How To Choose A Lens: A Complete Camera Lenses Explained

Camera lenses are one of the essential components of a camera. They help you take pictures and videos that are perfect for your photos and videos. However, choosing the right lens can be overwhelming, especially if you’re not familiar with all the different types of lenses available.

In this article, we will teach you how to choose a lens. Maybe you bought a DSLR, and you have a kit lens with your DSLR. But most of the time, that stock lens can’t fulfill your demands during your photography session. Maybe photography is your hobby or passion.

But it would be best if you needed the right DSLR lens for better photography. It depends on your photography demands. Then let’s find out which lens will suit your photography demands.

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7 Tips to Follow Choose A Lens

When choosing a lens, it is essential to consider your needs and wants. Given the many available options, it can be challenging to determine what lenses are best for you. We’ve put together some tips on choosing the perfect lens for your shooting style to make things easier.

Understanding focal length

When you take a photo, the lens on your camera is focused on an object in front of it. This object becomes the image’s focal point, and everything else is blurry.

Many different focal length lenses are available, affecting photos differently. A short focal length lens will focus on close objects far away, while a long focal length lens will focus on distant objects close up. Each has its advantages and disadvantages.

If you’re looking to take photos of people or things that are far away, a long focal length lens is best because it will create less distortion in the image. On the other hand, if you want to take close-up photos of people or things, a short focal length lens is preferable because it won’t distort the image as much.

So which one should you buy? It all depends on what you plan to photograph and what effect you want your photos to have. You can’t just buy any old lens; each has a specific purpose of considering when choosing it.

Types of Photography

Maybe you are a person who does portrait photography, maximum time or landscape photography, wildlife photography, Night photography, Wedding photography, Macro photography, etc. There are many kinds of photography people do. For each type of photography, you need a different lens.

Suppose you like wild photography; you travel a lot inside the wild forest and love to capture wild animals photos. In that case, you need a zoom lens of at least 70-200mm. Also, there are various lenses for various types of photography. Let’s explore them in the next section.

Types of Lenses

Different kinds of lenses are needed for different types of photography. Some significant lenses are essential to know. Here is the actual lenses name we have listed for you: 

Types of lenses

28mm Wide-angle lenses

14mm Super wide-angle lenses

50mm Prime lenses/ Zoom lenses

200mm Telephoto lens

300mm super Telephoto macro lenses

35mm Macro Lenses

28mm Wide Angle Lens

Do you love to do street photography with an excellent broad view? Then a wide-angle lens will be perfect for you. A 28mm wide lens is usually used for street photography. It doesn’t give too much bokeh effect, keep the background sharp and clean.

But I need a stable hand for street photography with a 28mm wide lens. With the 28mm lens, you can get closer to the subject because things appear smaller at a 28mm lens. Most of the 28mm lenses have an f2.5 / f2.8 aperture. So, this lens doesn’t have great bokeh shots or background blurring.  

14mm Super Wide-Angle Lens

To capture the beautiful natural scenery with a wide field of view, you’ll need a 14mm wide-angle lens. It’s an excellent lens for capturing landscape images like Mountain, Flower fields, River views, Night sky views, Astrography, etc. If you are a landscape photographer who loves to spend time with beautiful nature and wants to capture that stunning scenery with great field depth, you must go for the 14mm lens without hesitation. Let’s see some length info on the super wide-angle lens:

Angle Description	FX and 35mm Flim	6×7	4×5
Ultra-Super Wide	11-16mm	23-30mm	47-58mm
Super Wide angle	17-21mm	30-45mm	65-75mm
Wide angle	24-35mm	50-75mm	90-120mm
Normal	40-58mm	80-100mm	135-210mm

50mm Prime Lenses/ zoom lenses

Usually, prime lenses/zoom lenses are used for Basic photography. If you are a guy who likes to shoot regular photos of Friends, Family, Pets, and Food and loves to capture portraits as a beginner, then prime lenses/zoom lenses should be a better option. Prime lenses also have so many advantages.

If you are new to the photography world, you must play with the prime lenses /zoom lenses because the prime lens will give you much better knowledge on controlling the light transmission, aperture, and focus. Also, prime lenses have the proper crack, like f1.4 or f1.8. It captures more light and gives you a far better image quality, which is more valuable than those f2.8 aperture lenses.

Otherwise, if You have a shaky hand, then Prime lenses/ zoom lenses will be a great lens kit for your daily life photography because of its better optical image stabilization function.

200mm Telephoto Lens 

Telephoto lenses are beneficial for zooming in. You can zoom in on the area far away and capture the image without losing any details. It’s a handy lens if you catch some beautiful nature views from a long distance, like a waterfall, Mountain top view, Birds, Trees, etc.

One of the best reasons to use a telephoto lens is to create semi-abstract/abstract photos. 200mm telephoto can capture great portraits of humans or animals. But the telephoto lens has some disadvantages or bad habits.

Sometimes a telephoto lens magnifies the camera shake in your image, but it is still fixable. If you are using the Telephoto lens, please try to use a tripod with it. Generally, telephoto lenses have an f2.8 aperture to struggle more at night low light while capturing them. 

300mm Super Telephoto Macro Lens

Now let’s dive into an exciting section of the photography world. This vast 300mm Super Telephoto macro Lens is great for Wild-Life photography. We discussed wildlife photography in the “Types of Photography.” Wildlife photography is a very professional section of the photography world.

You’ll need a 300mm telephoto macro lens to capture those scary wild moments from far away because you can’t get closer to those wild Boars, Lions, and Tigers. Ultimately, a 300mm telephoto macro lens captures those photos and scenery far from you, and you can’t even get closer to your subject.

But don’t worry, you will lose the details of your issue. Will 300mm macro lenses, you can Zoom 20x, 50x, 100x, or even 150x. 300mm macro lenses can capture a lot of details. And Super Telephoto macro lenses are the most expensive lens. It will also give you decent image stabilization.

But the disadvantage of this 300mm macro lens is that it will struggle a lot in the dark situation because of its low aperture. Usually, 300mm macro lenses have an f4.5 or f5.6 gap. So, it’s not an excellent option for night low-light photography. But you can get great shots during the daytime with a fair amount of light. 

35mm Macro Lenses

Macro lenses are used for capturing the tiniest details. Such as, you can catch the ant world, insects, flowers, etc. You can focus on your subjects from a very close distance. It can capture incredible details of tiny issues. Standard focal lengths of macro lenses (50 mm on a 35mm camera), but the 35mm lens is more beneficial for macro photography.

Also, the 35mm lens has an incredible amount of aperture, f/2, f/1.8, and f1.4. Even in low light, 35mm, lenses can capture beautiful photos. Also, the image stabilization of the 35mm macro lenses is excellent. So, it will be an ideal lens if you love to capture macro images or take pictures from a very close distance.

Point and shoot vs. DSLR camera lenses

Point-and-shoot camera lenses are designed for simple shots that don’t require a lot of control. They usually have a short focal length and a wide-angle lens, which makes them ideal for capturing landscapes, close-ups of people, and other similar scenes.

On the other hand, DSLR camera lenses are geared toward more advanced photography. They typically have a longer focal length and a narrower aperture (which helps to achieve better low-light shooting). They’re also perfect for photos that require more control (like portraits or action shots).

If you’re new to photography, it’s probably best to start with a point-and-shoot camera lens. This will give you enough experience to learn the ropes before moving on to DSLR camera lenses.

Lens Filters

Lens filters are one of the essential components of a camera lens. They help to improve image quality by removing unwanted light and noise from the photo signal. Without them, photos would be blurry and contain a lot of noise.

There are many different lens filters like contact lenses, but Neutral Density (ND) and Circular Polarizer (CP) are the most common. ND filters let less light into the camera lens, while CP filters reduce reflections and reflections from water surfaces. You can also use graduated ND and polarizer filters to boost or minimize intensities in specific directions.

Choosing the right filter for the conditions you’re shooting in is essential. For example, if you’re shooting outdoors in bright sunlight, you’ll need an ND filter to reduce glare and reflections. If you’re taking a portrait, however, an off-the-shoulder dress may reflect too much light into your subject’s face, so using a polarizing filter will help reduce this problem.

Warranty and support

When you buy a camera lens, make sure to read the warranty and support information carefully. Most lenses come with a guarantee that covers defects in materials and workmanship for a period of either one or two years. In addition, most lenses come with some form of support, such as online tutorials or phone support.

If you have any problems with your lens, be sure to contact the manufacturer immediately. They will be able to help you get your lens replaced or fixed as needed. And don’t forget to register your lens with the manufacturer so that you can receive updates and advice on how to use it properly.

Testing Lenses Before Buying

Before you buy a lens, it’s essential to test it out first. This is because lenses can often be incompatible with different cameras, and you don’t want to spend money on something that won’t work.

The best way to do this is by shooting photos or videos with your camera and comparing them to those taken using the lens in question. You can also use online photo comparison platforms like Image Quality Database or LensHunter to see how various lenses perform. 

It’s also a good idea to read online reviews of the lens before buying it, as this will give you an idea of how other people have used it and their thoughts about it.

Ideally, it would be best if you aimed to buy a lens that has positive reviews and has been tested on multiple devices to know it will work with your particular camera model.

Image stabilization

Image stabilization is an essential feature because it will help reduce the effects of camera shake, making your photos and videos look blurry.

Some lenses come with built-in image stabilization, while others require you to attach an extra lens or mount to your camera to achieve the same effect. Whichever route you choose, buy a lens with excellent image stabilization capabilities so that your photos and videos will look smooth and precise.

Last words

We think now you are pretty much clear about every lens. So, choosing the DSLR lens for your demands will not confuse you anymore. But remember, buying a lens is too much of an affordable thing. So, you should select the best lens which will be perfect for you. And buy the best brand’s lens. We recommend Canon and Nikon lenses, world-class lenses, and DSLR companies. Every professional photographer uses their products. 

After reading this article, we hope you all will know all kinds of lenses’ advantages and disadvantages. Thank you so much for reading this article. Have a good day.