How To Choose The Best Lens For Your Camera

1 April 2019

Whether you are the proud owner of a high-end DSLR camera or a compact Mirrorless camera, you will at some time or another be faced with the common dilemma of how to choose the best lens for your camera.

Prime or zoom? Wide-angle or telephoto? Below we will make the differences between these lenses clearer, and hopefully, make it a little easier for you to decide.


Where to begin?

You went out on a mission to purchase a new camera to drastically improve your photographic output. At first, you didn't know much but you knew you wanted a camera with changeable lenses. Congratulations on your exciting new venture!

After a while, you will notice the limitation of your camera's kit lens. It does the job for your daily shooting but as you start to develop specific interests, you will need to start properly understanding camera lenses. At Ted's camera stores we have the best digital camera lenses available for all of your shooting needs.

How To Choose The Best Lens For Your CameraHow To Choose The Best Lens For Your Camera

What type of camera lens should I buy?

How To Choose The Best Lens For Your CameraHow To Choose The Best Lens For Your Camera

As we have already mentioned, there are many different types of camera lenses available for the keen photographer to purchase.

In our lens buying guide, you will find plenty of helpful lens related information including different types of camera lenses and their uses and how to identify camera lenses, which is essential for ensuring compatibility with your camera, and your photographic goals.

Landscape Camera Lenses

There are no hard and fast rules but if you are looking to photograph landscape images, you are going to start your search in the Wide Angle lenses category. The wider field of view provided by these lenses enables you to fit in more of the scene before your eyes, without having to scramble back to avoid cropping the edges. Wide Angle lenses can also be utilised to photograph in tight spaces, making them great for interiors.

Wide-angle lenses come in either zoom or prime variants, with prime lenses delivering exceptional image quality and zoom lenses providing more versatility, with the ability for you to hone the framing of your pictures with ease.

 

How To Choose The Best Lens For Your CameraHow To Choose The Best Lens For Your Camera

Sports and Wildlife Photography Lenses

How To Choose The Best Lens For Your CameraHow To Choose The Best Lens For Your Camera

For Sports, Wildlife and other types of action photography, you are on the lookout for a telephoto lens, which is the lens with the longest magnification. They come in prime and zoom variants, with zoom lenses being the most suitable for quickly framing your subjects as they are on the move. As pointed out in our buying guide, lenses that start at around 135mm are considered telephoto lenses, with the bigger the number, meaning the more magnified the lens.

If you have ever noticed the photographers at professional sporting events using incredibly long camera lenses, these are the higher-end telephoto lenses. Canon camera lenses for sports are easy to spot, being the big white lenses, while professional Nikon camera lenses are also very commonly seen in the photography pit.


Standard and All-In-One Zoom Lenses

Another type of lens that is worth mentioning is the humble all-in-one zoom lens. Although this is a broad category with various ranges and price points available, with a little research you may very well be able to find your holy grail lens - that one lens that can do it all. Depending on what your main goal is, your daily zoom lens may carry a versatile 24-105mm zoom range, in which case you can find something with a respectable constant aperture and premium image quality.

If you need a little more zoom due to spending your time photographing kids and similarly unpredictable subjects, you may have to sacrifice slightly your aperture ratings and to some extent your image quality for a broader-reaching zoom lens; something in the 18-300mm range.

How To Choose The Best Lens For Your CameraHow To Choose The Best Lens For Your Camera

Portrait Photography Lenses

How To Choose The Best Lens For Your CameraHow To Choose The Best Lens For Your Camera

If like many beginner photographers, you have been drawn to photography due to your love of portraits, your best place to start would be the single-focal-length or prime lens section. Generally a normal to short-telephoto range (50-90mm) is good for getting a tight crop around your subjects without you getting up into their personal space.

If you have always wondered what the f-number on camera lenses means, now is your turn to pay attention. For portraits, you want a lens with a small f-number or aperture rating, which actually equates to a larger opening. This lens characteristic provides you with the much desired out of focus backgrounds, which in turn helps to emphasise the importance of the foregrounds.


Understanding Lens Quality

Understanding digital camera lenses not only relies on your understanding of the different types of lenses that are available to you but also the differing quality of the lenses. Affordable camera lenses can be great and they allow you to fill up your kit with all the tools necessary to tackle your favourite styles of shootings but obviously, they are not the best quality camera lenses on the market.

The best quality Canon Camera lenses are easy to locate, being those of the brand's esteemed L-series range. With Nikon camera lenses, Sony alpha camera lenses and SLR camera lenses of many other brands, it is generally not as easy to spot the top-tier lens offerings, apart from one obvious fact - the price of the lens. You can also keep an eye out for the maximum aperture rating of the lens, with prime lenses with the largest aperture, and zoom lenses with a large and constant aperture, (ie: f2.8, rather than f3.5-5.6) being the most desirable. Other features such as the quality of the lens elements used in the design will also play a key role in the image quality provided by a camera lens.

Shopping For New Camera Lenses

Now you are beginning to have some understanding of the type of lens that you need to pair with your camera in order to make your dreams of a professional photography portfolio into a reality. But knowing what you want and knowing how to get it are two different things.

At Ted's Camera stores we have a comprehensive collection of digital camera lenses, of all brands, shapes and sizes. We provide competitive pricing on all of our gear and our expert staff are always available to lend a helping hand if you still haven't quick figured out what it is you need to set your photographic career on the right trajectory.

We also have a large range of Second-hand camera lenses available both in-store and online, with our online database constantly being updated. Second-hand stock is thoroughly checked over by our staff to assure that equipment is still functioning correctly and that it is fit and ready for its second life in your photography kit.

How To Choose The Best Lens For Your CameraHow To Choose The Best Lens For Your Camera

Maybe you have decided on your perfect lens but can't quite come up with the funds at this time. Rather than settling for something cheaper that you will inevitably lose interest with, why not get your dream lens another way? If that sounds like a great plan and you are asking yourself, where can I rent camera lenses? You are in luck! Ted's Camera Stores, in conjunction with Studio 19, offer a flexible rental solution, which allows you to have your camera lens in your hands quickly and easily, with low monthly repayments. You can apply to buy your product at any time during the rental period, so there is no need for you to waste time worrying about you and your favourite new lens parting ways - this is just one of the many advantages of renting your camera gear.


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