The first lens to start shooting with

On the occasion of buying a new camera Canon R6 (full frame, mirrorless), I had a chance to look back at what I have in gear (those go with Canon 700D, APS-C crop sensor, reflex DSLR) and realized that lens choice for beginners is not as easy as for experienced photographers. This is why I write this article to discuss lens ranges and their uses in photography. You may have known several common terms like macro, fixed, zoom and tele lenses; however, are you sure that you know them well enough in the big picture of photography genres and camera body types? I am not yet an expert but I would like to share what I know and have experienced so that we can enrich our knowledge and make better decisions, especially for beginners. As I experienced more with the Canon camera system, I will use it more often as examples but I will also try to make them as general as possible for all brands.

If you also want to take a look at a camera type to start with, this article may be helpful, which I point out the shooting experience between compacts (point and shoot) and DSLRs.

Let’s dive in.

1. Lens range (Focal length)

Lenses are often broken down into 3 big different categories: wide, standard and telephoto. Generally speaking, a wide angle lens is any lens that is 35mm or smaller of focal length, a tele lens is any lens that is 85mm or bigger, and a standard lens is any lens between 35 and 85mm (35 and 85mm are just relative reference thresholds as there is no need to standardize this number for category illustration).

Figure 1: Illustration of focal length in view angles (above) and zoom scales (below), from short (wide angle) to long (tele). At 300m, the image can be zoomed up to 300/18 ~ 17 times.

According to lens properties, we have corresponding photo genres: wide lenses are usually used for landscape or architecture, standard lenses are for portrait, events, fashion, travel, street, etc., and tele lenses for sport, wildlife, astronomy. There is no fixed sole use of any lens for a certain photo type because creation has no limit, and how good photos are made also depends a lot on other factors like the photographer's vision, lighting, scene setup, etc. For example, a short tele lens at 90mm (Tamron SP 90mm f/2.8 Di MACRO 1:1 VC USD) can be used for macro or people portraits, a super tele lens at 300mm (EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM) can be used for bird portraits, or a standard lens at 50mm can make wide photo with the panorama technique (photo collage).

One of the smallest focal lengths is 5mm, like Canon RF 5.2mm f/2.8L Dual Fisheye, while one of the biggest focal lengths is 800mm, like RF 800mm f/11 IS STM. After all, all we need to do is to understand the target photographed subject in order to use appropriate lenses.

2. Fixed/prime, zoom

Fixed or prime lenses are lenses with a single focal length (e.g. EF 100mm f/2 USM), whereas zoom lenses are ones with multiple focal lengths which usually come in a continuous range (e.g. EF 24-105mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM). Fixed/Prime lenses give better image quality at its designed focal length despite its disadvantage of not being able to change focal length, which means no zooming. This creates two styles of shooting: either you choose a prime lens and compose the photo with your feet (walk away or towards the subject), or a zoom lens and perform zooming on the lens without (much) changing your position. Besides, there is a 50mm focal length that is easily found in every lens brand as its spatial scale (NOT view angle) is seen to be as the closest to the human eye.

Moreover, image quality over a wide focal length is not much of a concern if you can afford an L series lens of Canon that provides high image quality at any focal length, like EF 24-105mm f/4L IS II USM. Notice that, despite being a zoom lens, this lens has only one minimum aperture value (f/4) for all focal lengths from 24 to 105mm, compared to its other family member EF 24-105mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM.

Figure 2: A lens in L series of Canon with the remarkable red ring

3. Lens properties

Each lens has a set of unique properties or features that distinguishes it with others. Some are common to find, some are optional depending on product lines. If you want to explore more on the difference between OEM and 3rd party lenses, you can take a look at this article.

3.1 Minimum focusing distance

Every lens has a minimum distance to focus on the subject (measuring from the camera sensor, not front lens); however, they all have unlimited distance to focus at infinity (∞). This property is exceptionally important in macro photography where you usually need to approach the subject closely. For example, SP 90mm f/2.8 Di MACRO 1:1 VC USD has minimum focusing distance at 30 cm, RF 24-105mm f/4-7.1 IS STM at 20 - 34cm (at focal length 24 - 105mm, respectively. Exceptionally 13cm at 24mm and with manual focus).

Figure 3: A phi symbol carved on the camera body indicates the sensor position (focal plane), which is the base of minimum focusing distance calculation.

3.2 Image stabilization (IS)

This is a feature to compensate for camera shake so that a better level of sharpness or a wider shooting setting can be achieved without the need of a tripod. Together with in-body image stabilization (IBIS), we can achieve up to 8 stops compensation (claimed on Canon R5 with an IS-on RF lens, most effectively at standard range like 24-105mm) or other words, in the same shooting context, we can handhold the camera for few-second-last exposure to get the same sharpness as a fraction-of-second exposure.

Each brand uses a unique term for its IS technology. IS for Canon and Olympus, VC (Vibration Compensation) for Tamron, VR (Vibration Reduction) for Nikon, OS (Optical Stabilizer) for Sigma, OIS (Optical Image Stabilization) for Fujifilm, OSS (Optical Steady Shot) for Sony, etc.

Figure 4: An illustration of IBIS system, where the sensor position can be adjusted in 5 axes to compensate for the shakiness.

3.3 Mount

There exist 2 different camera types, DSLR and mirrorless, which define different lens mounts. For Canon, they are called EF/EF-S for DSLR, M for M series mirrorless and RF for R series mirrorless. Despite available adapters to convert from DSLR to mirrorless system (EF/EF-S - R, EF - EOS M), sticking with one camera system and its exclusive lens system is important to make sure that lenses work at their best performance with the compatible camera body that you have.

Figure 5: Canon lens adapter, EF/EF-S - R (left) and EF - EOS M (right).

At the moment of this writing, there are very few RF lenses from 3rd party manufacturers (e.g. 2 RF lenses from Rokinon). For the compatibility information on available EF/EF-S lenses for RF, you can consult official websites of lens manufacturers:

- Tamron lenses on Nikon Z and Canon R cameras

- Sigma lenses on Canon R cameras

3.4 Weather seal

Lenses are usually weather sealed through a series of rubber pads that protect the most vulnerable points of the assembly. These lenses often include a rubber ring gasket on the rear of the lens where it joins to the camera mount, as well as rubber pads to fill the gap between moving parts (buttons, focus/zoom rings) of the lens. The higher the level of protection is, the more expensive the total cost of the lens is. That is why you usually find the weather seal feature in lenses where they are likely used in tough environments like snowy winters, rainfalls, dusty mines, wet forests, etc. For example, tele lenses for wildlife, Canon L series lenses.

Figure 6: A common situation to pay attention to protecting your gear is when it snows or rains. Moisture in air tends to become visible water droplets that stick on glasses or interior components. Snow can be easily melted after landing for a while on the device and make it wet.

Keep in mind that weather sealed lenses need a weather sealed camera to be relevant. If your lens is sealed but not the body then dust or water can still penetrate and ruin the camera and/or lens, and vice versa. Weather seal is different from waterproof, where a higher standard of water resistance, including being able to be submerged in water for a certain depth and duration, is applied. However, salt water is always the biggest threat to electronic devices. So, still be careful even when your gear is by-designed protected ! Except for professional photographers who commit to photograph in constantly tough conditions, a basic dust/moisture-resistance lens is already good for almost all needs.

4. What lens choice for beginners?

To those who have more or less experience in photography, they should already know what genre of photos they want to make and then what lenses to get to support that goal. However, to those who just get to know the field or want to go further, lens choice could be a big concern as lenses are generally not much cheap to invest, even for just a hobby. An experienced photographer would be keen on having at least one lens for each focal category, that is to say, 1 lens for wide angle, 1 lens for standard and 1 lens for tele. This setup would cover all needs of photo making. For any specialized genre, he/she would invest more lenses, both in quality and quantity, in that genre to reach the highest performance in his/her work.

Nonetheless, beginners have more limitations in their choice, including smaller budgets and more simple but indefinite needs, to get started. Therefore, getting a lens in between is a good strategy. That is a zoom lens whose focal length falls into wide, standard and tele ranges, for all purposes such as EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM, EF 24-105mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM, or RF 24-105mm f/4.0-7.1 IS STM. With this strategy, these lenses are also usually sold with body cameras, what we usually call “kit lens”.

Happy shooting !

Reference

Figure 1 - https://www.nikonusa.com

Figure 2 - canon.fr

Figure 3 - https://twitter.com/ben_kadel

Figure 4 - https://alikgriffin.com

Figure 5 - canon.fr

Figure 6 - https://www.thephoblographer.com