Digital Camera Lens

What lenses for my digital SLR (Canon)

Many people eager for a high end digital camera buy a digital SLR body and then ask the question of what lens to put on it. If, after reading that, you think a DSLR + lenses is the right choice, you can come back here.)

(There are also full-frame cameras like the 5D, for those, the lens choice question is effectively identical to that for film bodies.)

When you take a picture, the lens does most of the work. I've bought camera gear from Amazon and been satisfied. So you could, if you are wealthy and don't mind a big heavy camera, get an digital SLR with just one lens and get some benefit from it.

If you buy just one lens to "start" you're wasting a lot of the value of your camera while that value depreciates.

Why is changing lenses so useful?

Lens design is hard. The more range you try to put in a zoom lens, the more compromises you must make. Shorter range zooms have fewer compromises than long-range ones. Trust me, if we could get a decent lens like this we would buy it. So you want short-range zooms and most of all you want prime lenses. If you can change lenses, you can put the right lens on the camera for the job, with less compromise. The 70-200mm range zooms costing $700 to $1200 are very well made. If you don't want to change lenses, P&S cameras have many major advantages. The good ones (Canon G series for example) have fast lenses. Why do I want fast lenses?

Fast lenses are lenses of large aperture (width), or low f-stop. Fast lenses are big and heavy, but you need them. Fast lenses let you do shallow depth of field. Small digital P&S can't do this very well, even though their lenses are sometimes quite fast, because shorter lenses don't have as narrow a depth of field.

Fast lenses can be stopped down to be like slow lenses, and get more depth of field when you want it. However, usually a stopped down big fast lens is better than a wide-open smaller, slower lens. Most lens problems occur at the edges of a lens, and if you stop down, you cover the edges.

Fast lenses can shoot in less light. Canon "L" series lenses are generally agreed to be the best out there. Some 3rd party lenses are also quite good for half the money. So be ready to exchange a lens if you get one of the duds. Comparing lenses

Two great sites will help you compare your lenses. The first is PhotoZone's lens performance survey. Large numbers of people have given their opinion on quality of various lenses. This site has done actual lab tests on the performance of various lenses. Canon 50mm prime lens

Every Canon owner should buy the Canon 50mm prime lens or one of its fancier cousins. It is one of the sharpest lenses out there. It's called a "normal" lens in the 35mm market, which is good because normal lenses are the easiest to make, and that's why this lens is such a bargain. Even if you want only one starter long-range zoom lens, get this one also. Even though your zoom lens has 50mm in its range, still get this lens. Tele-zoom

You can also get a very good 24mm lens from Canon or Sigma. The Canon 24mm is considered superb. If you have big money to spend, look at shorter lenses, like one of the 14mm lenses. Be prepared to test your lens and return it if it's not good. For the "x0D" and Rebel XT/XTi, consider seriously the Canon 10-22mm EF-S lens. This lens only works on the newer digital SLRs. I have this lens, and it gets me shots I could not get other ways, but it is pricey for a non-L lens, and is not as sharp as that range of lenses.