How is this lens any different from this
one or that one, we're gonna talk all
about it on today's episode of...
Hey everybody, welcome back.
As always here I am answering your
photography questions, don't forget to go
to AskDavidBergman.com ask your own
questions there and I will pick the best
ones to answer right here on a future show.
Today's question is from Jorge A. and
he asked "Lenses look complicated and can
be intimidating they're all different
sizes and some have various modes and
functions, how do I pick the right lens?"
All right thanks so much for asking that
question you know here on Ask David Bergman,
sometimes we do some more
advanced photography stuff, and so I
really want to bring it down and talk
about lenses today, maybe you're buying
your first DSLR, you're stepping up from
a cellphone, and you're looking at all
these lenses and you don't really
understand why you choose one over the,
over the other, and why they're such
different price ranges, so what we're
gonna this think of this as lenses 101.
First of all let's talk about very
basically what a lens is really,
all it is is, it's a tube with some glass in it
that focuses the light onto the sensor
in the back of your camera, right?
So those those pieces of glass we call them
lens elements, they're precision made
right?
Those are precision lens elements
that are made just perfectly to focus
that light, so it hits the back of that
camera and exposes the sensor making
your picture, now there are also some
aperture blades inside these lenses, you
know those blades that open and close
down, you've seen so those are also
inside of a lens when it's open it
exposes the sensor when the shutter it
exposes the shutter curtain which opens
exposing the sensor, and when they're
closed no light goes through there and
they can open and close to different
sizes, and we're gonna talk about that in
just a minute, now when you're thinking
about what lens to buy, or what lens to
use, the first thing you're looking at is
what we call focal length, it's measured
in millimeters and basically you can go
from wide-angle all the way to super
telephoto right?
So a wide angle lens generally refer to as
35 mm or, or smaller.
That smaller number, the
smaller the numbers get, 28 mm,
20 mm, 24 mm, 20mm, 18mm they
go, they keep going lower and lower .
As those numbers get lower,
your field of view is going to get wider,
and wider - you're gonna see more from
the place you're standing,
you're gonna see more of
the scene in front of you.
Now wide-angle lenses generally are good
for things like landscapes where you
really want to have just this sweeping
tableau picture where everything is kind
of in focus, and you just want to get a
good look at the entire scene in there,
could be lots of things going on in there,
that's really what you would use a wide-angle lens for.
Then in the middle range we have what we
call a standard lens, which is somewhere
from like 35mm to 85mm, and that's
roughly what our eyes see right.
That field of view in our eyes,
it's not super crazy wide, but not
really zoomed in, it's just kind of a
good, it's a general-purpose lens that
you would use maybe for everyday street
photography or that kind of thing, and
then at the far end of the spectrum are
these big telephoto lenses, those are 85mm or more,
right, and they go all the way up to
600mm, 1200mm right I've
seen 1200mm lenses,
they don't really make too many of those,
but they are out there but a 600mm lens,
might be something a sports
photographer would use or 400mm
lens maybe for wildlife,
those things where you really need to
zoom in really tight
and you're, you just physically can't get
any closer to something,
and you want to get in,
you know, again with wildlife you
can't be right up next to the birds in
the tree right, so you might use that
that, that focal length to get in or
sports.
I shot sports for many years I used to
use those massive 600mm lenses
on the sidelines, right, those running up
and down the sidelines with that lens
over my shoulders, and that was really
good because if you're 30, 40, 50 yards
away from the action on the sidelines,
you can get in close, and get those great
photographs, so that's really what we're
talking about with focal lengths, and of
course every lens is different as far as
that goes.
Then there are two general
types of lenses, past focal lengths right.
So one is called a prime lens and really
what that means is the focal length is
fixed, it's not a zoom lens, it just stays
in one place, so like this for example
this is an 85mm lens, it's only
an 85mm lens, that's it if you
want to zoom in tighter, you have to zoom
with your feet, you have to walk in
closer, or you have to back up, that's the
only way you're going to be able to zoom
in or out, now that of course can be a
negative, if you, if you really prefer
having that zoom range, but my lenses
are actually really awesome
because they are lighter than their zoom
equivalents, they're generally faster
which means they have a wider aperture,
we're gonna talk about that in a minute,
and they're also usually less expensive
than the corresponding zoom lens,
but again you can't zoom with them,
so you have to kind of choose which of
those things is more important to you,
and then
zoom lenses like this is a 24-105mm
this lens now allows me to zoom all the
way from 24 millimeters wide angle, up to
105 millimeters which is pretty nice
tight zoom, so that gives me a lot more
flexibility than a prime lens, but they
are more expensive, and they're heavier
than their prime counterparts, so like I
said whichever of those is more
important to you is the way you're
generally going to want to go.
Other things to consider with lenses, most
lenses today are autofocus, which means
they have electronic mechanisms inside
there so the camera can control the
focus when you take a picture of
somebody, it generally is going to focus
on them whatever, usually it's whatever's
closest to you, there are a lot of
different focus settings -
I've done videos on that,
you can look up but um
but if you wanted a manual focus lens,
then you would have to actually turn the
focus ring to change your focus manually.
they still sell those, not a lot of
people use them, they're fun to play
around with, if you want, if you want to
do that they're very inexpensive because
they don't have those electronic
mechanisms built in there, but generally
there are older lenses and they can be
found, so if you want to play around with
that, but most lenses today are gonna
have that auto focus built into them.
The other main thing with lens is the max
what we talked about, with maximum
aperture, so like I said the aperture are
those blades inside and they open and
close, and the wider you can open those
blades, the more light you're gonna let
into that lens right,
the bigger the opening, the more lights
going to come through, and if you have
more light hitting your sensor that
gives you a lot of other options
photographically with your, you can shoot
with a faster shutter speed, you can
shoot with a lower ISO, there's a lot of
advantages to having more light come in.
So the wider the aperture the better
that's gonna be, it also a wider aperture
affects a thing called bokeh, which is
that out-of-focus background, if you
shoot really wide open, your background
is going to go more out of focus from
your subject so, and the the quality of that,
if, the more out of focus it is, the more
pleasing it is, in most cases, when that
subject you want, that subject to really
pop off the background from that creamy
smooth out of focus background,
you need to shoot at a very wide aperture,
so that's gonna make a difference on what
lens you want, because some lenses can go
to really wide apertures, and some cannot,
generally the lesser expensive lenses
are going to have smaller maximum
apertures, so that's going to be a
limitation that you're going to want to
consider when you're buying lenses,
a few more other little things just to keep in
mind when you're buying lenses a lot.
Most lenses now have image stabilization,
which is... there's a gimbal actually
inside the lens, that will help stabilize
that lens, because just when you're hand
holding that camera, especially if you're
shooting at a slow shutter speed, it's
sometimes it's hard to hold it still, and
still for long enough so that gimbal
will help stabilize your your image, and
it'll be sharper, it's really more
important for video shooters, because
they really want that rock-solid image,
usually they're gonna shoot on a tripod,
but if you're hand-holding you really
want image stabilization and video...
again something to consider.
There are also some specialty lenses you
can buy, things like fisheye lenses that
gives like a distorted really wide field of
view, sometimes up to 180 degrees of
your entire scene,
and it gets all weird at the edges.
It starts to warp a little bit,
but it's kind of a cool effect,
I wouldn't do that with every image,
but once in a while it's kind of fun.
There are lenses like tilt shift lenses that
really screw with the the field of view,
of scuse me the focus, and gets all kind
of funky, that a lot of architectural
photographers use that to to help
normalize the, when you're shooting up at
us, at a tough angle and then there are
things like macro lenses which allow you
to do close-up photography,
some of them have a minimum focusing,
distance of like an inch or less,
and you can really get
in there and photograph things that are
very small insects or or flowers and
things like that.
some of the other lenses, Jorge, you
asked about controls and things.
Some of the bigger zoom lenses have
things like focus preset buttons,
and then also when you
read about lenses some of the more
expensive lens, lenses have coatings on
them, extra coatings to prevent image,
weird things like chromatic aberration,
it's gonna degrade the quality of your
image, so that's really at the high end.
You're, the pro lenses are all gonna have
things like that to really make sure you're
shooting the highest-quality image possible
Now when you're behind a lens
is really, you know just a handful of
things you want to consider taking all
that into account of course, you need to
make sure you buy the right lens for
your camera, each camera brand has its
own mount, and you need to make sure and
even some brands have multiple mounts
depending on which camera you are using, so
you need to make sure you get the
correct lens for your camera if you
already have a camera, if you're buying a
new system, of course just make sure they
match but then there's that aperture
issue right, and the, the widest the
aperture can go really makes a huge
difference in cost.
So for example,
this lens is a 50 mm lens, this
happens to be an f/1.4 widest aperture you
can buy a f/1.8.
I don't own one but you
can buy a f/1.8 that's even smaller than
this, that's 125 bucks right,
this f/1.4, 50 mm lens,
same focal length is about 325, 350 and
then this also a 50 mm,
same exact focal length but
it's a f/1.2, it's one of the new Canon RF
lenses for the brand new mirrorless.
This f/1.2, 50 mm lens is about $2,300,
so makes a huge difference even though
they're all the same focal length.
The cost can vary wildly,
so if you need to shoot at f/1.2,
and you want that glass,
you're going to be paying for it,
having said that,
I would invest my money in
glass, in lenses before I invest in
cameras, of course you need to buy a good camera,
if I had to choose though,
I would put my money in the lenses
because cameras are like computers.
I mean they are computers,
and you know they're going
to need to be replaced over time
depending on how much you shoot and how
important, you know if it's your career
or hobby, you might replace your cameras
every three, four, five, six years or so,
but lenses if you buy good lenses they
could last you a lifetime, so it's really
important to buy a good glass, don't
skimp out on glass because you really
could have, a good investment will
last you a very long time, the only other
thing really to consider is honestly the
size and the weight.
Right, so if you were on vacation, you're
not gonna want to carry this monster
around with you, probably, right on the
beach, so generally the old expression
Chase Jarvis used to say, the best
camera is the one you have with you.
If you're not going to carry this thing
around, and you only need something for
vacation, don't buy it right, get a small
lens, and a small body, that's gonna be
something you can bring with you, and put
with you, now if you're shooting sports
of course, you need the big glass, so make
sure you get the right lens for your situation.
Now again having said all that,
just because I've said how lenses are
supposed to be used doesn't mean anything.
Go get creative right..
use lenses in ways you might not expect, right?
Maybe take this super telephoto
out, and make a portrait with it, or use a
fisheye lens at a concert, you're really
only limited by your imagination, so go
out, Photography is fun, it's creative,
that's what separates every photographer
from the other, so go out and have a good
time, and let me see what kind of
pictures you're making, maybe some
unusual lens pairings and show me what
you're doing.
Thanks Jorge,
I really appreciate that comment
remember AskDavidBergman.com
Don't forget there's a form there,
and make sure you ask your
own photo questions so I can answer them
on a future show, and then of course our
friends at Adorama, of course it's where
I buy all my gear, you're here on Adorama
TV, we really appreciate that, but there's
so much free photo content from myself
and a lot of other hosts, you could watch
for days and days, you could stream that
stuff and never get bored, so really
appreciate you being here.
As David Bergman premieres,
the new one every Monday 10:00 a.m. Eastern.
I'll see you back here next week on
Ask David Bergman.