What Are the Common Types of Camera Lenses?

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Being a new photographer choosing the right lens could become a very difficult task. You would find differences in focal lengths it might be super long or super wide and don’t even start on zoom lens kinds. Every major brand has like hundreds of lenses lined up in the market and wrapping your head around each one of them is very difficult. I read a lot of information on Gadget Reviews but for a beginner, you need to know the basics of camera lenses.

Therefore, in this article, we would discuss some common types of camera lenses.

Wide-Angle

Wide-angle lenses have three basic classes wide, ultra-wide, and fish eye. You could identity a fish lens by just looking at it. Their front element bows outside which allows them to capture images as wide as 180 degrees. The fish eye effect of these lenses bends all the straight lines towards the centre to produce a circular effect. There use is very limited and you should never use them without any real purpose. 

The ultra-wide lens has a focal length shorter than 20mm which allows them to correct the fisheye distortion. However, a wide lens is any regular lens with a focal length shorter than 35mm. Primarily a wide lens is used to capture a larger depth of field. This allows you to capture sprawling landscapes and tight interiors.

Normal Lenses

Well, a normal lens is the one that allows you to capture images within a similar proportion to the human eye. Normally they are between 35mm and 50mm and every camera in the market has them as a default. These lenses are very good for street and travel photography. The main reason is its pictures allow users to look at the image the same way their own eyes would see.  

Telephoto Lenses

The category lenses are the one which exceeds the 50mm mark. Normally telephoto lenses are beyond 100mm. The range of 50mm to 100mm lenses is normally referred to as portrait lenses just because of their usage. They are pretty much opposite to the wide lenses as they shorten the depth of field. This feature allows you to isolate the subject from the background. In normal words, you get a sharp image of the subject and the background of the picture turns completely blur.

Prime Lens

The biggest identification of a prime lens is that this lens does not have a zoom. They are designed to operate on a single focal length only. The simplicity of these lenses doesn’t require any moving parts which are needed to zoom the image. Normally these lenses are the best for indoor shoots and low light photography as they have a very large aperture to capture more light. If you are looking for the sharpest crisp clear images and convenience is not your top priority then they are the right choice.

Zoom Lenses

Every camera kit and consumer camera come with variable focal length lenses. Theses lenses could zoom in and out by just a simple twist and turn mechanism. investing in two of these lenses would surely fulfil every purpose. If you are a traveler or you have just taken up photography as a hobby then zoom lenses are the perfect fit. Two of these lenses would be enough to cover every possible range of photography. This means that you don’t have to carry a set of lenses inside your camera bag and keep switching between ultra-wide, normal, and telephoto lens. You might find super zoom lenses such as 18-200mm in the market to cover longer distances but all depends on your preference.

Macro Lens

This is another type of lens that is mainly used for an intensive level of magnification. If you are looking to capture the finest of detail that the human eye could not capture is this is the lens for it. The macro lens would enlarge and enhance the subject so much that you could see the smallest possible details. Only these lenses have made it possible for the photographers to capture the texture of the fly’s face sitting on a flowerer. You could possibly say that these lenses have allowed humans to learn more about the world. They have shown us something that we as humans were incapable of seeing through a normal eye.

What Is Aperture?

You might have heard this term aperture a lot from the professional photographers. Well, it is not that of rocket science to understand it. if you see a lens of f4, f3.5, or 5.6 the number tells you about the maximum aperture of the lens. That aperture is basically telling you how large the opening of the lens is. So, a large number means you get more light with the lens. That is why a camera with a large aperture is perfect for low light photography.