Lenses - article from Radozhiva
I tried to write as compact as possible about everything main types of lenses on a short list. Lenses differ in different ways, such as: focal length, aperture, purpose and image quality. I will not categorize them. Each type requires a separate huge article, but I know for myself that only a few will be interested in reading it. Ordinary users of digital SLR cameras just need to quickly figure out what is what, without unnecessary complex details.
Lenses have in their name a whole a bunch of different numbers, letters, and strange expressions. The most important lens parameters are its focal length and aperture value... Focal length, roughly speaking, says how much the lens brings the image closer or further away from you, how far or close the lens can 'see'. Focal length can be proper and equivalent (effective).
It is often understood that focal length is responsible for the angle of the field of view... The focal length is indicated in millimeters (mm or mm). For example, 50mm, 35mm or 85mm (read as 85 millimeters). The lower the number in the focal length designation, the 'wider' the lens sees. One number is indicated for prime lenses. For zoom lenses, two numbers are indicated, for example, 70-210mm, 17-50mm, 200-400mm. The values can be anything, the values depend on frame sizefor which the lens is built. How to translate the focal length into degrees of the viewing angle can find here.
The aperture value (relative aperture) is indicated as an F. For example, F4.5, or F / 4.5, or f4.5 or f / 4.5, etc. Also, instead of the number F, they often write “1: x”, for example 1: 4.5 (read as “one to four and five”). For prime lenses, write one F number, for example F2.8 or F5.6 (read as “fif five and six”). For zooms, two F numbers are written, for example F / 2.8-4,5 or F / 3,5-5,6.
You can find different writing methods. But the meaning is the same. For zoom lenses, the numbers indicate the aperture values for the extreme focal length positions. For example, the designation 18-55mm f / 3.5-5.6 means that at 18mm focal length (at the wide angle, at the 'short end'), the maximum aperture will be f / 3.5, and for 55mm (at the 'long end' of the lens) the maximum the aperture value will already be F / 5.6.
There are zoom lenses for which only one value is displayed clean F. For example, for Tokina 12-24mm f4 at different focal lengths, the maximum aperture remains constant at F / 4. I recommend reading about the difference in the concepts of 'aperture' and 'aperture' in my article 'Aperture'.
And so, here are the types of lenses that I often hear:
Fix (fixed lens, discrete lens, Prime lens, Fix-focal lens) - lens with one focal length value. No zoom, because he has a focal length FIXtied. Basically, it has very small aperture numbers F. It is often said that fixed lenses have a large aperture. An example of a fixed lens is Nikon 50mm F1.8G or Canon EF 85mm 1: 1.8 USM. The name of the lens most often indicates only one number for the focal length in millimeters and one number with the letter F. Because of the huge aperture ratio, such lenses are rarely called fast (fast lens), this name is due to the fact that such lenses allow you to shoot on short 'fast' exposures.
Zoom (zoom lens, zoom lens, zoom lens, Zoom lens, Zoom Lens) - zoom lens. Zoom is also called 'zoom', it changes the focal length of the lens, thus changing the angle of view of the lens. They say that such a lens is able to 'zoom in' and 'remove' the picture. An example of a zoom lens is Nikon 35-70mm f / 2.8 AF-D. Zooms are constant aperturethat does not change when zooming, and with a variable aperture: in such a lens aperture changes at different values of the focal length, about it is already written a little higher.
SuperZoom (Ultrasound, UltraZoom, MegaZoom, SuperZoom) Is a zoom lens with a large zoom factor. Such a lens can operate at very different focal lengths.
How to find the zoom ratio? Quite simply, you need to divide the larger number in the lens designation by the smaller one. For example, a zoom of 18-105VR gives 5.8x magnification. Indeed, 105mm / 18mm = 5.8 times. Kit lens 18-55mm gives 3x zoom. The zoom ratio is usually denoted by 'X', for example, 3X, 5X, 12X.
Fast lens (fast lens, bright lens, fast lense) - lens with large aperture. Often under aperture and the diaphragm understand the same thing. Therefore, a fast aperture simply has a small F number, starting from F2.8 and lower, but you can often find another division. there is super-fast lensesEg Nikon 50mm F1.2MF. An example of a fast lens is Nikon 50mm F1.4G, Tamron 17-50mm F2.8.
Whale lens (whale, whale lens, kit lens) - lens from the kit that comes with the camera. Usually, a whale lens means an entry-level lens, but this is not always true. An example of a whale lens is Canon EF-S 18-55mm f / 3.5-5.6 III, Nikon 18-55mm F / 3.5-5.6, Sony DT 3.5-5.6 / 18-55 SAM or SMC Pentax-DA 1: 3.5-5.6 18-55mm AL WR.
Manual (manual lens, manual focus lens, manual, non-autofocus) - a lens with which you can shoot only focusing with your hands. An example is Helios-81N, Nikon 200mm F / 4.0 or Canon Lens FD 55mm f / 1.2 SSC.
Manual chip lens - a lens with which you can shoot only by focusing with your hands, but with the addition of a special microcircuit that simulates some functions of an autofocus lens. You can read more about this in the section about Lushnikov's dandelion.
Autofocus lens - a lens that supports auto focus. Focusing is carried out by the camera or lens automatics. Nikon has different methods of autofocus implementation (see details in the section Nikon lens differences).
Wide-angle lens (wide, wide-angle, wide lens, wide-angle lens) - a lens whose focal length is less than the lens frame diagonal. Usually they just say that such a lens gives a wide angle of view. With this lens you can 'capture' a lot of space in the frame. I will not tie this concept to certain focal length values, since there is a lot of confusion due to the different film sizes and matrices of digital cameras, for example, for crop and full frame (full frame). There is also a subdivision for super wide-angle lens.
Normal lens (standard lens) - a lens whose focal length is approximately equal to the diagonal of the frame. For example, 35mm film and full-format digital cameras have a frame diagonal of 43,27mm, for such a frame diagonal a 50mm lens can be considered a normal lens. These lenses give natural normal an image that looks like what the human eye sees.
Telephoto lens (Telephoto lens) - a lens with a large focal length. Usually the focal length should be noticeably larger than the diagonal of the frame. This lens gives a narrow angle of view, so we get a strong approximation of what we are shooting. Such lenses are most often used for shooting distant objects, for example, for shooting nature, sports, astrophotography, etc. There is also a subdivision for short telephoto lenses, medium telephoto lenses and super telephoto lenses (telephoto lens, medium telephoto, super telephot) - these divisions are highly subjective.
Portrait lens (portrait lens) - a lens with which you can take a good portrait. The notation is rather arbitrary. Portrait lenses are usually understood as fast lenses without distortion. Usually such a lens is good at blurring the background and foreground. You can often find that high-aperture telephoto lenses are referred to as portrait lenses. Classic portrait lenses for 35mm film or full frame are Canon EF 85mm 1: 1.8 USM, Nikon 85mm F / 1.8D AF Nikkor и Asahi Opt. Co. Super-Takumar 1: 1.9 / 85, Soligor Tele-Auto 1: 2.8 f = 135mm In fact, any lens can be portrait, but not all lenses can do what the photographer intended.
Macro lens (macro lens, macro lens) - a lens that can capture small objects in close-up. A real shooter should shoot at 1: 1 magnification. An example would be Nikon 105 mm f / 2.8D AF Micro-Nikkor, Wave 9 50 mm F2.8 MC MACRO or Tamron SP AF 90 mm 1: 2.8 Di MACRO 1: 1 etc.
Professional (prof. Lens, pro lens) - a lens of improved design, designed for heavy loads, such lenses give a good quality of the original image and assume a fairly deep wallet for the owner. The concept is conditional, but seriously affects the dignity of the photographer. These lenses include Nikon 24-70 mm f / 2.8G ED AF-S N Nikkor, Nikon 28-70 mm f / 2.8D ED AF-S Nikkor, Nikon 80-200 mm f / 2.8D ED AF Nikkor
Specialized lens (special lens) - a lens that can produce an unusual picture. These could be
- soft lenses, longer term "soft focus lens"
- Monocle lenses. What is it, read in my article monocle
- title shift lenses - lenses with shift and tilt of the optical axis
- movie lenses, projection lenses, reproduction lenses, lenses from photographic enlargers, etc.
- lenses for astronomy, for military affairs, industrial lenses, lenses for night observation, medicine, etc.
Ordinary people most often never in their life use specialized lenses, so I do not focus on them. I specifically do not seriously address the issue of lens quality, there can be a million different opinions and arguments on this subject, since all lenses have different tastes and colors.
It is important how to take pictures, and not using any equipment. Therefore, for this article I shot spring sketches to dilute a boring text. Filmed on the simplest Nikon D40 and the simplest non-autofocus, manual, very old, zoom-free lens, unchipped, Soviet, without the Helios-81N MC adapter. All untreated, mid-range on-camera JPEG with neutral picture management, reduced size and imprinted data from EXIF - no magic.
Conclusions:
Due to the fact that no universal lens, which could combine all the qualities of different fixes and zooms and provide coverage for all ranges of focal length, you have to use several lenses in turn. Each lens has its own purpose and will be useful in different tasks.. You can also read interesting thoughts on the subject of zoom and fixed lenses.
↓↓↓ Share and like article↓↓↓ Thank you for attention. Arkady Shapoval.
Arkady, as I understand it, the lens will not be on d3100
Will the flash protrusion interfere?
Yes, it will interfere.
Hello. I have a small budget, so I would like to know if the Nikon NikkorAF-S 50 mm f / 1.8 G is really universal for shooting children (children on the move), landscapes, and in general everything that gets in the way?
At the moment I'm using Kita on the D3100
No, this is not a universal lens, but a fix. It can be more or less universal on a full frame, but not on your D3100.
Tell me, please, what type of mount on the MC HELIOS-44K-4. And is it possible to put such a lens on the Nikon D3100 directly or what adapter is needed?
Bayonet K - from Pentax (or, from part of Soviet cameras). You can put it, but there will be no infinity.
Hello, please advise a set of no more than four lenses for shooting exclusively plants and landscapes (I do not plan to shoot anything else) for the Sony Alpha SLT-A77 camera. So far I have chosen Sony DT 11-18mm f / 4.5-5.6 (SAL-1118) for landscapes and trees (you advise fixes, but there are no fixes with such a wide angle, only fisheye, and they, if I understand correctly, all distort the geometry, I do not like it) and Sony 30mm f / 2.8 DT Macro SAM (SAL-30M28) for macro. I did not decide on the other two (I choose only for full-frame, I think full-frame optics on full-frame devices are inappropriate). As I understand it, these two do not shoot very well in low light conditions, so I’m thinking of taking Sigma AF 30mm f / 1.4 EX DC Minolta A, for example, to shoot flowers in the sunset. Or is it not worth it and the difference with the SAL-30M28 will not be visible? The fourth one can still be a fish, if you shoot from above, you get interesting shots, like here: http://fotki.yandex.ru/users/a-leshiy2010/album/123640/ Or maybe the Sony DT 35mm f / 1.8 SAM (SAL-35F18), would it be better for shooting landscapes at sunset than the SAL-1118? Sigma AF 30mm, as I read, is not suitable for landscapes.
Here are all the Minolta A lenses for full-frame devices, can you advise something else ?: http://market.yandex.ru/guru.xml?CMD=-RR=0,0,0,0-PF=2142600626~EQ~sel~x1296482550-PF=2140157521~TR~sel~select-VIS=70-CAT_ID=966791-EXC=1-PG=10&hid=90613
And yes, by the way
PS The price doesn’t matter, I just don’t want to buy too much, especially since then it will be difficult to sell in our province.
Asked too many questions. For landscapes, a single lens is enough. About the inappropriateness of full-frame optics on crop you did not quite guess. First, determine the exact objectives of the lens (fish, do not fish), etc.
In general, I also looked and decided to take the zoom anyway, Sigma AF 17-70mm f / 2.8-4 DC MACRO HSM. It may not be a true macro on a one-to-one scale, but it looks good, and is suitable for everything else. And then it will be possible to buy an extra wide angle and fish, it will be seen there.
Nice choice.
Hello Arkady, please review Nikon 16-85 f3.5-5.6 VR. I am standing before choosing 24-85 2.8-4.0 or 16-85 f3.5-5.6 VR. There are fixes 35 and 50 f1.8 G. I need zoom for a wedding or maybe you recommend. Nikon D7000 camera.
For a start, 16-85 will be just right, one of the best, all no one will give me it for review, as my friends are constantly filming weddings on it. If you have money, then you can native 17-55 Nikkor.
Hello. I want to wind an x0,5 lens on the front of the lens. It will reduce the focal length by half. But will it worsen the lens porometers or will it improve ??? (does sharpness, contrast, aperture worsen).?
All indicators will worsen.
Good evening. How to use canon lenses on nikon d3100. They offer cheap, fifty and 18-136 or where you can read. Thank you.
Hello. They need to be redone for Nikon mount, or use an adapter with lenses. Such a few practice, especially from 18-135.
Hello, please advise which one to take on the d7000. The goals are portrait shooting mainly. it’s true that people are starting to ask to shoot weddings. (Well, naturally, those who can’t afford photographers for 3-5 thousand, but I don’t set a big price for myself.) But still, I want to take photos in the best quality. Nikon 40mm is available. and 18-55. the choice is between:
Nikon 24-120 f / 4
Sigma 17-70 mm f2.8-4.5
nikkor 16-85mm
or maybe you will advise something yourself ??? I was already exhausted in search .. many thanks =)
If there is money, I would take 24-120 4.0 - a nanocrystalline monster, if there is no money, then 16-85 is a good all-rounder for a crop. I personally use Tamron https://radojuva.com.ua/2011/11/tamron-17-50mm-f2-8-xr-di-ii-ld-aspherical-if/
Thank you very much =) and another question. if I take the Nikon 24-120 f / 4, will I need an external flash right away? or will it still be possible to take good pictures in an insufficiently lit room?
An external flash will even be really needed. Even fast lenses do not always cope indoors. You can look at excerpts in photos from the review of the super fast lens https://radojuva.com.ua/2012/01/review-nikon-50mm-f1-2-ai-s/ and draw conclusions.
if you can, then tell me this: I have a Canon EF-S 18-55mm f 3.5-5.6 IS II and a Canon EF 75-300mm f 4-5.6 III. Do I need to buy 50mm? and which is better to take for macro shooting?
I would buy a fast fifty dollars, usually fifty dollars are not removed macro, but 60mm removed.
Hello, Arkady. I choose the first DSLR for myself, I don’t understand much about this, it’s got to your site, it’s written well and readily, the more I read, the more I get lost and don’t understand what to choose. I stopped like the Canon EOS 500D kit (550D) or the Sony Alpha SLT-A37 kit. It’s hard to figure out the lenses (((Tell me, please, if I want a universal lens, if I may say so, for travel trips, traveling, just ordinary outdoor photos, portraits, etc. will there be enough Kitovskiy. And what kind of camera do you think better? Thanks a lot))
Sony Alpha SLT-A37 and Canon EOS 500D are of different class of camera, but I would recommend Sony. A whale lens will not be enough, it is better to take a lens of the type 18-105, 18-135 or 18-200 instead of the whale lens.
105 is very expensive. I did not find a suitable topic in your blog. And if you take something shorter than 105, what can you take except 60mm G? Construct 60mm G, I like it more.
In addition to the Nikon 60mm f / 2.8G AF-S ED Micro Nikkor, there is a good native Nikon 60mm f / 2.8D AF Micro-Nikkor and the old Nikon 105mm f / 2.8D AF Micro-Nikkor. I'm using a Tamron 90mm f / 2.8 Di Macro lens, here's how it behaves as a portrait lens http://wedding-photographer.tv/photosessions/set-64/tfcd-autumn-pleasure.html
Is Sigma 70mm macro? Maybe you should pay attention to sigma?
You can also look at sigma. There are many examples of photography on the Internet, anyway, ultimately it is up to you to choose.
I have d90. And taking a 90mm tamron will probably be a bit much for a portrait. If you take a 60mm Micro G. Will there be a lack of aperture? And can it be said that a 60mm micro is a good portrait portrait?
Even 1.4 is rarely enough aperture. If the aperture is important only for blurring the distant plan, then that's enough, if the aperture is important for shooting in low light, then this will not be enough. And yes, we can say that MikroNikkors are not bad portrait painters.
Nikkor 60mm costs 500 bucks, a 40mm micro costs 270 bucks. Maybe it’s better to take 40mm micro and 50mm 1.4D ?? Instead of 60mm ??
For a portrait, 40mm won't be enough. If there is a 40mm micro and a 50mm 1.4D option it will be pretty good.
Nikkor 60mm costs 500 bucks, a 40mm micro costs 270 bucks. Maybe it’s better to take 40mm micro and 50mm 1.4D ??
Arkady, tell me, please. I watched the reports of parties in my hometown and just fell in love with photography. Here is an example. http://barnaul.nightout.ru/photo-image/super-geroi-nashego-vremeni/cherdak0610jpg
You can tell how to make such a picture. What is it and how is such a juicy, bright, super clear photo made.
I dug up the Internet, I didn’t find anything. I came to the conclusion that this is some kind of fast fix and editor. But I'm an amateur full of photography, I just don’t know where to look.
There is a huge merit of the editor. You can remove it for anything, but of course it’s easier for something like 24-70 2.8 or 35 1.8
Thank you, Arkady. For me, your blog is a mine of wisdom. All information is very necessary, collected in one place and written in a very accessible language.
Thank you for a good review of no water, everything is clear! Arkady, tell me please, have you encountered the Takumar 28mm F2.8 lens? Information on the Internet about him is practically absent, found only four reviews. I want to buy and put through an adapter on Kenon 1100 staffer. Focal ones suit me, the lack of autofocus is not important (I photograph landscape, nature, static objects, sometimes a subject), aperture also (I will take a fast lens for portraits), the main requirements are sharpness and good detail (I send some photos to photo banks) and the whale lens this plan has ceased to suit me. Or can you advise some analogue of 24-35 mm? (Kenon 35mm 2,0 does not fit the budget yet). And tell me, does the wide-angle lens attachment degrade sharpness and detail?
I did not encounter this lens. A wide-angle nozzle will degrade the overall image quality.
Hello Arkady! Please tell me which lens to take Sigma 10-20 f3.5 EX DC HSM or Sigma 24 mm f1.8 EX DG for landscape photography?
Thank you!
For crop I would take 10-24
Arkady, Sigma 24 mm - fix! Do you recommend it?
I didn’t use it, I can’t say for sure, but I would take it.
Good afternoon! The article is very interesting (as is the whole site). I have a Nikkor AF 50 / 1,8D, but after some time using this lens, I realized that in some situations a wide angle and greater versatility are lacking. I looked after the Tokina AT-X 16.5-135 mm DX f / 3.5-5.6. I think for travel it will be just right. Who can tell about this lens, I ask for tips and tricks or give a link to similar information.
Thank you, it was very informative to read. But now my head is spinning from so much information ... Can you tell me what is better to take for the house, for the family. My hobby is home photography, I do some magic in Photoshop. I plan to make a present for myself in the form of a good camera, but I can't choose. Thanks in advance ;)
Suggest a lens or camera?