Digital SLR Lenses
Choosing a Digital Camera Lens

Once you know a bit about digital SLR lenses, you're ready to buy a lens for your camera. Digital camera lenses can be quite expensive so you want to make sure you make a good purchase. Let's look at the best type of lens to get when buying your first DSLR lens. To find out more about types of lenses check out this article Understanding Digital Camera Lenses.

Many DSLR cameras come with a lens these days. Not all do so you have to check before you make your purchase to find out if you're getting a camera kit or just a camera body. The lens a camera comes with is called a kit lens.

Kit lenses are cheap zoom lenses that come with most moderately priced DSLR cameras. Many photographers prefer to use more expensive professional grade lenses. They say that these professional lenses take sharper pictures. This may be true in certain situations, but for most people using a DSLR camera it's an unnecessary expense. You can take high quality pictures with your kit lens. How useful your kit lens is to you simply depends on the type of photography you want to do.

If your main focus in photography is taking pictures of wildlife, sports, concerts, macro, or in low light situations you really should get a lens that is appropriate for that type of photography. Macro photography requires macro lenses. Wildlife photography will often require a zoom lens that is capable of taking pictures at a greater distance than your kit lens. Concert, sports and low light photography all require fast lenses.

Purchasing a Digital SLR Lens

If you decide to buy a lens for your camera there are several factors you need to consider. Firstly you need to make sure you're purchasing a lens that is compatible with your camera. While digital SLR lenses are interchangeable, they can't be changed between brands. That means that if you have a Nikon camera you need to make sure you buy lenses that have a Nikon lens mount. You can buy lenses from third party companies like Tamron, Sigma or Tokina as well as from your camera company.

Make sure you chose a lens that is appropriate for the type of photography you want to do. Do some research. Go to forums and ask questions. Here are some things you should consider before buying a lens.

• type of lens (prime, zoom, wide)
• depth of field (f-numbers)
• quality

I don't recommend buying used digital SLR lenses unless you're sure you're getting them from a reputable dealer. Buying used lenses online can be especially risky.

You can get good deals on lenses from Ebay, but whenever you buy anything from Ebay you should be careful. Check the vendor's ratings to make sure they deliver what's promised every time.

A Solid Lens Choice

If you're looking to get a high quality lens that will really help you develop your photography skills, I'd recommend that you buy a 50mm prime lens with an f-number of about 1.8.

I recommend getting a prime lens because it will make you work for your pictures. You'll have to get close to your subject if you want to get a close-up. You'll really have to think about the pictures you're going to take. I think in the long run it makes you a better photographer.

When I first started taking pictures I only had one prime lens. That was it. It was my only option. It forced me to do a lot of things to get a good picture. It wasn't uncommon to see me laying on the ground trying to get the perfect picture or getting right up in people's faces to get close-ups.

I recommend getting a prime lens because buying a high quality prime lens is considerably cheaper than buying a high quality zoom lens. But, you'll have to buy multiple prime lenses to do the job of just one zoom lens and it can be difficult to carry a lot of lenses around with you.

If you'll need zoom capability for the type of photography you want to do you can skip the prime lens though.

I hope this article about digital SLR lenses has help you. If you want to find out more about photography check out this page on digital photography basics.