Understanding cameras and lenses

Understanding Cameras and Lenses

When it comes to choosing your equipment, there's a huge amount of choice, which can become quite overwhelming. As you learn more, you might want to grow your kit, but to begin with you'll only need one camera and one lens. For this course, you're going to need a camera on which you can manually adjust the ISO, aperture and shutter speed, and which ideally can take a 24-70mm lens.

Choosing a Camera

While every photographer will have their preference, the brand of equipment you use really doesn't matter and is almost irrelevant. When you're first starting out, try not to get too bogged down in the finer details of different cameras - just choose one you like, that's within your budget.

Telephoto Lens or Prime Lens?

A prime lens has a fixed focal length, whereas a zoom lens has several focal lengths within the one lens. There used to be a big difference in the quality, but the technology within zoom lenses has improved dramatically over time, so it's really up to you and what you can afford.

Using Prime Lenses

There is a certain quality to prime lenses. They tend to have wider apertures, which means you can shoot in very low light conditions and you can get a beautiful depth within the picture. However, modern day zoom lenses now come very close to this quality.

Using Zoom Lenses - the 24 to 70mm

Try to go for the best quality you can: ideally one with a fixed aperture throughout all the focal lengths. For a 24-70mm zoom lens, I would recommend going for an F/2.8; this tells you the maximum aperture of the lens is F/2.8 throughout every focal length. If you are only buying one lens, I'd go for this one.

Using Telephoto Lenses - the 80 to 200mm

The same principle applies: it's best to go for a lens with a maximum aperture of F/2.8. The first and obvious difference with this lens is that it has much longer range and the focal length tends to be more compressed. As a result, I would tend to use this kind of lens for more cropped compositions.

Using Macro Lenses

A macro lens can take sharp photographs of small subjects thanks to its ability to work with very short focusing distances. I normally use one with either a 60mm or a 105mm focal length; a 60mm gives a wider focal length, while a 105mm gives a narrower focal length.

Using Focal Length

Lens focal length tells us how much of the scene will be captured, as well as the magnification, or how large individual elements will be. Focal length is measured in millimetres. The shorter the focal length, the wider the view and the less magnified it will be. For example, a 50mm focal length on your lens will show a wider and less magnified view than a 100mm focal length.

Don't Forget the Lens Hood

A lens hood is probably one of the most essential parts that will come with your lens, especially when you're working outside. It prevents extraneous light from hitting your lens, which can cause undesired flare or a milky quality to your photographs.