DSLR Lenses Online – Which Is The Best DSLR Lens For You?

Each day thousands of people search online for the best DSLR lens available. Without realizing it they are trying to find something that doesn’t really exist.

It would be great to be able to find a lens that would satisfy everyones needs all the time, or come to think of it.. maybe it’s better off how it is now?

That is, the lenses that are available today are suited to different people with different budgets, as well as different subjects and different situations. Therefore there cannot possibly be a lens that is better than the rest.

As you can imagine, the question of the best DSLR lens is quite an open ended one but I will do my best to answer it giving consideration to the major questions that you should ask yourself before making a decision.

Image and build quality

Image and build quality are subjective points in themselves and could be explained in another post entirely. However I believe that image quality is in the eye of the beholder, in the same way as the beauty in people or cars! It really depends what you hope to get out of your lens and also your photography.

You have to ask yourself – what are your standards like? Are you going to be blowing your prints up to 20 x 30 inches, or primarily showing images online? You might be planning to show an exhibition or on the other hand you may be getting prints developed to put in your family photo album.

Like any other decision in life, buying a lens will no doubt involve some compromises as you seek to find a  suitable balance between the image quality (which, in my opinion should be the factor you pay most attention to) and other things like color reproduction, contrast, sharpness, bokeh, chromatic aberration as well as any known flaring or ghosting issues.

Focal length (Prime or zoom lens?)

Perhaps the second most important factor is whether you want a prime lens (fixed focal length) or zoom lens. This is going to be directly attributable to your distinct style of photography or, if you are starting out, where you intend to take your photography in the future.

Prime lenses are more suited to portraiture and macro photography as a general rule, whereas zoom lenses can be used for everything else. Of course, the lines are blurry in photography and every lens has more than one application.  Just be prepared to be doing the work of the camera with a prime lens as you yourself will have to move forwards or backwards to get the correct amount of ‘zoom’ for every shot.

Chances are you know what the difference between a wide angle and telephoto lens is and their respective uses, so I won’t bore you with that but if you need help leave a comment below. Something you may not have known is that a 50mm lens most closely mimics the field of view of the human eye and this makes it a highly popular and versatile choice.

Anything less than 50mm is wide angle and anything more is a short range telephoto until you get beyond 100mm and more. Wide angle and telephoto lens all have varying amounts of distortion respective to their families and price ranges. Some popular Nikon lenses will encompass every zoom range (such as the 28-300mm) and these are beneficial in a sense that you are not constantly changing lenses for different situations which in turn allows less dust into the camera body and reduces wear and tear on the camera to lens contact points.

Deciding features/factors

By this I mean things that will influence your decision one way or another. Obviously only Canon lenses will fit on Canon bodies and the same goes for Nikon. Tamron and Sigma lenses can fit on both but it pays to double check that the lens you are buying will fit your body (especially if you are going to buy a third party Tamron or Sigma).

Additionally, some Canon and Nikon lenses are only designed for their respective full frame or 1.6x FOVCF bodies so watch out for this also.

Other things that may influence your decision are things like image stabilization technology, a non-rotating front element and filter size. It would make sense to at least consider a lens with all three of these factors working in your favor.

The importance of image stabilization speaks for itself, but a non rotating front element allows you attach filters without the risk of them seriously affecting the performance of your lens. Filter size is not as easy to get right because many different lenses use different filter sizes – meaning you will have to buy the correctly fitting filters for each one. Match them wherever possible to save money and inconvenience.

You would also do well to visit a camera store before making a purchase online so you can get a feel for how the lens feels in your hand. That way you get the best of both worlds – real world experience and low online prices when you do decide to buy.

Affordability

Price may or may not be that much of an important factor for some people. It all depends I guess on how big a compromise you are willing to make. In most cases price is most related to the minimum aperture and construction quality/complexity of the lens. The complexity part is especially true of telephoto and super telephoto lenses which require many elements arranged in a certain way.

There are exceptions of course, with the 50mm being of very high quality but relatively cheap in cost. The low price is due to the simple yet efficient design of the lens – it just costs less to manufacture and the savings are passed onto the consumer.

Anyway, I think I have covered most of what needs to be looked at when considering the best DSLR lens for you. I will most likely make more posts on this topic in the future but if you have any questions or comments then please let me know.