Help with Lenses!!!!!!!!!!!!

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paddyg001

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Paddy
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:help:Hi I am a new amateur photographer and was wondering can anyone help me out with lenses? There are so many different types available, its starting to confuse me :shrug: !!! Please explain the following;

Telephoto.

Fish Eye.

Wide angle.

Doubler.

Currently I have just the 18-70 zoom that came with my camera.
What lens should i be thinking of going for next????
 
Telephoto - Lets you see things far away, technically anything over around 50mm, ranging from medium telephoto (~100mm) to super-telephoto (longest is 1200mm!)

Fish-eye - usually a very short focal length, which provides a distorted view due to the sheet amount of picture it takes in

Wide-angle - Similar to the fish-eye, usually anything under 50mm, but you also get "ultra-wide angle", which is from about 10mm upwards on a crop sensor, or 16mm on full frame.

Doubler - or teleconverter, provide a cheap way of increasing the focal length of a lens, but usually only works with high quality fixed focal length lenses! You also lose some light, so it's not as good as it first seems!

So your lens is a wide-angle to medium telephoto. What you shoot will have the biggest impact on what your next lens should be, what do you find are the limitations of your current one?

Chris
 
chris321 said:
Telephoto - Lets you see things far away, technically anything over around 50mm, ranging from medium telephoto (~100mm) to super-telephoto (longest is 1200mm!)

Fish-eye - usually a very short focal length, which provides a distorted view due to the sheet amount of picture it takes in

Wide-angle - Similar to the fish-eye, usually anything under 50mm, but you also get "ultra-wide angle", which is from about 10mm upwards on a crop sensor, or 16mm on full frame.

Doubler - or teleconverter, provide a cheap way of increasing the focal length of a lens, but usually only works with high quality fixed focal length lenses! You also lose some light, so it's not as good as it first seems!

So your lens is a wide-angle to medium telephoto. What you shoot will have the biggest impact on what your next lens should be, what do you find are the limitations of your current one?
:thumbs: This is it in a nutshell. If you want to see the effect of different focal lengths then go here.
http://lens-reviews.com/Technical-Talk/Technical-Talk/Lens-Field-of-View-Visualisation-Tool.html

Regards

Gordon


Chris
Click to expand...
 

I locked myself in that quote! I thought I was going to die!

I'm out now and feel so much better. :)
 
Choosing lenses is a nightmare - too much choice - too man opinions on what's best for your needs - good luck
 
paddyg001 said:
Currently I have just the 18-70 zoom that came with my camera.
What lens should i be thinking of going for next????
Click to expand...

Depends what you want to photograph ;)

I don't really know the Sony range, but...

I'd look for either a 55-200 or 70-300 type lens if you find that 70mm isn't long enough.

Alternatively, get something like a Sigma 30/1.4 lens for indoors/ low-light situations.

Those two lenses with the 18-70 you have will probably do all you need for a while until you get a better feeling for the type of photography you want to concentrate on. By that time you'll know what lens(es) you need next.
 
Thanks guys! my main gripe with my current lens is that i cant zoom in enough, so that would prob suggest the 70-300 zoom lens. As my camera is a Sony,and therefore takes a Minolta lens, should i just look at those manufacturers or mayb look at some of the cheeper ones on ebay??:thinking:
Thanks again!:thumbs:
 
You can get the Sigma 70-300 for around £100, or the better 70-300 APO for a bit more, you can buy them in Canon, Nikon, and Sony/Minolta fit, I think thats as good a place to start as any!

Chris
 
was at the zoo yesterday and couldnt get quite close enough to the action with my standard 18-70 lens. perhaps the 70-300 would help me out alright!:thumbs:
 
difference is the APO

In order to attain the highest quality images, the APO lens has been made using Special Low-Dispersion (SLD) glass and is designed to minimize color aberration.

SIGMA's APO zoom lenses minimize color aberration. As the refractive index of glass depends on the wavelength of light, color aberration occurs when different colors form images at different points. This problem often occurs with telephoto lenses, but the Special Low-Dispersion (SLD) glass and Extraordinary Low Dispersion (ELD) used in SIGMA's APO lenses helps to compensate for color aberration, thereby allowing them to produce sharp images.
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i used to have a non apo sigma 70 - 300, my mate had the apo version and his images were ever so slightly brighter and sharper.
 
One of the reasons Sony is not up there with the more popular makes of DSLR is the lack of choice of lens even from 3rd party manufactures. To get one with any Optical Stablisation ( Sigma ) is nigh on impossible. As a Nikon user I used to have a 70-300 without this, but I soon sold it to get the Nikon 70-300 VR ( Vibration Reduction) which for me is fantastic when hand held. This is a bonus for many photographic opertunities.

As your new to Digital Photography You have done the same as most of us and got a reasonably priced camera to find out what its all about, and there is nothing wrong in that so enjoy using it until you outgrow it.

My advice would be to save your money on a new lens and save up for a more popular brand of camera ie. Canon or Nikon with a bigger range of lens, because you already are finding the need. The next thing that will frustrate you is the lack of features the camera has, even though at the moment you may thing its good enough, but be assured you will want better. Here again I am now on my 3rd camera upgrade for this very reason.

This advise is through experience and at my cost, not just for saying sake.

Hope this is of some help

Realspeed
 
realspeed said:
One of the reasons Sony is not up there with the more popular makes of DSLR is the lack of choice of lens even from 3rd party manufactures. To get one with any Optical Stablisation ( Sigma ) is nigh on impossible.
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I'm sorry but that's just so wrong.
1. Sony is the no. 3 DSLR manufacturer & the 1 gaining market share at the fastest rate.
2.There are plenty of lenses available in Minolta AF/Sony mount & the reason that there are few OS lenses is that the bodies have it built-in so that all lenses become stabilised when fitted.
There are however a few OS lenses from Sigma available & they give you the choice of using either in-lens or in-body stabilisation - something not possible on any Canon or Nikon.

paddyg001 said:
:wave: :wave:Here i go again!!! :wave: :wave:
Iv just seen this advertised on ebay;

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/650-2600mm-Te...nses?hash=item53dcfcea78&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

Just how good or not so good would this lens be???
Would anyone advise buying this lens??
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Not good.

I would recommend http://www.parkcameras.com/11880/Ta...ogle&utm_medium=froogle&utm_campaign=pid11880
 
paddyg001 said:
Thanks guys! my main gripe with my current lens is that i cant zoom in enough, so that would prob suggest the 70-300 zoom lens. As my camera is a Sony,and therefore takes a Minolta lens, should i just look at those manufacturers or mayb look at some of the cheeper ones on ebay??:thinking:
Thanks again!:thumbs:
Click to expand...

There isn't a great deal of sony lenses at the moment, but as sony bought out Minolta, you should have a look at the range of Minolta lens you could get. The problems will be finding them.

have a look at..........

http://www.dyxum.com/lenses/index.asp
http://www.dcviews.com/lenses/Minolta-lenses.htm
http://www.mhohner.de/sony-minolta/lenses.php
 
acs said:
The lens is f/8-16 and not something you should be looking at -- these lenses aren't useful for normal photography.

You should be looking at lenses that have a number no more than f/6.3, and ideally no more than f/5.6.
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When you say normal photography?? What are they used for? I take it lhe lower the f, the better quality the picture and therefore the dearer the lens. That right??
 
paddyg001 said:
What are they used for?
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Never quite worked that one out :D ...they might make a usable telescope :naughty:

paddyg001 said:
I take it lhe lower the f, the better quality the picture and therefore the dearer the lens. That right??
Click to expand...

For now, to avoid confusion, let's say that as a working generalisation, yes.


The lower the f number, the more light the lens can let in and, the faster shutter speed possible in a given lighting situation.

The lens you are looking at would let in little light and would likely make your camera's auto-focus struggle or even inoperable.

Here's an explanation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aperture
 
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