Shopping tips

Consider passing on the kit lens

If you're interested in exploring photography more fully and are considering a digital SLR but haven't bought one yet, we recommend passing on the standard kit lens and buying the camera "body only." Then take the $100 or so you'll save and invest it in a better lens with a more rugged build and a wider aperture, which will help you to produce more professional-looking photos with a focal length that suits your photographic needs or style.

What do you want to use the lens for?

Portraits and people

If you're interested in portrait photography and want to really make the person you're photographing stand out, you'll need either a standard zoom or a fixed prime lens with a fast aperture. A "fast" or wide aperture—such as f/2.8 or lower—produces good "bokeh," a Japanese word that loosely translates as that blur behind the subject that helps draw attention to the face.

The faster the aperture, the shallower the depth-of-field, which will produce more dramatic blur in your portraits. A good standard zoom range for a portrait lens would be 28 to 80 mm, though a lengthier zoom of 28 to 200 mm provides more compression in your shot for added blur. For a prime lens, we suggest a 50 mm or, even better, an 85-mm lens, so you can take a close-up (i.e. head and shoulders) of your subject without perspective distortion (i.e. the "dog nose" effect).

Landscapes and group shots

Because most digital SLRs act as though they magnify a lens' focal length, the 18-to-55-mm lens that comes with the camera might not be wide enough for landscapes, group shots, or travel photography, because it actually converts to about a 28-to-85-mm equivalent.

Camera companies have been producing wide-angle lenses that take into account this "magnification factor" of 1.3x or greater. Focal lengths of 10 to 22 mm and 12 to 24 mm on lenses designed specifically for digital SLRs are becoming increasingly popular because they convert to more traditional wide-angle zoom ratios of 15 to 33 mm and 18 to 36 mm equivalent.

Wide-angle lenses with a fixed focal length, such as a 12-mm lens, are also worth exploring because they're less expensive than zooms but will still help you to capture a scenic landscape such as an African savanna or Caribbean coastline and provide better optical quality.

These wide-angle lenses—zooms and primes—are also great if you're capturing group shots of friends and family, or if you're photographing a wedding and want to make sure that some of the cousins, aunts, and uncles don't get cut out of the group portrait.

Sports and action

When shooting a sporting event, you're going to need to get close to the action. The good thing is that telephoto lenses, which are designed to take close-up images of faraway subjects, have come down in price. So you can get a decent 70-to-200-mm zoom for $600 to $800. But because most fixed focal length "prime" telephoto lenses have fast apertures for professional photographers—a 300-mm f/2.8 is typical—they tend to be more expensive, selling for $1,000 and up. Also, prime telephoto lenses tend to be more expensive than telephoto zoom lenses because their apertures are usually wider, which requires more glass to manufacture.

To add some additional length to your telephoto, you should also consider a tele converter. A tele converter is a small lens that mounts behind a lens and increases its reach. A 2x tele extender doesn't cost a lot, $100 to $200, and will help you to double a lens' magnification. But it also makes the lens darker and slower, and it doesn’t change focal length or perspective.

Nature

Capturing images of nature close-up is one of the true joys of photography, which explains the abundance of affordable Macro lenses these days. A Macro is a lens that can focus extremely close to the subject and capture minute detail. Consequently, a macro lens is ideal for taking close-ups of small subjects such as flowers or insects. Typical Macro focal lengths include 60 mm, 100 mm, and 180 mm. They're often identified as a Macro in their model name.

Telephotos are also great for photographing nature, particularly large animals and other wildlife. Even better though are super telephotos, which range from 400 mm and up. Pop a 2x converter on one of those long lenses and you're ready for your next African safari. Be forewarned though—such a lens combo will cost you several thousand dollars, so consider renting one if it's just for a day trip.

If you can't afford a pricey telephoto for your next safari and don’t want to rent one, there are some decent, low-priced zoom lenses out there that go as long as 300 mm. Add in the 1.6x magnification factor for consumer DSLR that we mentioned earlier, and your 300-mm lens becomes a 480-mm equivalent.

Fine art

If you want to get really creative, consider a specialty lens that can turn a seemingly ordinary scene into a work of art. If you like wide-angle photos, you'll love fisheye lenses that use radically curved optics to capture 180-degree scenes. Fisheyes come in a variety of focal lengths but 15 mm or 16 mm are typical. They're great for when you want to capture absolutely everything in a scene, or when you want to produce a surreal-looking, curved effect for a close-up or a landscape.

Tilt-shift lenses, which allow you to control the perspective in your image by tilting and shifting the lens in front of the sensor, have become increasingly popular for their distinctive photographic effects. When used properly, a tilt-shift lens can produce extremely shallow depth-of-field, creating a "miniature" effect on your subject. This is particularly true when shooting large scenes of people, cars, or boats from above. Tilt-shift lenses tend to be very expensive though—$1,000 and higher. As an alternative, you might want to try a Lensbaby selective focus lens, which sells for $100 to $150. Lensbabies combine a basic lens with a built-in bellows that lets you twist and turn the optics to selectively focus parts of a scene. The effect can be dreamy or slightly surreal, with a small "sweet spot" of focus in the image and the rest blurred.

All-in-one zooms offer great versatility

The biggest trend in interchangeable lenses is to offer a very wide zoom range (we've seen up to 18 to 270 mm) with built-in image stabilization for a reasonable price. While these lenses are great for vacations because they let you bring just one lens with you when you travel, there are some limitations. They're built mostly of plastic, so are less rugged and weather resistant than more expensive models. Though it might be more expensive and more cumbersome to use two or even three great lenses instead of just one good one, it's the image quality that counts most.

Try a friend's lenses

Though buying a good camera is important, you'd be amazed at how much better your photos look when they're shot with a high-quality lens. The problem is, it's not fiscally prudent to just buy a pricey pro lens on a whim. If you have a friend who is serious about photography or a "professional," see if you can try out his or her lenses to get an idea of which ones might give you the look you want. Once you try a high-end lens though, you might never want to go back to a consumer-level lens again.

Handle a lens before you purchase it

Though buying online might give you a good deal, we recommend handling a lens in a store before you purchase it so that you can judge the weight and the ease of use. Because a good-quality lens is expensive—it can cost more than the camera—it's not a purchase that should be taken lightly. Look, and try, before you leap.

Consider third-party lenses

Though the obvious impulse is to buy a lens that matches the brand of your camera—Nikkor lens with Nikon cameras, Canon with Canon etc.—you can save a lot of money by considering a lens from a third-party manufacturer such as Tamron, Sigma, or Tokina. Though third-party brands are not as well known as the leading brands, the quality is excellent and you will save several hundred dollars.

Consider a tele converter

If you want to add some "throw" to your telephoto lens, consider purchasing a tele converter (also known as a tele extender), which is a small lens that mounts behind a lens and increases its reach. A 2x tele extender doesn't cost a lot—$100 to $200—and will help you to double a lens' magnification. It's important to note that a tele converter will result in a decrease of the aperture on your lens from one to two f/stops.

Consider shopping on eBay

Nothing beats a pro lens but for most consumers it's just too expensive. If you covet the lenses you see the pros using on the sidelines of the big game but can't afford them, bargains are to be had on eBay. Of course, before you buy anything on eBay check the seller's ratings first. If they are anything less than 98 percent positive, forget it. Also note the number of ratings a seller has and what types of sales they've made. If they've done a healthy amount of business selling photo gear without complaint, they're probably okay.

Remember, you can use your old lenses too

It's still a little-known fact, but most new digital SLRs are compatible with older, same-brand lenses for film cameras. Though new lenses, especially those that are optimized for digital cameras, are great, you might be able to fill out your camera bag with some of the lenses you used with your old Nikon or Canon SLR. (But be sure and dust them off first!) And attention former Minolta users: most of your old Minolta Maxxum auto-focus glass will work with Sony's new line of Alpha DSLRs.

Beware the gray market

When shopping for a new lens, you might see the same lens offered in two different places for very different prices. Oftentimes, the lower priced lens is actually a "gray market" model. A gray-market product is one that is not bought or sold through traditional distribution channels and thus can be offered for a far lower price. (Typically, they're imported from overseas.)

The big caveat to gray-market items is that they're often not covered by warranties. With something as expensive and delicate as a lens, having a warranty is worth the extra cost. It's also important to note that gray-market lenses are not eligible for the frequent rebates offered by the major lens manufacturers.

A final word: The lens is the component that most influences the quality of your images. A good lens is a long-term investment that might outlast several camera bodies and last many years.

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