Camera lenses are at least, if not more, as important as your camera body for your photography. Knowing the words and understanding which specific lenses are well-suited is thus an essential part of your photography growth.
In this article, I will focus (hehe) on lenses and explain what types there are. And what each type of lens is good at. Or at least, mainly used for.
Knowing the right words for the lenses also helps you research and buy the specific lenses you need. (or want)
Full-frame and crop factor
First, a little tangent to cameras. I know, it’s about lenses. But your camera contains a sensor, which is essential. It captures the light and your photo.
The sensor can be in multiple formats. This has an impact on the lens you use. Full-frame sensors, for example, are the same format as 35mm film. In comparison, APS-C (crop factor) is smaller.
A 50mm lens for a full-frame camera is thus a 50mm lens, but for APS-C lenses, you have to multiply it by 1.5x. So that same lens becomes a 75mm lens on a crop-factor camera.
All focal distances mentioned here are for full-frame cameras.
The 6 types of lenses
In brief, I will discuss six types in the article. I have some extras added at the bottom, but they’re not very common.
In short:
- Prime: fixed lenses that can’t zoom
- Zoom: lenses that can zoom
- Wide-angle: gives a broad field of view
- Standard: gives a field of view similar to your eyes
- Telephoto: provides a narrow field of view (zoomed in)
- Macro: enlarges your subject
Prime lenses
Prime lenses can be of any type, including wide-angle, standard, or telephoto. The thing that makes them ‘prime’ (sometimes called fixed) is that they can’t zoom.
This makes them fairly ‘simple’. It seems like that makes them less useful, but there are multiple advantages to it.
Typically, the quality of the lenses is higher than that of zoom lenses. However, they also allow for wider aperture openings, allowing more light to enter. This is particularly useful for individuals working in low-light environments. Or people who just love a very shallow depth of field.
In short, Prime lenses don’t allow for zooming, but they do provide sharper images, better quality, and a wider aperture.
Zoom lenses
Zoom lenses do allow zooming. Hence the name, ofcourse. They usually have a range written on them. For example, 24-70mm. Meaning it can range from as wide as 24mm to as narrow as 70mm. And anything in between.
This gives the photographer considerable flexibility. You have different lenses in one, which can help you when photographing events—moments where you don’t want to lose time switching lenses or cameras.
Zoom lenses are heavier, often more expensive, and have a smaller aperture than prime lenses.
Zoom vs Prime
Neither is necessarily better than the other. It depends on what you, as the photographer, need.
Think about what you’re photographing and what would help you to be better at it. Sometimes it’s a prime lens, and sometimes it’s a zoom.
From here on, the types of lenses can be either zoom or prime. You have wide-angle prime lenses (such as 35mm) and wide-angle zoom lenses (like 14-24mm).
Wide-angle lenses
Wide-angle lenses provide the camera with a wide viewing range. Wider than we as humans can see. At its extreme, we have fish eyes.
Wide-angle lenses are wider (signified by a smaller number) than 35mm. For example: 24mm, 28mm, 35mm, 16mm, and so on.
They’re usually used in landscape and architecture photography as they can capture a lot in the scenes.
Wide-angle lenses show more distance between objects, so using them can make a room look bigger. But they can also show distortion at the edges of your frame, especially with fish-eye lenses.
Standard lenses
These are lenses with a more natural viewing range. More similar to the human eye. It ranges from 35 to 60mm.
These lenses are often better for your everyday photography, street photography, and for beginners getting the hang of their cameras.
These lenses are great for a variety of photography uses, although they’re not specialized explicitly for any one type in particular.
Telephoto lenses
These lenses are longer and have a focal distance of 70mm or more. They zoom into your subject with a narrow field of view.
These lenses allow the photographer to make distant objects appear closer. It also compresses the background and foreground, altering the scales between them.
Telephoto lenses are usually used for wildlife, sports, and portrait photography.
They can become quite expensive, though, and are often quite heavy. But they are great for anyone looking to shoot faraway subjects.
Macro lenses
These lenses are slightly more specialized. They are used for close-up photography. They have a smaller minimum focusing distance than regular lenses.
To be macro, a lens must cast an image on your sensor that is as large as, or larger than, your subject—magnifying it for a better view.
These lenses are often used for insects, flowers, product photos, and wedding rings.
Macro lenses have less variety in use, though; of course, an 85mm macro lens can still be used for portraits as well.
Other lenses and attributes
There are a few other types of lenses, though they are less common. It can be helpful to know about these, but often they’re so specialized that it’s not worth the purchase.
- Tilt-shift: A lens mainly used for architecture, this lens allows you to tilt and shift the focal plane of your image.
- ND-filter: not a lens in itself, but a useful filter for people doing long exposure and video.
- Teleconverter: A little thing you stick between your camera and lens to enhance the focal length of your lens. For example, making a 300mm lens from your 200mm lens.
- Lens extension tubes: These are designed to reduce the minimum focus distance of your lens, allowing you to get closer to your subject. Making a standard lens closer to a macro lens (if not completely).
In the list of others, I’d include extension tubes, although technically not a lens because they’re hollow. I use them in lieu of a macro so that I can focus a lot closer, not necessarily to true macro range but still very useful for close-ups of flowers (including plants & fungi), insects, and abstracts
Hey Jeff, that’s a good one! I think I was looking at it mostly as a street photographer, and thus forgetting the existence of extension tubes. I do have some myself, but rarely use them to be honest. I’ll add your suggestion right now.