When I bought my first thirty-five mm camera, I also received a fifty mm lens with it. This was billed as the standard lens and was included in all camera purchases. The reason it is called standard is because what you see through the viewfinder is what you would see with the naked eye. Of course wanting to do different types of photography, I soon recognized the limits of this lens and started purchasing additional lenses for different applications. As you can well imagine, this soon became an expensive hobby and I needed a suitcase just to haul all that gear around.
Then along came the first of the zooms and captured the interest of many photographers. The early models were quite big and cumbersome and lacked any high optic quality but they caught on with the general public and soon manufacturers of these lenses were improving quality and zoom range. The first models were in the thirty-five to seventy mm range and then kept getting longer and wider almost monthly. Today we have lenses that are able to go from 28mm to 300mm. A lens such as this will meet the photographic demands of almost everyone. These also have close focusing abilities or what is called macro capability. They are fairly fast and very compact in size and the quality of image is superb.
Of course, this is sometimes still not enough range for some and other zooms are produced to satisfy the demand for more exotic ranges. There are fifteen to thirty mm zooms and this is called an ultra wide angle range. Though it will capture wide vistas, it is also used to change perspectives on what you see. Used correctly, they can provide impact to many a mundane scene. On the other side of the spectrum, we find telephoto zooms that have a range of one hundred and seventy mm to five hundred mm and require the use of a tripod to be able to use them. One other new lens is Sigma's fifty to five hundred mm and that, added to a good wide angle, is all most people will ever use. These lenses are a little on the expensive side, due to the fact that they don't sell nearly as many.
When we talk about speed of a particular lens, we are referring to the largest aperture opening on the lens. This is also known as the f stop and means simply the size of the hole that lets in light. The bigger the number the less light and the smaller the number the more light it lets in. So f/22 lets in a lot less light then say, f/3.5. This function also controls the depth of field or what will be in focus in front of the subject or behind. The larger the number, the greater the depth of field and the smaller the number, the shallower the depth of field. This is an important function for photographers who wish to control all the elements in a picture. The faster the lens, the more expensive it is. Nikon, for example, makes an eight hundred mm telephoto at f/2.8 that is outstanding but at a price that exceeds the ten thousand dollar range. For the majority of us amateurs, this is not an option.
If I had to buy just one lens to satisfy all my photographic demands, it would be a twenty-eight to three hundred mm lens. This is an extremely versatile lens and will handle a wide variety of shooting situations. Now with that said, there are many pros that still use single focal length lenses. A nature photographer is sure to have a seven or eight hundred mm lens, just to be able to get the subject in closer, without danger to himself. A studio photographer is apt to use a lens in the eighty-five to one thirty-five mm range for his portraits. And some like the effect of a fish-eye lens in the fourteen mm range. But what ever reasoning you use in determining what lenses to buy, keep in mind that the quality of the lens is the number one concern. So, buy the best lens that you can afford. Your pictures will be that much sharper.
