How To Pick Your First Add On Lens
If the camera you purchased came in kit form with a starter lens the first additional purchases you may want to consider is a telephoto lens. A powerful telephoto lens can be valuable in recording detail from subjects that are a long way away. With a digital camera telephoto lens the first thing you should notice is that the lens automatically isolates your subject from it surroundings. They do this by having higher magnification. You do not have to move closer to the subject to isolate it, you just focus the telephoto lens from where you are. The telephoto lens compresses perspective. It will focus on the subject and objects in the foreground or background will not be given prominence. You can control depth of field by adjusting the aperture. Depth of field, or what is in and out of focus, is a function of length of the lens and aperture.
Digital camera telephoto lenses come in two types; prime which only has one fixed focal length, and zoom which means that the lens can be adjusted through the widest to the longest focal length. One reason you may want to consider purchasing a prime lens is cost and quality of the lens. The quality of the pictures you take is going to come from the lens. In a prime lens the quality has gone into the optics rather than the zoom capability. As the improvements have gone into the zoom the aperture controls have decreased. For example if we compare the Canon 100/2 USM, a prime lens, to the Canon 70-200/4L USM, a zoom lens, we find the following difference. The zoom lens is an L (Luxury) series lens which means it is a higher priced lens that the entry level zoom and a full f stop faster. It is still two f-stops slower than the prime. This will really be evident if you are taking photographs in natural light. Your friends may never forgive for what you have done to them in the contrasting bright direct sunlight. If you do want to use your digital camera telephoto lens for portraits use the following tips. Use a north facing window and place your subject near it. This will reduce the harshness by using indirect sunlight. Next take a piece of white cardboard and use it to reflect the light back at your subject on the side facing away from the window. No matter how steady you think you are with your telephoto lens, put it on a tripod for portrait work. Practise with this technique and before long you will be known as a portrait expert. |