The Beginner’s Guide To Buying Your Next Lens
Getting started into photography and filmmaking is such an exciting time. There’s so much to learn and so many new techniques to try. It actually makes me a little envious that I can’t get the chance to go back and re-experience all of that excitement again!
After you decide which camera is best for you as a beginner you will learn and grow with every photo and video you take. Like all art forms, it’s something that can’t be rushed. Take the time to really learn how your camera works and what you love to shoot.
But I’m assuming you already know this! After all, why else would you be reading a guide on buying a new lens?
Before we go any further though I need you to ask yourself one very important question. Why do you want a new lens?
If you just want one because it’s something shiny and new then stop right there and save yourself the money. Buying a lens just for the sake of it will likely end up with you not using it and you won’t get the most out of it.
Discover your ‘why’ first before you rush off and buy a lens you may not be totally happy with.
Knowing what you want to shoot and how you want to go about it is so important. You should only be buying a new lens when your current one is forcing you to compromise or preventing you from getting the shot you want.
There’s a lot to cover when it comes to choosing a new lens, so I am here to help you navigate the potential minefield of creative and technical uses of the lenses you will be looking at.
These are things that are universal to every lens, regardless of the manufacturer or brand. So despite me talking about Canon cameras and lenses all of this information still applies!
The Technical Part
This is possibly the least exciting part of shopping for a new lens, but it is absolutely essential that you understand what it is you’re looking at. Not knowing the sometimes strange technical jargon that’s printed on the side of a lens can leave you with a lens that is useless for your specific camera.
Get the right fit
First and possibly most importantly is to look for the type of mount that your current camera and lens have. Most camera brands have multiple types of lenses designed to fit on different types of cameras, and with the fairly recent rise in popularity of mirrorless cameras, there are more fittings than there were before to deal with.
For instance, if you have a Canon 250D camera that uses an EF-S type mount you can use both EF-S and EF lenses on your camera body. However, if you are using a Canon 5D mkIV you can’t use the EF-S lenses on it. This is to do with how the lenses project the image onto the camera sensors. I won’t go super detailed about it, but basically all you need to know is that it’s important to check the mount type of the lens and the mount fitting of your camera before anything else so that you’re not buying a lens that is useless for your system.
There is usually plenty of documentation about this from your camera manufacturer’s website, but if you’re still not 100% certain it is always a good idea to ask someone who knows their way around a camera. Bonus points if it’s someone who already owns the lens or camera you currently have!
Weight
This is definitely the least sexy thing to be talking about when it comes to lenses, but trust me it makes a difference! It sounds obvious but lenses are really nothing more than a lump of metal, plastic and glass. As a beginner choosing a lens that isn’t too big and bulky and that still fits in your camera bag can make the difference between bringing it with you on a shoot or constantly leaving it behind to save carrying the weight.
If you plan on shooting things at home or in a studio then maybe the weight and size of a lens won’t make much of a difference to you, but for those who want to get into events, wildlife or travel photography then the novelty of carrying around brand new, but really heavy, equipment for hours on end wears off really quickly.
The only advice I have here is just to be conscious of what you want to shoot and try and pick your lens weight accordingly!
Zooms VS Primes
The final technical aspect you will want to consider for your new lens is on if you want to choose a zoom or a prime lens. Right now you most likely have a zoom lens that came with your camera. They are incredibly versatile and give you a lot of creative options when it comes to deciding how wide or tight you want a shot to be.
Prime lenses on the other hand are at one constant focal length. This means that if you want to have a close up of a subject you won’t be able to zoom with your lens and you will have to close the gap between you and your subject by moving closer.
Again there are a lot of creative uses for both of these types of lenses which I will go over soon, but the main thing to note is that a zoom will cover more focal lengths than a prime lens. This means you can react to shots faster, keep your kit lighter and readjust shots without needing to change lenses.
On the flip side though a zoom lens usually doesn’t have as wide an aperture as a prime lens meaning you will have less light available for shooting in low light situations as well as not being able to work at very shallow depths of field.
Knowing the type of images you want to capture will be the main deciding factor in choosing a zoom or a prime lens.
The Creative Part
Here is where things start getting exciting! This is the part where you can start to really figure out what kind of lens will best suit your needs. Knowing what you want to shoot in a creative way will shape the kind of choices you’ll be making as you build up your collection of lenses.
Get the right focal length
But what is focal length? To put it simply, it’s the field of view of a lens. Basically how much ‘stuff’ you can see within your frame.
In general, wide-angle lenses are considered to be anything under the 35mm mark whereas telephoto lenses are considered to be anything above the 70mm mark. Everything in between can be considered to be a ‘normal’ field of view. So this means a wide-angle lens will fit more into your frame than a telephoto lens does, but both have their creative uses!
Wide-angle lenses are usually the go-to choice for people who work in tight spaces, shoot landscapes or want to really exaggerate something. They’re a favourite of sports photographers who can get close to the action, landscape photographers who want to show huge vistas and people who gravitate towards architecture and homestyle photography.
You can absolutely take portraits on these lenses but due to the nature of the lens, it will exaggerate the size of anything near the lens, creating really unique portraits!
On the subject of portraits, many photographers love to use a 50mm or an 85mm lens to convey a sense of beauty to their portraits. These focal lengths, particularly the 50mm, are seen as the most ‘true to life’ lenses as they don’t exaggerate or compress facial features like other lenses do, while still being able to nicely isolate the subject from the background.
These lenses are very versatile for people who are into shooting lifestyle imagery, weddings and anything else that requires a down-to-earth, comfy kind of feel.
Telephoto lenses really come into their own above the 100mm focal length. When working at such high focal lengths you will really begin to see the effects of lens compression in your image. Len compression is simply the background of your image appearing larger and more ‘distorted’ than it is in real life compared to your foreground subject. The higher your focal length the bigger the background elements appear.
This might sound scary at first but it is actually a good thing, especially for wildlife and landscape photographers as it can be used to make the subject the main focus of the image.
Choosing the right focal length for you will really depend on what you want to shoot but to break it into what focal range works best for what type of photography you can use this as a cheat sheet.
Wide-angle - sports, landscapes, architecture, real estate
‘Normal’ range - portraits, weddings, lifestyle, food
Telephoto - sports, landscapes, wildlife, events
These aren’t necessarily rules to follow as you can use any lens to shoot almost any type of photography but it will give you the best starting point to work from to find what works for you!
Why your aperture matters
Next up, you will want to check the widest aperture of the lens you want to buy. This is the number beside the letter f that should be written on the lens somewhere, usually written as f/2.8 or f/3.5-5.6.
These ‘f numbers’ tell you exactly how much light the lens will allow onto the sensor of the camera and make your image brighter at its widest setting. If you’ve ever looked into your lens when changing the aperture on your camera you will notice the metal blades moving inside it.
This is important for a number of reasons. First being that the lower the f number on the lens, the more the blades can open and more light can enter the camera allowing you to shoot in low light situations.
Secondly, it affects your depth of field. Or put more simply, it can make your background and foreground look more blurred out!
The lower the aperture of a lens the more background blur you can achieve with that lens when you open it the whole way up. Doing this is called shooting with a ‘wide’ or ‘fast’ aperture, giving a shallower depth of field, whereas shooting with the lens stopped the whole way down at a ‘narrow’ or ‘slow’ aperture will give a deep depth of field, meaning more of the image is in focus.
So why does this matter for your creativity? Well, shooting at fast or slow apertures really depends on personal taste and the story you are trying to convey with your image. As an example, a portrait photographer might choose to shoot with a really fast aperture of say f/1.4 on an 85mm lens as it will give incredible separation between the subject and the background elements. The plane of focus will be solely on the subject and the background will have a beautiful blurred look to it.
On the other hand, a landscape photographer might choose to shoot at f/22 on a 24mm focal length to make sure that the image is in focus from the front to the back of the image. It all depends on the subject and the message you want to convey.
As a general rule of thumb, lenses with lower apertures are heavier and will cost more money. The best example of this is with Canon’s range of 50mm lenses. You can pick up a Canon 50mm f/1.8 for as little as £120, with the next step up in the range, the Canon 50mm f/1.4 at around £340. And then if you want to go all out and get the pro-level Canon EF 50mm f/1.2 it will set you back close to £1500. As you move up the range you’ll notice that the lenses get bigger and bulkier and that the price tag increases as the aperture decreases.
What this means for you is that if you know that you only want to shoot landscapes and have no interest in portraits or low light photography you may choose to save yourself some extra money by opting for a lens with a higher ‘fastest’ aperture. And vice versa, if you know you will be mostly taking portraits in low light situations then you may want to choose a lens with a low aperture to get the most out of the available light.
As you can see there is a lot of information to take in and a lot of decisions to make before choosing your next lens. It might seem quite daunting, but knowing exactly what you want to shoot before you buy a lens will save you money in the long run.
Other things to consider when choosing your lens will be things like do you want a lens with image stabilisation? Should you spend extra money on a more expensive lens if you’re planning on going professional? How about specialist lenses like macros for larger than life shots, or tilt-shift lenses for architectural imagery?
Ultimately it all comes down to your own personal preference in what you want to shoot and how you want to tell the story of that image.
If you’re still unsure of purchasing a lens that you have your eye on then the best thing to do is to simply not buy it. Find more reviews on a lens or ask someone whose opinion you know you can trust and rely on. The internet is filled with people who leave positive reviews on products they received for free, so you can never truly know what information is good or bad.
Always be skeptical of what you see and read on a new product until you can verify how good it actually is. Brands know the power of influencer marketing and will use it to hype up a product to get it to sell fast.
Get your research on any purchase from more than one place, especially if that place is the reviews section on the website you are buying it from. The staff in independent local camera stores will be able to give you an insight into how a lens can be used, or if you want to do your research from your armchair then look at websites like DP Review and The Digital Picture are great resources. They are huge hubs of information with very active and knowledgeable communities so you will be sure to learn something of value there!
Choosing your next lens can feel like a big decision, but hopefully after reading all of this information it doesn’t seem like such a hard task anymore! Discover your why, lean into unlocking new levels of creativity and enjoy the process of learning all about your new lens!