Lenses

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Buying Guide

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Let there be light

Lenses are needed to bring the light to the camera. While a lot of people consider the cost of cameras, they do not realize that in the long run, it will be the money you pay for the lenses that will dominate the cost.

Quality of lenses

• Focal length expressed in mm. The larger this number the narrower the view, which makes it look like you have magnified things (not entirely correct). For this reason it is also sometimes expressed as field of view in degrees.
• Aperture expressed as an f number such as f/5.6, it determines basically how much light gets to the camera. The smaller the number, the more light gets in (the more open is the lens) and it is said that the lens is faster.
• Minimum focus distance, how close you can come to the object and still be able to focus. Usually this correlated well with the focal length (longer lenses also have a larger minimum focus distance), but lenses can be designed to allow you to come closer see macros.
• Weight should be one of the main issues when considering a lens.
• Then there are further issues like Sharpness, Bokeh, Distortion, Chromatic Aberration that you can hear about.

Buying Lenses

I bought a lot of lenses, definitely much more than I should have. On the off chance that you are like me, let me remind you better equipment does not make you a better photographer, something I experienced with every equipment I have bought. Some things to keep in mind:

• For most non-professionals a kit lens will cover all needs
• You do not need to cover every focal length. Get either a 20mm, 24mm or a 28mm wide angle, you do not need all three for example. See also prime lenses for an example how I end up using a zoom lens, most of the pictures I took with a Nikon 70-300 ended up being either 70mm or 300mm.
• Very wide (< 24mm) and very long (> 180mm) lenses are special and they are not well suited for every situation. If you buy lenses in these ranges, you will most probably need a second lens (probably on a second camera to switch quickly). That adds a lot of weight.
• Faster lenses (f/2.8 and less) are big, heavy and expensive. Modern digital cameras (i.e. pretty much everything manufactured after 2010) will allow you to work with slower lenses without too many issues. See more a discussion and examples on ISO.
• There are some excellent lenses you can get used for very good prices.

Lenses on this wiki

Primes

• Nikon Z 40
• Nikon 100
• Nikon 180
• Nikon 135
• Nikon 85
• Nikon 50
• Nikon 20
• Nikon 24
• Nikon 35

Zooms

• Sigma 100-400
• Nikon 28-80
• Soligor 35-200
• Canon 24-105
• Nikon 16-35
• Nikon Z 16-50
• Sigma 17-35
• Nikon 28-300
• Nikon 24-120
• Nikon 28-200
• Nikon 18-200
• Nikon 80-200
• Nikon 35-105
• Nikon 70-210
• Nikon 70-300
• Nikon 24-70
• Nikon 10-24
• Nikon 18-105
• Nikon 200-500

Macros

• Nikon 55
• Tamron 60-300
• Sigma 150
• Nikon 200
• Nikon 105

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These pages are for Amateur Photographers and not really for seasoned photographers and professionals. I have no affiliation or commercial interest with any brand/make. I write from my own experience. I ended up using mainly Nikon, so I am more familiar with this brand than others. See price for notes on pricing as well as photography related links.