Are You Going to Go Wide Angle or Telephoto?

Here's what we've learned so far about lenses:

• They come in different focal lengths
• There are 4 categories: wide angle, standard, telephoto and super-telephoto
• There are 2 primary lens types: zoom and prime
• There are specialty lenses called macro and tilt-shift

If we combine all of this information this means that you can choose any one of the following lenses for your digital SLR:

Lens Type	Example Focal Length
Wide Angle Prime	15mm
Standard Prime	50mm
Telephoto Prime	200mm
Super Telephoto Prime	600mm
Macro Prime	varies
Tilt-shift Prime	varies
Wide angle to wide angle zoom	17mm to 40mm
Wide angle to telephoto zoom	28mm to 135mm
Telephoto to super-telephoto zoom	100mm to 400mm
Macro Zoom	varies

If you know your photography style, selecting the right lens is going to be easy.

Photography Styles and Lenses

This table lists the different photography styles and the lenses that match the styles.

Photo Style	Focal Length	Lens Type	Rationale
Action and Sports	Super-telephoto	Zoom	Without being in the thick of the action you can still take close-up shots.
Portrait	Standard or Telephoto Prime	Prime	Wide angle lenses distort facial features, and super-telephotos don't let you interact with your subject. Prime lenses have better image quality
Landscape	Wide Angle	Prime or Zoom	You want to capture every last bit of a majestic view.
Macro	Macro	Prime or Zoom	If you want to take macro photos you'll need a macro lens. A tiny number of zooms come with a macro setting, but the primes will create better images.
Night/Low Light	Any	Any	The lens doesn't matter as much when there isn't a lot of ambient light.
Travel/Outdoor	Wide Angle or Super-Telephoto	Prime or Zoom	If you take you camera on hikes you will want a lightweight wide angle zoom. If you are a wildlife photographer (birds, wild animals, etc.) then a super-telephoto zoom is the way to go.
Indoor	Wide Angle	Prime or Zoom	In small rooms you need the widest angle of view you can get.
Spontaneous	Any	Any	The camera is going to have more of an impact on how spontaneous you can be than the lens.
Planned/Studio	Standard	Prime	You can control the exact camera position so having a fancy telephoto zoom lens is not required.

Example Lens Choices

To really drive the point home, here are some examples of different scenarios and the lenses that would help these photographer take the photos they love.

Getting the feel for this?

Next Step – Decide on Lens Features

Imagine for a moment that you're buying a car, not a new lens for a digital SLR camera.

At this point in the selection process you know the make and the model of the car that you'd like to buy. It's the same thing for the lens.

Now you have to decide if you'd like air-conditioning, power windows, leather seats and alloy rims.

While I don’t think they make a lens yet that will keep your hands warm on cold days, there are plenty of important lens features you'll need to consider before you're ready to buy.

Your first choice: the maximum aperture of the lens.