If you want to buy a new lens for your DSLR or mirrorless system, this should be done carefully, because the lens is the “eye of your camera” and at the same time the most important accessory. Only together with the camera housing, which houses the sensor and the recording electronics, it forms a photographic unit. This modular concept allows the camera to be easily adapted to virtually any photographic situation.
The kit lens
Therefore, from the outset, you should consider carefully which part of your budget you are investing in the housing when you buy it, and which in lenses. The product cycles are considerably shorter for the housings. So it makes sense to always buy according to the current needs. On the other hand, objective lenses can always be used on new housings over many years, often decades. They are more of a long-term investment.
Lesetipp
Our purchase consultation lenses gives you an overview of all questions concerning lenses for SLR. Detailed information on individual lenses can be found in the tests of the ColorFoto. From the technical data, such as the focal length and weight of the individual lenses, to the most important measurements from the tests at various aperture settings, to the price that ultimately affects the purchase decision in most photographers - and for almost every camera / lens combination.
The lens palette
In order to assess the quality of the lenses as precisely as possible, they are tested on different camera housings, since the results can differ significantly. The careful evaluation of these measurements is converted into a score between 1 and 100.
The hobby Photography often starts with a smartphone or a small compact camera. Here the lens is fixed and you do not have to think about what you have. For beginners this is very handy and therefore the manufacturers also offer their simple SLR models together with a zoom lens.
This is usually a lens with a focal range from the moderate wide angle to the light telephoto, usually 18-55 mm. Even a fast autofocus and an image stabilizer are often already on board. This is an extra cost of around 100 euros compared to the bare housing almost always worth. The Canon EF-S 3.5-5.6 / 18-55 mm, the Nikon AF-S Nikkor 3.5-5.6 / 18-55 mm DX G ED-II or the Pentax SMC- DA 18-55 mm / 18-55 mm AL II.
Even with medium-class or professional cameras, the purchase of a kit can save some 100 euros. However, the included high-quality lenses are priced at € 1,000 or more, which is relatively low at prices between 2,000 and 5,000 euros.
As an alternative to the first purchase, a standard focal length of 50 mm (or 35 mm in APS-C format) is offered instead of a zoom lens, which is available from nearly all manufacturers and already offer a light intensity of f / 1.8. The advantage is that these lenses, as light-intensive specialists, will later be housed in a larger lens collection, while the entry-level zooms are then more expendable.
If you have not yet had a SLR camera, however, a kit zoom lens offers a lot more possibilities and they should buy it, because it is no longer so favorable. Compared to a compact camera, these lenses also offer outstanding imaging performance, and are also suitable as "always-on lenses" due to their small size.
The focal lengths you should depend on depends mainly on your favorite motifs. A focal length of 50 mm (KB) corresponds approximately to the human viewing angle. A 50 mm lens is therefore referred to as a standard lens or a normal lens. Focal lengths under 50 mm are assigned to the wide angle, extremely short focal lengths of 14 to 24 mm (KB) are given to the super-wide angle.
Compared to the human field of view, a wide-angle lens has a wider angle of view (hence the designation wide angle). In simplified terms, this means that a wide-angle lens looks more of the subject than we do. Long focal lengths of more than 50 mm (KB) are teleobjectives that are more closely related to the motifs, ie, larger.
There are also lenses for special tasks. Such as those with which the motif can be depicted very close up very closely, the macro lenses or those that compensate for falling lines, the shift lenses. In the following, we present the individual lens types.
The so-called fisheye or fisheye lens is an extreme wide-angle lens that provides strong distortion because it curves straight lines that do not pass through the center of the image exactly. This allows you to photograph a subject at an extremely short distance, while still capturing a lot of space, but what is not in the middle is quite small.
The shorter the focal length, the more the distortions, the picture is rounder. One differentiates between fisheye lenses which still fill the complete sensor format (full format) and those which provide a 180 ° view of the environment in the sensor housing - like a mirror image on a shiny round body like a Christmas ball (circular).
You can look at fisheye pictures quickly, if everything always looks the same crooked. In addition, the extremely large angle of view makes it easy to carry your own feet or tripod legs in the picture. With appropriate motifs and the right know-how, fisheye lenses offer a very wide scope for design. The curved lines can be calculated out of the picture with the appropriate software remaining on the PC - as long as it is not a circular fisheye.
Super-wide angles are lenses with focal lengths of over 85 ° (corresponding to focal lengths less than 24 mm) that do not bend straight lines. They are clearly more practical for everyday photography. Straight lines remain straight. However, the effect of the falling lines at these super-wide angles is usually strongly pronounced, if one tries to get with the upward tilted camera despite little space much in the picture. With such super-wide angle lenses, a strong perspective effect can be achieved, objects in the foreground are displayed overproportionally large.
In addition to the objectives of the camera manufacturers, there are also various offers from foreign manufacturers, among others. Of Zeiss (Distagon 2.8 25 mm and 2.8 / 21 mm) and Sigma (e.g., 3.5 / 8 mm and 2.8 / 15 mm). The entrance into fisheye and super-wide angle photography with Walimex lenses, which are available for many camera types, is particularly favorable. A 3.5 / 8mm fisheye and a 2.8 / 14mm super-wide angle are available for less than 400 euros.
Wide-angle lenses are responsible for the feeling of width and depth. They capture a larger viewing angle than our eyes and thereby give urban scenes and landscapes a generous touch. For indoor use, they leave rooms larger than they actually are. All focal lengths below about 40 mm (KB) are considered wide-angle, with focal lengths less than 28 mm (KB), the effect is really clear.
Distances are increasing in the wide angle, near things are overburdened. This can sometimes also be problematic, for example in portraits, where the faces in the pictures look like differently than in real life - with disproportionate nose. Because of their wide angle of view, wide angle lenses are a real blessing in cramped conditions.
Especially with wide angle lenses a high light intensity is a good purchasing argument. At short focal lengths, the depth of the field is quite high anyway. If a lens comes only with f5,6, there is hardly any air left for a blur range. Because a few millimeters more or less focal depths give a distinctly different picture, a zoom is particularly valuable here.
While in the telephoto for the full-format computed lenses can also be used on APS-C cameras (and thus even the telepresence still strengthened) does not make sense in the wide angle. A 28-millimeter wide-angle for the full format comes on an APS-C camera already in the range of a normal lens.
Many good wide-angle focal lengths and zooms are offered on the market. Among the lenses with a very good price / performance ratio is the Tokina AT-X 4 / 12-24 mm, which is specially designed for the APS-C format, which is available for Canon and Nikon cameras with the appropriate housing size Which corresponds to a KB focal length of approx. 18-32 mm.
Of course, a good wide-angle lens does not guarantee good landscapes. The daytime and the season are more important than the look. Suitable light is not to be replaced by, and when long shadows "form" a landscape in the morning and in the evening, this looks always better than the one-dimensional daylight at noon. Wide-angle lenses require a careful composition of the image that underlines essentials and ignores unnecessary.
A normal lens is the smallest and best companion of a DSLR - as done for spontaneous images. The full format is a fixed focal length of approximately 50 mm (APS-C approx. 35 mm), normal zooms often cover the range of 28-85 mm (KB), pure APS-C zooms about 18-60 mm . Normal lenses have low distortions and are comparatively light-fast. Even simple focal lengths come with f1.8, nobler models even with f1,4 or f1,2.
Because the image angle of a normal lens is approximately equal to our field of view, it is ideal for spontaneous photography, where motifs of different sizes and distances mix. All are reproduced without great distortions without distorting the image too much. So the photo is always well proportioned. For family and holiday pictures, the normal lens alone is the right choice. It is best to leave it on the camera as long as you do not want to use another lens. Zoom lenses with a focal length of 28 to 85 mm are considered normal zoom.
Normal lenses are compact and space-saving, better lenses are also light-fast, which is beneficial if you do not want to increase the ISO number to avoid increased picture noise. Good Normalzooms have both the camera manufacturer in program (eg Canon EF-S 2.8 / 17-55 mm, Nikon Nikkor AF-S 2.8 / 17-55 mm DX, Sony SAL 3,5-4,5 / 24- 105 mm) and foreign manufacturers such as Sigma (EX 2,8 17-50) and Tamron (AF 2,8 / 17-50).
As an alternative to the normal lens with a fixed focal range, a macro lens with the same focal length can be used (eg the Sigma 50mm F2.8 EX DG). Although this is two f-stops less light than the otherwise comparable 50mm F1.4 EX DG HSM of the same manufacturer, allows for close-ups up to the image scale 1: 1 without accessories (and without further light loss) Code>
An old photographer's rule says: Only those who have learned to take good pictures with a normal lens can also handle other focal lengths. There is still something to do today.
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