Are you planning on investing in lenses to go with your digital SLR camera? If so, then you should start choosing which lenses are the best for your camera. When choosing, there are some important factors you should consider, such as the lens quality, image resolution, the maximum lens opening or the amount of light that the lens can transmit, the focusing range or how close to your subject you can get, and the amount of magnification possible, which is simply the zooming function of a zoom lens. These are affected by the three most important factors you need to consider when it comes to choosing lenses, which are image quality, lens aperture, and focusing.

Image Quality

Image quality, which is affected by the sharpness of your lens, is one of the first few factors you have to consider when buying your lenses. If you used to use a point-and-shoot camera, you’ll be surprised at how much difference your digital SLR and your lens can make to your photos. A point-and-shoot won’t give you many options when it comes to lens sharpness and the resulting image quality. You either have to have a sharp or a not so sharp lens. But in digital SLRs, lens quality can differ greatly. A general purpose lens can produce fairly good quality images for most shooting purposes. But if you plan on photographing specialized subjects, there is a wide range of lenses you can choose from, including ultra-wide lenses, super-fast optic lenses with large f-stops, and extra long telephoto lenses. If you want such lenses, you should read up on them or ask fellow photography fans for the best choices because you can have very particular choices when it comes to such lenses.

Lens Aperture

If you are used to using an SLR camera, then lens aperture is not a new concept for you. If you are, however, not familiar with lens aperture, it is the size of the lens opening that lets in the light to the sensor. The wider the aperture, the more light gets admitted, which leads to better results even when you take photos in a dim environment. If your aperture is narrow, your lens will let in limited amounts of light. A narrow lens aperture is good to use when shooting in areas with very bright lighting. Aside from the aperture, lens also come in various opening ranges, which are called f-stops. If you prefer taking photos in automatic mode, you don’t have to worry about f-stops.

In general, maximum lens aperture of f2 to f2.8 is considered fast, while maximum of f8 is considered slow. Your choice of a lens based on lens aperture will depend on whether you plan to take more pictures in dim or bright areas. The dimmer the environment, the faster you want your lens to be.

On the other hand, a lens with small minimum aperture will allow you to take pictures in an area with very bright light. Paired with a slow shutter speed, you can even add dramatic blurs to your images. However, lens with smaller apertures are sometimes vulnerable to diffraction or reduced sharpness.

Focusing

A lens generally affects a camera’s ability to focus on its subject. In photography, the general rule is to crop out unnecessary clutter and focus on the subject the best way possible. In digital cameras, any unnecessary clutter on the photo takes up pixels unnecessarily and can cause some limitations when it comes to cropping and image enlargement. Lenses can affect your focus a lot. For example, an 18mm wide-angle lens can focus entirely even on small objects.

Special Considerations with Zoom Lenses

Zoom lenses are special lenses that allow you to zoom in on objects that are far from you. Most photographers specializing in scenic photography or sports competitions usually find these lenses very useful. Most digital cameras, SLR and point-and-shoot likewise, usually already come with zoom lenses, but with varying enlargement ratios. The common ratios are 2:1 and 3:1, which means the images can be zoomed in on at twice or thrice their original sizes. However, some more expensive cameras also come with 4:1 to 10:1 enlargement ratios.

Digital cameras can also be fitted with special zoom lenses with the only requirement that the camera and the zoom lens are compatible with one another. Zoom lenses come in a wide array of zoom ratios and focal length ranges, with zooming ranges of 18mm to 70mm, 70mm to 200 mm, 80mm to 400mm, and up to long telephoto lengths of 200mm to 600mm.

However, zoom lenses are vulnerable to a range of special considerations. Zoom lenses are usually slower because they usually have lower aperture levels than regular lenses with the same focal length. For example, a 28mm regular lens used in a 35mm camera can have an f2 to f1.4 aperture, while a zoom lens with the same specifications will be limited to only f2.8 to f3.5 aperture.

Understanding the Optical Zoom

Digital cameras now become more and more dependent on the optical zoom. In optical zoom, the relationship between the various elements of the lens can be adjusted to change magnification options. This allows you to make the necessary adjustments to come up with the sharpest possible image in spite of magnification.

Lens Add-ons

When shopping for camera lenses, you also have to consider the add-ons you can avail of. The creativity of photographers in the past was tested by the various filters and add-ons they attach to their lenses to make creative adjustments to their photos. For example, photographers used color correctors, diffraction prisms for image splitting, and even smears of Vaseline to create a softer effect on an image. Nowadays, the special filters come in close-up lenses, microscopic attachments, wide-angle attachments, slidecopy accessories, and even infrared filters. If you plan on getting creative and want a little more flexibility than normal, choose a lens that you can fit with various add-ons.

Lens Construction

Before you pay for your preferred lens, make sure to check one final thing: the construction of the lens itself. Lens components are made by either plastic of metal. Non-metal components are more vulnerable to wear and tear especially when you frequently attach and detach them from your camera. Don’t forget; your lens is as much an investment as your camera is, so make sure to choose the right lens for your needs.

About the author
This article has been contributed by Nick Smith from www.DigitalWeddingSecrets.com. To know more you can visit his blog, his latest article focuses on engagement photography tips