenses are crucial to good photography.
When you are buying a digital SLR system, the lens should be where you invest most of your money. Although camera bodies can become outmoded as new technologies arrive, good glass can last a lifetime, and since the optics are used to magnify the image, the lens is, in many ways, the most important component of good photography. Choosing a lens depends on many factors, including the type of camera you have and the type of photography you are doing.
Instructions
1. Check your camera body to find out whether it has a full-frame sensor. Full-frame sensor cameras work only with certain lenses, in the case of Canon, or have a cropped resolution, in the case of Nikon. Full-frame sensor models include the Nikon D700 and D3, Canon 5D and 1Ds and Sony A900.
2. Determine the focal length you need. Wide-angle lenses, such as 18 mm, are good for landscape shots and panoramic shots. Telephoto lenses, up to 300 mm or more, are good for wildlife and sports shots.
3. Check the aperture value on the lens. A fixed-aperture lens, usually an f/2.8, allows more light to hit the sensor and is ideal for low-light photography and action shots. These lenses are more expensive. Many popular zoom lenses have a variable aperture of f/3.5 to f/5.6.
4. Work out the conversion factor on a non full-frame camera to make sure the adjusted focal length will work for your needs. For Nikon, Canon, Pentax and Sony, non full-frame sensor cameras have a 1.5x crop factor, so any focal length needs to be multiplied by 1.5 to determine the true 35 mm focal-length equivalent. For Olympus, the crop factor is 2x. While the crop factor gives better telephoto, it reduces wide angle capability.
5. Check some third-party lenses from companies such as Tamron, Tokina and Quantaray. Although third-party lenses aren't as good as the best lenses from the camera manufacturers, some offer very good shooting capability with low aperture values for a lot less money.
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