SLR Camera Lenses: Top 5 Bestsellers

Many people looking to buy a second lens for their digital SLR camera are baffled by the number of lenses available. There are so many to choose from, it’s easy to be overwhelmed by the choices. Check out these 5 top SLR camera lenses and discover why people love them so much.

These lenses are made specifically for Canon or Nikon cameras. But all lens manufacturers make similar lenses. So take this information and find a lens that fits your camera.

1. Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4.0-5.6 IS Telephoto Zoom Lens

The key to this lens is the image stabilization. The stabilization allows more photo ops without having to use a tripod. This makes for more crystal clear photos at Johnny’s soccer game, or capturing a flock of birds at take-off. Image stabilization is an absolute must on a hand-held zoom telephoto lens.

2. Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Camera Lens

For people looking for a fixed focal length, this lens is lightweight and affordable. The images are sharp with great color balance. It’s great for portraits and it focuses as close as 18 inches, so you gardeners will find this lens very useful. Most people who use this lens can’t stop talking about the picture quality.

3. Nikon 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G ED IF AF-S VR Zoom Nikkor Lens

This Nikkor telephoto zoom len also has image stabilization which they call Vibration Reduction. It’s the Nikon version of the Canon listed above. The lens is ideal for sports, action, wildlife, and travel when you want a telephoto lens. The fans of this lens love it for capturing sports and action.

4. Nikon 50mm f/1.8D AF Nikkor Lens

Like the 50mm Canon lens above, this lens has a fixed focal length. But the quality of the pictures outweighs the fact that you need to move your feet around alot to get the shot. It’s really versatile and should be in everyone’s camera bag. Fans of this lens say it works great in low light situations both indoors and out.

5. Nikon 55-200mm f/4-5.6G ED IF AF-S DX VR [Vibration Reduction] Zoom Nikkor Lens

This Nikkor telephoto zoom lens is great for professional or advanced amateur photographers. It helps you capture close-up sports shots and national park wildlife without standing right next to your subject. The Vibration Reductions extends the use of the camera to capture more shots while hand held. Like the telephoto lenses above, the lens is slower than a professional zoom, so it’s not a good choice for action photography in lower light conditions (like indoor sports without flash or outside sports at dusk).

Now obviously, these SLR camera lenses are only suitable for Canon and Nikon camera fans. But there are many companies that make camera lenses that can fit your particular camera. Take this information and find a lens that works with your camera.

You’ll explore an exciting new area of photography and take your hobby or profession to a whole new level.

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SLR Camera Lenses: 5 Crucial Buying Decisions

SLR camera lenses are even more confusing to buy than the cameras. Here are some tips to help you avoid wasting your time and your money shopping for new SLR camera lenses.

1. Know What You Want to Shoot

Do you love taking pictures of Johnny on the baseball field? Then you might want a telephoto lens.

Do you like taking pictures of the family indoors or the flowers in your garden? Then you’d want a standard lens. (unless you’re taking the group photo, then a wide angle lens is better)

And if you’re catching the fall foliage around a lake, then a wide angle lens is best.

2. Prime Lens Or Zoom Lens

Prime lenses don’t have adjustable focus. You have to move the camera. But they take better pictures; they’re lightweight, and cheaper than zoom lenses.

But to photograph different distances, you’ll need different lenses. You probably got an 18mm – 55mm zoom lens when you bought your camera. And it’s a great first lens.

The benefits are that you can stand in one place and get the exact picture you want.

prime lens – high quality, light in weight, relatively inexpensive, excellent photos

zoom lens – stand in one place, get a variety of shots

A 28mm – 135 mm lens goes from wide angle to telephoto. A zoom is good to get started with, but once you find you photo passion, you can’t beat the quality of a prime lens.

3. Light Conditions Or How Big’s Your Aperture

What sort of light conditions do you shoot in? If you shoot in dim lighting, then you’re going to need a lens with an extremely wide maximum aperture.

But if you’re a broad daylight nature buff, then the wide maximum aperture isn’t as important.

All SLR camera lenses list their maximum aperture (or maximum aperture range for zoom lenses). And they list maximum, because they can always be narrowed.

VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION

The wider the aperture = more light
The smaller the aperture # = more light

This can be very confusing. Wider aperture/smaller aperture number means…. more light, faster shutter speed (prevents motion blur), shallower depth of field (the face in the photo is in focus, but the background isn’t).

So…
f/1.4 – indoors without flash
f/2.8 – overcast
f/3.5 – shade

Sunny doesn’t matter because you won’t use the max aperture anyway.

4. How Much Do You Want To Spend

First party lenses – made by the same company as your camera
Third party lenses – made by different company with special mounts for different camera types.

Fist party lenses are generally higher in quality and most compatible with your camera.

Third party lenses are lower in prices and have a greater variety of lens type.

5. Are Any Bonus Features Important?

Here’s a list of bonus features you can get with your SLR camera lenses

* Silent auto focus – essential for wildlife photogs
* Full-time manual focus – when you don’t want to switch back and forth from auto to manual
* Non-rotating front element – if you like to take polarized pics
* Crop reduction – makes sure what you see in the viewfinder is the picture you get
* Superior optics – self explanatory
* Image stabilization – not necessary for cameras with built in stabilization
* Internal zoom – lens stays same an zoom occurs internally

All of them will add to the price of any of the SLR camera lenses.

So now you know what you need to decide… before you shop for SLR camera lenses. And you won’t waste time or money buying the wrong lens. For more answers when choosing an SLR camera, check out www.bestslrcamera.org.

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Knowing Which Digital Slr Camera Lens is Right for You?

When shopping for a Digital SLR Camera people often overlook or skimp on the camera’s lenses. Camera Lenses serve as the digital SLR cameras “eye,” the lens determines what and how your camera will see your subject and how well that view is transmitted to the camera’s sensor chip for recording. The way I like to look at camera lenses is as painter’s brushes, broad strokes, medium stokes, all purpose brushes, and small detail brushes. There is a lot to learn about digital slr camera lenses and this article will serve as a basic outline to understanding them. The following sections explain the basic types of digital SLR camera lenses, how they work, and how to select them.

Focal Length

On a digital SLR camera the focal length of the lenses measures the distance between the lens and the image sensor, measured in millimeters. Lenses can be classified into subgroups like prime, macro, wide angle, normal, telephoto, and zoom lenses. They are also rated in regards to f-stop or speed an example would be a F2.0 50mm lens or a 1.4F 80 mm lens. We will explain this later in this article.

Prime Lenses:

Prime lenses are fixed focal length lenses like a 50mm 1.4f lens. To zoom with these types of lenses you need to use your feet and to get closer or farther away from the subject. Traditionally prime lenses are sharper and faster then zoom lenses. If you’re on a budget you can pick up some amazing used older prime lenses off eBay or your local camera store.

Macro Lenses:

Marco Lenses are your detail brushes they enable you to get up close and personal with your subject. These types of lenses are used for extreme close ups on small objects like daisies, pennies, and food but not limited to these types of subjects. Examples of macro lenses are 50mm and 100 mm macros. These lenses are also great for selective focus types of photos.

Wide-angle Lenses:

Wide-angle lenses are your broad stroke brushes; these types of lenses have short focal lengths. The short focal length has the visual effect of “pushing” the subject away from you and making it appear smaller. The beauty of wide-angle lenses is you can be relatively close to your subject and fit a broad stroke of the background into the scene.

One problem with wide-angle lenses is known as convergence, a distortion that makes vertical structures appear to lean toward the center of the frame. A way to check if the wide-angle lenses you are interested in has convergence is to take test pictures before buying the lens. With high quality wide angles lenses like Canon “L” series lenses address this convergence issue well. Examples of wide-angle lenses are 15MM, 17mm, 24mm and 28mm lenses.

Normal Lenses:

Normal Lenses try to mimic how the human eye sees and are some of the most versatile lenses you can use. These are my all purpose brushes, and are somewhere between a wide angle and a telephoto lenses. If you buy just one lens try and buy the fastest normal lenses you can like a 50mm 1.4f lenses. Some examples of normal lenses are 35mm; 50mm, 65mm and some consider a 80mm a normal lens.

Telephoto Lenses:

Lenses with long focal lengths 100mm and higher are called telephoto lenses. A long focal length seems to bring the subject closer to you and increases the subject’s size in the frame. Telephoto lenses also give your subjects a graphic look and flatten out your subject. These lenses are my short stroke brushes.

Zoom Lenses:

Zoom lenses are special because they can be very versatile. These types of lenses vary in their focal lengths and come in many in wide-angle, telephoto, and wide-angle to telephoto. In my bag I carry a 17mm to 35mm my wide–angle broad brush, 24mm to 70mm my medium brush, and a 80mm to 200mm my short brush. With these three lenses I get a very board range of focal lengths for any situation. All of my zooms are at least f2.8 through out the lenses range, which means my f-stop can stay constant while I am zooming in and out. These types of lenses are very expensive but so get what you pay for. When shopping for a zoom lenses check out the f-stop range rating. An example is a 24mm to 300mm f3.5-f5.6 lenses meaning the lowest f-stop you can shoot is at the 24mm range of the lenses and when you zoom to 200mm the lowest you can go is f5.6. Zoom lenses can give you flexibility and versatility all in one lenses. When buying a zoom lens try and get one that is made of glass and is the fastest you can afford, you will not regret it.

Understanding what these different groups of lenses can do will help you make more informed decisions on what lenses to purchase and what to put in your camera bag.