Guide to Camera Lenses

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Kinds of Camera Lenses include the following:

Wide angle

• The wide angle camera lens allows for a small magnification and a wide angle of view.
• Its focal length typically measures 20mm to 35mm, although lengths below 20mm are available.
• It makes the foreground and background appear really far apart, making a scene appear wider than it really is.
• The wide angle lens produces a rectilinear image at the film plane, and to a degree, some barrel distortion.
• Extreme wide-angle lenses that do not produce rectilinear images (producing circular images instead) are called fisheye lenses; common focal lengths for these are 6mm to 8mm.

Normal

• The normal lens provides an image size that appears similarly to what the human eye can see.
• It has a "natural" perspective compared with telephoto or wide angle lenses.
• Its focal length is about the same as the diagonal of the image projected within the camera, approximating the perspective perceived by the human eye.
• The 35mm camera commonly uses a focal length of 50mm as normal, but focal lengths between 40 to 58 are also considered normal.

Telephoto

• The telephoto lens allows high magnification and a narrow angle of view.
• Its focal length measures 105mm to 300mm.
• It brings the background closer, making the foreground and background appear closer together.
• It is ideal for photographing wildlife, sports, and other events, subjects, or scenes, that are far away.
• A big telephoto lens can magnify a subject 2 to 20 times or more.
• It is often associated with detective/spy photographs and paparazzi because it allows a close-up of a person even when photographing from a far distance.
• The problem with telephoto lenses is that they can be quite long, bulky, heavy, and hard to hold; they normally have to be used with a tripod to maintain stability.
• There are also stabilized lenses that offer mechanical elements that counteract movements and nearly eliminate shakiness.

Zoom

• Zoom lenses are extendable lenses that can have wide, normal, and telephoto, built in one.
• It can change its focal length to zoom in and out.
• Typical consumer cameras have a 50mm to 150mm range; these types are built-in to cameras and are not changeable.

Aperture: Look for a camera lens that has a wide aperture (lens opening).  Adjusting aperture allows proper exposure of film for different light settings. A wider aperture or lens's iris opening allows for more light to pass through; this allows shorter time to properly expose the film, especially during dim lighting conditions.  Wide apertures are essential for event photographers who often work with little light.   

Material:  Avoid plastic lenses because it dos not have the clarity of glass. A lot of cameras with built-in lens contain plastic elements; if you want real picture quality look for one that is made from high quality glass (this will cost more of course).  Light does not travel that well through plastic as it travels through glass. Even with real glass however, light can still reflect and refract slightly, damaging the image; higher grade lenses are able to cut down on these.   
 
Coating: Look for a camera lens that has some coatings that help fight reflection without affecting the image quality.  There are also coatings that blocks UV rays.

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