Friday, January 21, 2005
When choosing a digital camera, the first thing to concentrate on is the lens furnished with it. Understanding the components of a camera lens does help you use your optics as much as it helps you choose them. The major things you need to know fall into four simple categories:
The optical quality of the lens itself: The better the lens, the better it can capture details. At the low and medium ends of the price spectrum, digital cameras have good quality lenses that usually can resolve a lot more detail than the 1- to 3-megapixel sensor can capture. At higher price levels, lenses have better quality optics, which are necessary to keep up with the detail-capturing capabilities of 6- to 8-megapixel (and higher) sensors. Remember: Camera vendors have been mass-producing lenses like these for film cameras for decades, and any film camera can capture a lot more detail than an inexpensive digital camera.
The amount of light the lens can transmit: Some lenses can capture larger amounts of light than others. So, if you take many pictures in dim light, you'll want a faster lens.
The focusing range of the lens: The ability to get up-close and personal with your subject matter can be very important if your hobbies include things such as stamp or coin collecting or if you want to take pictures of flowers or bugs. Indeed, close-focusing can open whole new worlds of photography for you.
The magnification range of the lens: Most digital cameras, except for the least expensive, have a zoom lens. You may be able to take your basic image and double it in size (a 2:1 zoom ratio), triple it (a 3:1 zoom) or magnify it 10X or more (a 10:1 zoom). As you might expect, the ability to zoom enhances your creative options significantly. At the widest settings (called wide-angle settings), you can take in broad sweeps of landscape, whereas in the narrowest view (called telephoto), you can reach out and bring a distant object much closer.
The optical quality of the lens itself: The better the lens, the better it can capture details. At the low and medium ends of the price spectrum, digital cameras have good quality lenses that usually can resolve a lot more detail than the 1- to 3-megapixel sensor can capture. At higher price levels, lenses have better quality optics, which are necessary to keep up with the detail-capturing capabilities of 6- to 8-megapixel (and higher) sensors. Remember: Camera vendors have been mass-producing lenses like these for film cameras for decades, and any film camera can capture a lot more detail than an inexpensive digital camera.
The amount of light the lens can transmit: Some lenses can capture larger amounts of light than others. So, if you take many pictures in dim light, you'll want a faster lens.
The focusing range of the lens: The ability to get up-close and personal with your subject matter can be very important if your hobbies include things such as stamp or coin collecting or if you want to take pictures of flowers or bugs. Indeed, close-focusing can open whole new worlds of photography for you.
The magnification range of the lens: Most digital cameras, except for the least expensive, have a zoom lens. You may be able to take your basic image and double it in size (a 2:1 zoom ratio), triple it (a 3:1 zoom) or magnify it 10X or more (a 10:1 zoom). As you might expect, the ability to zoom enhances your creative options significantly. At the widest settings (called wide-angle settings), you can take in broad sweeps of landscape, whereas in the narrowest view (called telephoto), you can reach out and bring a distant object much closer.
