Have a nice, shiny SLR? Happy that you now have the ability to change lenses whenever you want? Have no clue what kind of lens you should get?
Welcome to the typical plight of the first time SLR purchaser.
Unless you're a fairly serious hobbyist (in which was you can probably stop reading this article), you might be a little baffled at all your lens options as an SLR owner. You're probably asking yourself which types of lenses you need, and what all those crazy letters and numbers in front of the name mean. How is a poor consumer to choose?
Let me make it simple for you. I'm not going to give you a complete course in everything you need to know about camera lenses, but hopefully after this, you have some idea of that you want to buy. First of all, let me state that unless you have a good reason to choose otherwise, you'll want a zoom lens. As you probably know, a zoom lens allows you to change the magnification of your lens (we'll start calling it by its proper name, the "focal length," from now on. These are extremely convenient, and very high quality these days, so there really is no reason to choose a fixed focal length, or "prime" lens.
So, the first thing you'll notice when shopping for zoom lenses are the focal lengths. Focal lengths for zoom lenses are designated using the number hyphen number system, such as 18-70. These numbers represent the focal length in millimeters, and the larger the number, the more "zoomed in" your picture appears. Assuming you're using a digital SLR, this particular example would zoom from a moderately wide angle view (28mm) to a moderately close up view (70mm). This would be a good, everyday lens to carry around.
The second set of numbers represent the "speed" of these, which basically means how much light the lens lets in. In photography, the more light, the better. This is what the "f" number means, and the lower it is, the better. For example, a 18-70 f4 lens is better than a 18-70 f5.6 lens. Sometimes, you'll see two numbers, like "f4-5.6," which means that the speed gets slower as you zoom out. This is perfectly normal, but its something to be aware of.
So, which lenses should you buy? Well, the easy answer is to buy something with a huge range, like 18-300, and be done with it. However, a general rule of thumb is that the longer the zoom range is, the poorer the image quality. However, many of these lenses are a lot better than they used to be, and for many casual photographers, the image quality trade off is worth the convenience.
If you want better lenses, try to get a wide angle zoom to cover the wide angle ranges, and a telephoto zoom for when you really need to get up close and personal. Buying first party lenses (i.e., Canon lenses for Canon cameras) will almost always get you better quality than third party lenses, though you'll pay more. Also, be sure to check up on reviews for a lens before you purchase, it will make for a happier decision.
I hope this has helped take some of the mystery out of shopping for a lens for your SLR. Remember, its not the camera, the lens, or any other piece of gear that makes your pictures great. Its you, the person behind the camera. So learn how to take better pictures, get a solid set of lenses, and you'll be on your way to becoming a great photographer.
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