Equipment Suggestions for Holiday Shopping, Part II: Lenses

This month I’m continuing my discussion on gift ideas and choosing an SLR camera system. In Part II of my guide I will focus most of my attention on lenses—the best lens to use with your camera as well as what features to consider when buying one. In the Field Notes section of the newsletter, I follow up the lens discussion with a short list of great gift ideas, including cameras and camera accessories.

Each summer I spend four hours with Summer Intensive students discussing lenses, and typically focus on what features to look for when making a purchase. I suggest roughly 30 things to consider, and in class I can easily talk for hours about this subject. For this article, however, I will just touch upon the most important. It is worth pointing out that most camera bodies on the market today have great sensors and to really take advantage of them, you need to purchase a high quality lens. If you plan on making only small prints (8x10 or less), the inexpensive lens that comes with your camera—the “kit” lens—is fine. But if you plan on ever taking photos professionally or making large prints (bigger than 8x10), then it may behoove you to look for a different lens. If and when you do, consider the following:

Brand. Most major brands offer a wide range of cameras lenses for all budgets. Regardless, you will usually pay less for what people call “off brands” (i.e. not Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Sony, Olympus) and get the same—or pretty darn close—quality as your preferred brand. Despite the commonly held belief that buying a lens bearing the same brand name as your camera is best, Sigma, Tamron, and Tokina make good lenses to fit any of the major camera brands. This can be a smart and practical way to save money. When you buy from one of these manufacturers, however, you must specify the brand of your camera body to get the correct lens mount.

Sensor Size. This topic can be tricky for new photographers. There are two basic categories of lenses depending on the size of the sensor. First are those lenses made for full frame sensors (24x34 mm, the same size frame as 35 mm film). These lenses will also fit the smaller sensors (APS-C) found in less expensive SLR cameras. With these smaller sensors there is an image crop factor. Images will seem to be cropped and therefore appear to be taken with a longer lens than they actually are. This is a disadvantage for wide angle lenses as you can’t get the full effects of a wide angle lens. It is an advantage, though, for telephoto lenses since the crop factor gives the appearance of a longer lens. Lenses made specifically for APS-C sensors will, in most cases, only fit cameras with smaller sensors. If you purchase one of these lenses, keep in mind that if you ever buy a full frame digital SLR, these lenses are incompatible and cannot be used.

Zoom Range. This variable is extremely important because it determines how many lenses you carry at any one time. A lens with a very long zoom is convenient, yet because it has such a wide range, it will yield lower quality photos. For example, a very long zoom range for a full frame sensor camera would be 28 to 300 mm; for an APS-C camera, it would be 18 to 200 mm. Most pros, when they have their full gear, will carry three zoom lenses: a wide angle, a normal and a telephoto. I carry a 16-35 mm for my wide zoom, a 24-105 mm for my normal zoom, and a 100-400 mm for my telephoto zoom. Many times I’ll borrow one of RMSP’s 70-200 mm, F 2.8 zooms when a faster lens is more appropriate than a longer one.

Differences Between Professional Lenses and Consumer Lenses.

• Durability. Professional lenses are remarkably more robust and can take more abuse.
• Speed. Most professional zooms are faster, often F 2.8, and can therefore be hand held in lower light without a flash.
• Weather Proofing. Many professional lenses are sealed for protection against rain, snow and sand. Of course, if and when you shoot in such conditions, make sure your camera body is also weather sealed.
• Special Glass. Most professional lenses are made with high quality glass that has been specially treated to yield the sharpest images. I consider this one of—if not the—most important feature when shopping for lenses.

Filter Size. There are nine common filter sizes: 49, 52, 55, 58, 62, 67, 72, 77 and 82. If possible, all your lenses should accommodate the same filter size so you don’t have to purchase multiple polarizing filters. As such, when buying a second lens, it is a big advantage to have the newer one’s filter compatible with older ones.

Close Focus Distance. When buying lenses, check how close each lens focuses. Close focus will enable you to move closer to your subject without needing special attachments or a macro (close-up) lens.

Fast and Silent Focusing. This feature is increasingly available in lenses today. On Canon, fast and silent focusing is called USM (Ultra Sonic Motor); on Nikon it is SW (Silent Wave); on Sigma it is HSM (Hyper Sonic Motor).

Stabilization. Yet another essential feature of modern lenses is stabilization. If hand holding, it allows you to shoot at 2 to 4 stops slower than you could without stabilization. For example, if you are shooting with a regular 70-200 mm lens at 200 mm, you should not shoot slower than 1/200 of a second. But, if your lens has a 3-stop image stabilization, you can get a sharp photo without a tripod with a 3-stop slower shutter speed (assuming that your subject is not moving). Here’s the math: 200/2 = 100, 100/2=50, 50/2=25, which means that you can shoot 1/25 of a second and get the same sharpness as you would at 1/200 of a second without stabilization.

Lens Hood/Sun Shade. You should always be using one when shooting--to protect your camera in case it is dropped and to prevent lens flare. Most expensive lenses come with hoods; most inexpensive ones do not.

Though there are many additional features to consider when in the market for a new lens, I regard the above as very important and it's therefore worth doing a little research before heading into a store. If pressed, I’d prioritize high quality glass, fast & silent focusing and stabilization. Here is a downloadable version of the list above so you have a reference guide to use when buying a lens.

Normal Zooms
A normal zoom is a zoom that covers the focal length range around 50mm. The normal zoom that that typically comes with a new camera is also called the “kit lens.” On most Nikon and Canon cameras, you’ll get an 18-55 mm kit lens, and though labeled the same, the lenses are slightly different for the respective brands. For those of us who have shot with 35 mm film and want to know which of these lenses are equivalent to our old film cameras, here they are: Canon’s 18-55 mm is equal to a 29-88 mm; Nikon’s 18-55 mm is equivalent to 27-82 mm. These lenses include stabilization. The quality of these lenses is good enough for most amateurs, but for those wanting higher quality, you can almost always buy the body separate and then buy a normal zoom other than the kit lens. I created the following charts to help guide that process. 

The first chart is for full-frame digital sensors, but can also be used for cameras with APS-C sensors. On cameras with these smaller sensors, the images will seem as if the are being taken with a longer lens than they actually are. Because of this, you might want to choose one of the lenses that begins at the wider end of the zoom range, such as 24 mm. The second chart is for APS-C sensors, which only work on cameras with smaller sensors.

NOTE: Since Canon and Nikon are sold in great quantities, I based the charts on these two brands—this does not mean that other brands aren’t good options, as they often are (especially for the shopper on a tight budget). Please also note that the Sigma and Tamron lenses listed can be bought to fit most brands of cameras.
NOTE: These charts do not include every normal zoom on the market today.