With the price reduction of digital SLRs, many friends want to buy a digital SLR, but many people do not know how to choose a lens. Here are some issues that new photographers should pay attention to when choosing a SLR lens.

When buying a digital SLR, whether it is Canon, Nikon, SONY, or Pentax, they are all the same. Manufacturers have already analyzed the market thoroughly, so you will always find shortcomings and disadvantages in products from different manufacturers. advantage. When it is difficult to choose, it is recommended to refer to the following three criteria when choosing a camera body:

1. Appearance and feel. I don’t like the appearance of the machine, the machine feels bad in the hand, and it’s not pleasant to use, so don’t think about it for now.

2. Pixels, the current mainstream is SLRs with 10 million pixels, so Canon’s 400D, Nikon’s D200/D80/D40X, SONY’s A100, and Pentax’s K10D are all main models.

3. Price. This is very simple. You can do whatever you want with how much money you have. Most machines with 10 million pixels are between 5K and 7K. Only Nikon's D200 is a professional entry-level machine that costs around 1W. You won’t go wrong if you make a budget before buying anything.

4. Don’t pay too much attention to the dust removal function on the current machine. The effect of this new function is far from being as good as advertised. There is no need to care too much about this now. The body shake function is quite practical.

As an ordinary enthusiast, I only buy a SLR for fun, entertainment, and taking pictures of flowers and plants. The total investment may only be 1-3W. How likely is it to buy such a professional lens and camera? What about the camera body? Of course, it is not ruled out that rich players can buy a lot of bullheads at once. That is beyond the scope of this text discussion. If you have money, it’s easy to do things. You don’t have to worry about matching lenses at all.

In fact, both Canon and Nikon have dog heads, good heads, and cow heads. Just like Sichuan cuisine, Hunan cuisine, and Cantonese cuisine, there are some that are not delicious, and some that I like to eat very much, but I prefer to eat them. Just some hot pot. Haha, after choosing Nikon, I also thought about playing with Canon for a while, but later I found that people who play with Canon also want to play with Nikon, so I realized that making good use of the equipment in my hands is the key, otherwise no matter how much money I have, it will be useless to buy all the equipment. So back to the matter. No photography work relies solely on top-notch equipment to win awards. Equipment is just a tool, so don’t pursue it excessively and be superstitious. Without further ado, let’s get down to business.

1. Classification of lenses

1. According to brand

Lens are generally classified according to brand, such as Nikon lenses, Canon lenses, Pentax lenses, SONY lens. Please note that lenses from these brands cannot be directly interchanged. If you choose a Nikon SLR, it will be difficult to use Canon lenses because their mount design is different. Although the fun of SLR is to change lenses, we often find that there are actually very few lenses that can be changed. Haha, this is determined by interests and cannot be changed in the short term.

The brand distinction has a special lens group of subsidiary factory lenses.

Once we buy a lens of a certain brand such as Nikon, we generally choose lenses produced by Nikon itself, which are called original lenses. We can also choose lenses such as Sigma, Tamron, and Tokina. Lenses produced by third-party companies for Nikon bodies are called sub-factory lenses. In the same way, Canon and Pentax can not only use their own lenses for their bodies, but also choose matching lenses produced for them by Sigma, Tamron, and Tokina.

However, because a user who buys a SLR mostly only buys one body, but may buy several lenses, the manufacturer's profits are more reflected in the lenses and related accessories, so Nikon and Canon Manufacturers that can produce both bodies and lenses wish that people all over the world would only buy their own cameras and lenses. Therefore, it is difficult for sub-factories to obtain technical support from Nikon and Canon, so some of the products they design and produce often have some compatibility problems. Coupled with manufacturing experience, quality control and other reasons, individual differences will be relatively large. In other words, you may be lucky enough to buy a lens with no problems, or you may be lucky enough to buy a lens with all problems, or even if you replace several lenses in a row, there will still be problems.

But in general, the quality of sub-factory lenses has improved a lot. Except for a few exceptions, there are already many classic and excellent lenses worth buying. I will write specifically about the recommendations of sub-factory lenses later.

2. Classification according to focal length

Traditional 135 lenses are generally divided according to focal length. The more traditional classification method is:

10- 17mm is a super wide-angle - mainly used for shooting landscapes, especially large scenes, such as grasslands, deserts, and seas

17-35mm wide angle--landscapes and humanities, the main focal length for taking travel photos, especially suitable for Travel photography

35-135mm medium focus - humanities, portraits. Among these focal lengths, the 85mm focal length is especially recommended as the best focal length for portraits, so we often see lenses like 85mmF1.8 called portrait lenses.

50mm - This focal length is said to be the most suitable for the viewing angle of the human eye, so it has become the standard focal length. This is why we often call the 50mm lens a lens.

But recently I saw an article saying that 42mm is the real standard focal length. Hey, I won’t worry about it so much. Since that’s how it is traditionally called, let’s just call it that.

135-200mm - telephoto, more suitable for close-ups of people, taking pictures of lotus flowers, stages, etc.

135mm and above are considered telephoto, and 200mm is generally used That’s it, but some people like to take photos of wild animals and birds and use focal lengths like 300, 400, or even 600mm. But those first ones cost tens of thousands, and they are not affordable for ordinary people. I have never played them, so I won’t talk about them.

Macro lenses are specially used to take pictures of insects, flowers and other small things. This focal length is quite special, but the varieties are very simple. The two most common macro lenses from Nikon are 60mm and 105mm, which will be discussed in detail later.

I will mainly talk about 10-200MM, one of the most common, commonly used, and probably the most troublesome focal lengths in lens selection. However, I want to emphasize one thing in particular:

The focal lengths mentioned above are all the focal lengths of traditional 135mm cameras. In fact, in the digital age, these focal lengths often need to be converted, and the focal lengths must be multiplied by one. The coefficient is the real actual focal length. For example, Nikon's current SLR body coefficients are all 1.5, but different Canon models are different. The D400 is 1.6. It is worth mentioning that Canon's 5D and Big Rabbit 1DsMARKII are full-frame coefficients of 1. So a lens like Nikon's 85MMF1.4D, on a Nikon digital camera like the D80, is actually 85x1.5, which is a focal length of about 128MM, and so on.

The existence of this coefficient has caused a big trouble. In the past, the wide-angle focal length of 17-35MM on the traditional Nikon 135 camera actually became 2653MM on Nikon's digital SLR. Such a strange focal length, the wide angle is almost gone. This is why some people buy ultra-wide-angle lenses like 12-24MM to use on digital SLRs. (12-24 multiplied by the coefficient is exactly a very traditional standard 18-36MM wide-angle focal length). This is one of the reasons why some people recommend full-frame cameras like Canon's 5D.

3. Several other classifications of lenses:

Fixed focus and zoom should be easy to understand. Fixed focus means the focal length is constant. For example, Nikon's 105mm macro lens is 105mm. Fixed focus. Zoom means that the focal length can be adjusted. For example, Nikon's 17-35MMF2.8D lens can freely change between the focal length of 17 and 35MM.

Dog heads and bull heads are what photographers call them. Manufacturers refer more to economical and practical ordinary heads and professional heads with excellent imaging. There is actually nothing to say about this. After all, manufacturers want to make money and it is impossible to image. Good and cheap. However, both Nikon and Canon have a good image quality and low price, which is the 50MMF1.8. This head from both manufacturers is definitely worth buying, and this is unanimously recognized.

After understanding the general classification of lenses and choosing your favorite body, please think about these questions before starting to buy lenses. Of course, wealthy friends can completely ignore the following questions.

1. What is the maximum budget you have? Do not increase your budget casually after reading a few articles or malicious posts. Friends who are just getting started with SLRs are best to start with practicality first, otherwise Even if you buy a cow head, you may not be able to use its power, and you will have a backlog of funds.

2. What do you photograph most every day? Referring to what I wrote earlier, if you like to take portraits, you should choose a lens with a focal length of 35-135. If you like to take pictures of landscapes and travel, you should choose a wide angle with a focal length of 17-35. If you like to take pictures of lotuses and birds, you should consider a lens with a 200mm focal length.

3. Are the requirements for imaging high? This is a big question. What exactly does good imaging mean? There are many standards, and related wars of words have been going on since the advent of lenses. To put it simply: the image is clear, the color is pure, the inner focus is sharp, the outer focus is soft, and the level of detail is better. I think this should be analyzed based on the purpose of taking pictures. For example, if you just take pictures for fun, an ordinary lens will be enough. If you want to engage in photography, shoot advertisements or something, then it is still necessary to use a cow head.

4. Will it be upgraded in the short term in half a year? Once you fall into the pit of SLR, no one will live forever. There is a reason why Nikon is called a quagmire. I have never met anyone who bought a SLR body and didn’t want to change or upgrade the lens. Therefore, when purchasing a lens, you may wish to consider whether you have the need to upgrade and consider the value preservation of the lens.

Supplement: The characteristic of SLR lenses is that they retain their value relatively well, at least much better than compact cameras and mobile phones. Generally speaking, the second-hand price of lenses that are in good condition, licensed, and come with a warranty is about 90% of the original price. For example, for example, if you spend 7,500 to buy a Nikon 85mm F1.4D portrait model, it comes with a warranty, it has been used for 10 months, there are no problems with the lens, the condition is well protected, and the packaging and invoice are complete, then it will cost about 6,500. The loss of 1K yuan can be regarded as this year's depreciation. Thinking about it, it is still relatively cost-effective. After all, the one used in these 10 months is an ox head.

Of course, some people say that these 7500 may have earned 1K in 10 months of stock trading, but after all, it is uncertain and risky. As long as the lens is of good quality, people will come to Niutou almost as soon as an advertisement is posted on the second-hand market. Ask, don’t worry about selling.

My personal suggestions:

1. Try to use a lens with good imaging within the budget, which will not only make you happy with shooting, but also make it easier to upgrade and resell in the future, or sell it and recycle it. funds. Not many people who play SLR don’t want to change lenses. One of the joys of SLR is that you can change lenses. Therefore, it is recommended to try to buy lenses with good reputation and good imaging for future use.

2. Be sure to buy a good lens with the focal length that you shoot most often. You can temporarily ignore or invest less in focal lengths that you don’t often shoot with.

3. You would rather spend the money on 3 heads to buy a head with good imaging than just make do with it. Especially when some people are not very rich, they deliberately buy a bunch of lenses to match the focal length of 17-200. As a result, they spend a lot of money and none of them has good imaging results.

4. It is enough to buy an ordinary wide-angle lens for shooting landscapes, because most of the photos of landscapes require a small aperture, and in the case of a small aperture, the image of an ordinary lens will be very good, so unless it is specially needed , generally speaking, there is no need to buy a wide-angle lens with a large aperture.

5. Medium focal lengths such as 35-135 are used the most time and often, because commemorative photos, portraits, and humanities are all taken at this focal length. Especially focal lengths such as 50MM and 85MM are almost available to everyone, because you don’t have to take pictures of landscapes or insects and plants, but it’s hard not to take pictures of your girlfriend, wife, children, friends, family, well, by the way, And PLMM.

6. Telephoto is recommended for people who really like long-distance photography, because telephoto lenses are generally heavy, and people who don’t like them are generally not willing to take heavy lenses out to shoot. There are many people who buy telephoto lenses for less use, and most of them still prefer mid-focal lenses such as 24-70, 28-70, and 85mm.

Lens generally have several basic principles:

1. The image of a fixed focus is better than a zoom at the same focal length. This is because zooming has to take into account the image quality of several focal lengths, while fixed focus is very simple and it only needs to be good at one focal length.

2. The larger the aperture, the more expensive it is, and the one with a constant large aperture is more expensive. The larger the aperture, the greater the technical difficulty and cost. Therefore, lenses with large apertures are commonly known as big eyes. Those big watery eyes are very tempting! Falling in love with big eyes means taking out your wallet. Hey, you can only experience it by yourself

3. The heavier the lens, the better. The manufacturer's guidance states that the headset with an expensive price is definitely better (this sentence is almost nonsense, but it is true).

Each lens has its own golden imaging aperture. Generally speaking, the imaging of F5.6/8/11 will be better. Different models of lenses have different optimal imaging apertures. We need to understand our own The lens should try to use its good focal length and aperture to take photos as much as possible.

4. All brands of lenses, as long as they are zoom heads and have a constant aperture, they will definitely be good. The larger the constant aperture, the better. Nikon's consumer zoom lens currently has a maximum constant aperture of 2.8. As long as Nikon's zoom constant aperture is 2.8, it is bullish. Otherwise, the constant zoom aperture of 2.8 means great change.

When choosing a lens, follow what I wrote before and you should first choose what you want to take. For example, if you want to take portraits and especially like to take close-ups, then you can choose a zoom like 70-200. Nikon's famous AF-SVR70-200mmF2.8GIF-ED is a constant large aperture of 2.8.

5. A fixed-focus lens with a maximum aperture of 1.4 is a good start. At present, the common Nikon lenses are 50MMF1.4D and 85MMF1.4D, both of which are very good lenses, especially the 85MMF1.4D, which is particularly good for portraits.

6. There are no weaklings in macro. Because of the design technology and other reasons for macro heads, even sub-factories can produce very good macro lenses, so you can buy them with confidence. There is basically no big difference between macro lenses.

The above is an introduction to the issues that new photographers should pay attention to when choosing SLR lenses. I hope it will be helpful to you.