What Lens Should I Buy?

"What lens should I buy?" is one of the most common gear questions with beginner and advanced amateur photographers alike, and most approaches may lead you in the wrong direction. You do research, spin your head over dizzying options, and then ask people on forums which is best for you. My advice: take marketing out of the equation and be honest about what you can achieve with a piece of gear and why you need it.

Vision The most important criteria in lens selection is the story you want to tell. A lens determines how you see through the camera, and it gives each image character, such as perspective, angle of view, and bokeh, or out-of-focus elements in the background. You can use a lens skillfully to serve certain looks, or you can waste its potential on generic shots or purposes that don't make use of its full potential. Secondly, you should have the skill to get out of the lens everything it's capable of providing. If you buy a lens for sharpness or clarity and then frame up poor light, poor exposure and don't know good focusing technique or composition, you've just wasted your money on a piece of gear you can't control.

Storytelling characteristics

1. Telephotos, usually 100 mm and longer, compress scenes, enable you to magnify subjects more, help isolate subjects from backgrounds by throwing the background out of focus and compress foreground and background. Fast telephotos feature wide apertures of 2.8 and sometimes f/2. Long lenses enable you to crop scenes and control backgrounds.

2. Wide lenses, about 35 mm or less, exaggerate space around the subject and tend to distort features. Their wide perspective creates the illusion of greater depth of field, or distance between the nearest and farthest subjects in good focus. They pack a lot of information into the frame, but if not used carefully it can be too much. Wide lenses are often used to feature environments and emphasize space, but not necessarily dimension.

3. Medium zooms cover the average range of zoom, about 35 mm to 100 mm, and give different looks depending on how far you zoom. Their flexibility enables you to shoot different situations from environments to closeups without constantly changing lenses, but they often lack the wider apertures of dedicated telephotos or primes, and the maximum aperture usually varies throughout the zoom range, making any manual exposure a bit of a trick.

4. Prime lenses have no zoom and give you a consistent look and feel, often used for portraits or environmental shots. They often have wide maximum apertures, from 2.8 down to 1.2, helping you defocus backgrounds for separation even when the subject is fairly close to them. Primes vary in focal lengths from wide to telephoto and are often prized for their fast apertures, consistent looks and clarity.

5. Specialty lenses include perspective control lenses and fisheyes, which correct perspective distortion and exaggerate distortion, respectively. Macros are also in this category, and they're kind of like microscopes, enabling you to fill the frame with tiny subjects. So, the first consideration is which lens you need to tell your story. It could be the cheapest kit lens available, or your skill might demand better optics or different focal lengths. If you're honest about your needs and separate them from wants, you can be very selective in what lenses you shop for. This enables you to develop a budget, which is the next criteria.
   

Budget Since I don't know your vision or your budget, I can't tell you what lens to buy. But I can give you buying techniques that can help reduce your costs. Be patient. Rushing to buy a piece of equipment never improved anyone's photography. Wait until you can afford the lens you want without going into significant debt. If you can get store credit and can pay off a lens quickly or on the spot, go for it. If you have to take out a second mortgage, don't bother. Debt won't improve your photography. Focus on your vision and master what you have before straining for what you want. A new lens won't improve your photography or vision. Only you can do that. Avoid equipment addiction and separate needs from marketing. Every photographer wants the big glass, the $10,000 lens that will help us nail those beautiful close-ups of animals, or the fancy $1,500 2.8 zoom that's known for its clarity and sharpness, but equipment doesn't equate to better photography. A pro can take a great image with an old slide camera. If you buy an expensive lens for its supposed technical greatness, you better make sure you're making use out of every ounce of quality that glass has to offer. Otherwise you're just donating to the Nikon CEO yacht fund. There are few markets where marginal differences in lens quality are actually both tangible in photos and affect client demand for images. I don't think there's a person alive who can tell just by looking at images exactly what lens was used to take them. Wait for sales or rebates, and don't be afraid to buy used. Brand name lenses are like high-end cars. There's a certain novelty and convenience to buying them new, but your photography doesn't gain any more from that than a new car helps you drive better. It's the same tool, just with a little mileage. Nikon and Canon lenses in particular are designed to absorb somewhat of a beating since pros use them every day. They may not be in perfect condition, but what's important is the glass is scratch free. If that criteria is met, you can be reasonably confident the lens will work for a long time, at least long enough for you to improve your photography and save up for another lens, even when not handled with perfect care. Even if you have to send a used lens in for repairs say once in two years, you're still likely to come out ahead compared to paying full price for it new. You can easily save $200-$1500 on used pro lenses, and most service requests are under $200, so you would have to repair a lens more than twice in five years, which is the warranty period on most new lenses, before a new one becomes a better investment. EBay has a good used market and protects buyers from bad purchases, and Adorama offers occasional open box and refurbished deals. Buy a lens that you know is a USA model, so if something does need repair, the manufacturer will repair it for a fee. If you buy gray market equipment, the manufacturer won't repair it even for a fee. Authorized dealers sell USA models. To find an authorized dealer, search the manufacturer's website. Or, find the serial number of the lens and contact the manufacturer to check whether it's USA or gray market. You can pick from third-party lenses, like Tamron and Sigma, but you make some sacrifices. While there may not be noticeable differences in image quality for every lens, there will likely be noticeable differences in features. For example, some third-party lenses don't have as solid a build quality, which you can feel when you handle them. They may not focus as well or as fast as more expensive lenses or have other compatibility issues with the camera. Sometimes a lens has a different filter size than the equivalent Nikon or Canon lens, throwing off your filter collection and compelling you to buy new filters. For demanding clients who want perfection, or if you sell large prints, cheaper lenses might show more flaws because they lack engineering features like specialized coatings or the higher quality elements of more expensive lenses.

So, what lens should I buy?

The Ideal Lens Kit Every pro has numerous lenses because no lens can serve every vision. A standard lens set generally includes three lenses: a telephoto, medium zoom and wide angle. This is because photographers usually want to cover the entire range of focal lengths, giving them flexibility in storytelling. Why not just one lens that covers a great range? Manufacturers make them, like an 18-300 mm, and they're affordable. However, zoom lenses are more prone to focus inaccuracies, inconsistencies and going out of calibration, and they're just not as tack sharp as fixed focal length lenses. The lenses I carry with me almost all the time are my 70-200 mm f/2.8, 24-85 mm f/3.5-5.6, and 85 mm f/1.8. In addition to the core bag, pros often have specialty lenses that serve specific purposes. They might have a macro for close-ups, a tilt/shift lens, or various telephotos or primes that are pulled out for occasional use. I have a 50 mm 1.8 lens for portraits and general use. For a beginner, I would recommend a medium zoom that enables you to experiment with wide to medium-telephoto angles and doesn't fix you into a certain perspective. See what you can do with it and improve your photography, and then figure out what the next level of your vision is. Go to a camera store and ask to try lenses out on your own camera. Get an idea of the look the lens provides and whether or not the features and price fit your needs. Take a few test shots and analyze them. A good lens can last your career. When you feel confident in your lens decision, and if you would buy the same lens again, you'll know you made the right one.

The Thrill Factor I'm not trying to tell you that spending more on expensive lenses is absolutely useless. If you're in a budget situation, like most beginners are, you can definitely save by going used or buying glass that maybe isn't as good as what the top pros are using but is more than capable of handling your work. But if you're not on a budget, owning expensive glass is just plain fun. It gives you bragging rights, peace of mind and lets you play with some cool gear, but that doesn't make you a better photographer. I know what it's like to want the best just to make sure that you have it and so that you can push the potential of it. And if you do have advanced skills, then certainly better glass can make an improvement in images that are captured well in camera. Again this is where being honest with your needs leads you to a better decision, expensive or inexpensive. Just having a piece of equipment doesn't improve or degrade your photography. No matter how expensive it is, it's just a tool and to get the most out of it you still need appropriate skills.

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