DSLR Lenses for Beginners

If you are abeginner in photography and want to keep your initial investment from breaking the bank, a good zoom lens would be your best bet. This may mean not purchasing the kit lens with your digital SLR camera and adding a few dollars more to get a more versatile lens that will remain on your camera until you save up enough to diversify your gear and add more lenses.

If you have a full frame camera (this is one in which the sensor does not crop the pixels at all, such as a Canon 5D Mark II or a Nikon D700), then a lens with the range of 24-105mm should fit the bill for you.

If you have one of the "less-than-full-frame sensor cameras such as a Canon Rebel or Canon 7D or a Nikon D300, you will want to get a lens that has a wider range like the Sigma 18-250mm lens recommended as a general walk around lens (to see that page click here). There are cheaper lenses and more expensive lenses. Just make sure you check the user ratings before you buy. Be aware that the less money you spend the less quality you will get in performance and image quality. That just makes sense. Buying a good lens can be costly.

Which Lens to Buy to Complement Your Bag

Once you have your initial setup, you will want to add lenses to your kit as money permits. The more different types of lenses you have, the more flexibility you have with your photographic output.

For maximum creativity, try to fill each category before duplicating focal lengths. If purchasing Canon products, L-glass is preferable. It is, however, also their most expensive line of lenses. www.CanonEOSLenses.org is an entire website dedicated to helping you find quality lenses.

Wide Angle: A lens with a range of 14-16mm or 14-24mm is good. There are also specialty lenses known as "fish eye" lenses that will give some very wide angle creative effects. Here is an awesome wide angle zoom: Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM SLR Lens

MidrangeTelephoto: This would generally be a lens with a focal range of 70-200mm. Canon has this one covered with four five lenses, all L-glass. You can see them here.

Long Telephoto Lens: A 300mm lens is the minimum here. More appropriate is a 400mm or 500mm lens. Depending upon the aperture, these lenses can cost as much as a used car, but they are really valuable in terms of taking wildlife and sports events.

Macro: No photographer's bag would be complete without a macro lens. These allow you to take those close ups of bugs, flowers, and the like. They are also useful for portraits. Generally a macro lens will be a prime, or single focal length, lens. Canon has its own head of the class in the Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro. But there are some very good off brand macro lenses made by Tamron and Sigma. Be sure to check them out.

Extension Tubes: This is an excellent way to get macro...cheap. These little tubes move the lens away from the sensor without any glass. The effect is to allow you to move your lens much closer to the object. You will definitely need a tripod when you use them. They are sold as a set of three different extentions. I use them all the time with my Canon 70-200mm lens because that is my sharpest lens. I can get really good results with the birds right outside my window. They come within a couple of feet of my position because of how I set up my feeder. The Canon 70-200mm lens does a really good job with the smallest extension. Here is a photo I took with the 70-200mm lens and a 12mm extension.

All Purpose Lens (Walk-around lens) | Kit Lens? | Canon 70-200mm | Bird Photography Lenses