beginners guide to lenses required

[Gill Catton]

Hello!
I was wondering if anyone could point me in the direction of a basic explanation of lenses and what the various types are good for?

I am still a beginner or perhaps even embryonic in my understanding of how lenses work and differ in their abilities.

Thank you in advance

[Jim Ford]

Let me google that for you

Jim

[squishy]

haha! first time I've seen that Jim

[Geoff F]

I find this site is good for reviews of specific lenses All Tests / Reviews

[Gill Catton]

Thank you!! All recommendations happily recieved

[nigel_b]

Depends on what you want to photograph, and depends on both your short and long term budgets.

The first rule to remember is that it is the lens that captures the image.

I cant afford to sink £1000s into camera gear at the moment but I do want to capture some images and gain some experience. I bought a Sony A100 and kit lens for £100, a Minolta Beercan 70-210mm from ebay for £130 and a Sony Reflex 500mm f8 from a rival bird forum for £300 (ouch!). So all in all I've spent £530 over about 3 months.

The standard kit lens is 18-70mm and OK quality. You're going to need it for landscapes etc.

The Minolta beercan 70-210mm is a brilliant lens:

You can get in nice and tight without crowding the subject.

You'll need more reach for out-and-out wildlife shots. I use the 500mm both from a tripod:


and remarkably from handheld:


and

Both of the last two were handheld with this lens.

The Sony A100 has in-camera stabilisation rather than in-lens. This means it works with whatever lens you fit however I cannot get such good results with it with the beercan and I believe it may be optimised for longer lenses like the 500mm.

The 500mm reflex is an ideal carry-around lens. It does need good light for good results though, in my opinion.

To be honest, for most distant wildlife you'll still be cropping images taken with a 500mm lens but the 500mm is pretty useless for most other sorts of photography with the possible exception of architecture when distant detail might be needed.

If I had to chose one lens it would be very difficult! I love walking round nature reserves etc with the 500mm handheld, but the beercan 70-210mm is more versatile. The single, long focal length lens (500mm) gives a very narrow field of view and it can be difficult to locate your subject quickly.

Hope this is of some use!