Choosing a camera lens

There are hundreds of lenses available at all sorts of focal lengths and specifications, so which one should I choose?

When you first buy an interchangeable lens camera, chances are it comes with a kit lens so you are good to go out of the box. Yes, you can buy cameras that are “body only” and use existing lenses, or purchase a lens you think suits your needs better.

Often the kit lens will be a wide angle zoom, something like a 18–55mm. This could be an okay general lens to start with and many many people have started this way. It’s fine.

Eventually you’ll probably find you want to buy a different lens for a different purpose. Maybe you’re chasing better quality, or maybe a longer focal length. Whatever it is, you need to ask yourself what sort of photography will you be doing, then, get the appropriate lens for that subject.

Some things to consider when looking for a lens.

Sensor type

Sensor size in your camera will affect (to some extent) the selection of lens choices. Putting a lens designed for an APS-C camera only onto a camera with a full frame sensor will either not work at all, or will only cover part of the image sensor, wasting those megapixels.

A full frame lens will generally work on an APS-C camera but a lens designed for full frame with a 50mm focal length is going to be more like 85mm on an APS-C camera body, which may…