Lenses

Prime Lens

 

A prime lens is a lens that has a fixed focal length.  Prime lenses do not physically change at all, and the only way you can get a close up of a subject is to move closer.  If you get too close, the subject features will begin to blur and distort.  This means that you have to put more thought into the composition of your shot.

 

Prime lenses were the only lenses available at the start of photography and a 50mm f/1.8 was pretty much the slowest lens available.

 

Optical Zoom Lens

An optical zoom lens is a true zoom lens.  The focal length changes by shifting a zoom mechanism inside the lens itself, this allows you to magnify the scene before you take a photograph.  An optical zoom lens produces higher quality images than a digital zoom.

Digital Zoom Lens

A digital zoom lens is not a genuine form of zoom but rather it is simulated that enlarges a portion of the image using the cameras own software.  Obviously the closer in you zoom, the less able the software is to simulate the aoom effect and the quality of the image suffers

Standard Lens

A standard or normal lens is simply a camera lens of standard focal length (typically between 35mm and 105mm).  Standard lenses have a wide range of uses and due to their simplicity are often of a very high quality and are rugged and durable.

Wide Angle Lens

A wide angle lens is used to capture an image of a large scene but are relatively useless for close up images as they will distort the subject that you are focusing on.  A wide angle lens transmits a sensation of open space to your images and it typically a lens with a focal length of 50mm, although exact definitions do vary from manufacturer to manufacturer.  You can also get a super-wide angle lens with a focal length of less than 24mm, which will widen the angle of the photograph further.

Telephoto Lens

Telephoto lenses bring the subject you are focusing on closer to you, and it is important to use a tripod or keep a steady hand a any shaking will be amplified.  More expensive telephoto lenses have optical stabilisation systems built into the lens itself to compensate for camera shake.  Due to the zoomed in nature of the final photograph, imperfections in the lens will affect the image quality far more, so you cannot get away with using bedget telephoto lenses as much as with other types.

A medium telephoto lens has a focal length of between 85mm and 135mm, while a long telephoto lens is between 135mm and 300mm, and a super telephoto  lens is anything over 300mm.

A telephoto lens has long focal lengths and a narrow angle of view.  They also have a shallow depth of field which means that they are great for capturing a subject and keeping the foreground and background objects out of focus.  The magnification of telephoto lenses also means that it is ideal for taking photographs of subjects further away.  Ideal if you cannot physically get close to your subject, i.e. taking photographs of animals in their natural habitat without disturbing them, or a sporting event where the closest you can get to is the stands, with a decent telephoto lens you can achieve close up photography at a safe distance.  Some telephoto lenses can take a photo of a subject that is barely viewable by the naked eye.

Macro Lens

A macro lens is unique in that it can focus from infinity to extremely close allowing you to take pictures of very small objects and having them fill the fram and displayed in all of their glorious detail.  This is not to be confused with a close-up lens which does not focus to infinity.  Macro lenses can produce images at a 1:1 ratio.

Fisheye Lens

Fisheye lenses are at the fringe of wide angle lenses and offer a distorted perspective on the world.  They distort the scene to offer a 180 degree image shown on a flat, two dimensional photograph.  Some fisheye lenses produce and even greater field of view, as much as 220 degrees in some cases.