5 tips on buying a camera lens (contd..)

Tip 346 (Canon L series lens): When you are buying Canon lenses, sometimes you may have come across some lenses that are much more expensive, and have a thin red line at some point on the barrel of the lens. These are marked L for 'luxury', and are lens that are more sturdy, made of better material, and have a much better optical finish; but given that they are more expensive, you need to evaluate whether you have such a need.

Tip 347 (Color of great Canon telephoto lens): You must have been surprised sometime about seeing some Canon telephoto lens being white or off-white instead of black. These are the higher end telephoto lens for Canon, and are typically much more expensive.

Tip 348 (Just the red stripe on the lens not enough): So you found a lens for your Canon Digital camera, and it has a red stripe, and you are excited about getting a superior lens. However, you should assume that only if the lens is made by Canon, then a red stripe lens means that it is superior; buying a lens made by other companies with a red stripe is not reassurance of any kind.

Tip 349 (Canon low cost prime lens): Canon sells lenses in different price ranges, with the consumer plastic body lens being the most inferior. However, the prime lens in this range is still fairly decent, since these lens don't have to worry about the quality problems associated with the optics of a zoom lens.

Tip 350 (Kit lenses are on the lower scale of lenses in terms of quality): So, you are looking to buy a new Canon camera, and you find a great bargain in terms of a camera with 2 lenses, one being the typical 18-55, and the other being a lens that could be a zoom. You feel you have got a good bargain, but keep in mind that there is no such as a free lunch; the lens you got is at the bottom of the scale in terms of quality.

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5 tips on buying a camera lens

Tip 1 (Learn about the different kinds of lens): There are many different kinds of lens such as zoom, ultra zoom, macro, wide angle, prime, fish eye, standard lens, tilt, etc. You should read up, and be sure what each of these terms means before you go ahead and decide to buy a lens. This will help you determine which type of lens you want to buy.

Tip 2 (zoom lens): A zoom lens is, simply speaking, a lens which allows you to view distant objects more closely, similar to a telescope. More technically, a zoom lens is a combination of different lens elements that allow the variation of the focal length. Zoom lens are suitable for shooting wildlife, sporting activities, and objects at a distance.

Tip 3 (Superzoom lens): Superzoom lens are those lens that have large focal length factors, normally more than 4X, going upto 20x. For example, a lens that has the specification of 18-270 mm has a zoom ration of 15x, qualifying to be called a superzoom lens. However, these lens typically has a problem in terms of distortion of the image at both ends.

Tip 4 (Prime lens): A prime lens is normally much superior to a zoom lens in terms of optics, image quality, and smaller size and weight. However, a prime lens does not have the ability of a zoom lens of variable focal length, being a fixed focal length lens. A prime lens can have a much larger maximum aperture than a zoom lens, and hence better ability to handle low light conditions.

Tip 5 (Wide angle lens): A wide angle lens is one that allows you to take photographs with a much wider perspective than zoom lens, in the sense that you can get in more of the surrounding. The focal length of a wide angle lens is shorter than the focal lenght of a normal zoom or prime lens. However, the images generated through using a wide angle lens are more suspectible to perspective distortion.

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