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Interchangeable lens quality
The prices of interchangeable lenses for digital single reflex cameras range from about $100.00 to those costing thousands of dollars. The price of professional lenses can take your breath away. But which should you buy?
Benefits of expensive lens
High quality lenses, called "glass" by photographers, render better colors, images can be sharper and they have less distortion, though are not necessarily distortion-free. High quality lenses are built ruggedly and many are waterproof. Professional quality lenses are as good as they get.
Some of the main reasons to purchase better lenses are that they focus quicker, are quieter and may be “faster.” A fast lens has a large maximum aperture that lets more light pass through during a given time span. Fast lenses are particularly useful for low light photography and when high shutter speeds are required.
Don’t balk at budget lenses
For many, a quality budget lens will meet their photographic needs.
A growning number of these lenses are designed for today's smaller DSLRs. They are compact and lightweight compared to their more expensive counterparts. Their light weight may be of particular interest to compact digital camera users moving to small sized DSLRs, such as the Canon Rebel XSi/450D.
A heavy lens may not balance well on a lighter DSLR body. Those who use and like the spontaneity of a super zoom camera may balk at the fact that heavy, long and super telephoto lenses may require a tripod. Tripods and suitable tripod heads for specific photographic needs, such as panning or photographing panoramas, can cost a bundle.
Budget lenses have gotten better
Shop carefully and read a few reviews before purchasing a lens and you’ll find that many of the newer budget DSLR lenses, including those with Image Stabilization, provide very fine image quality. They may lack some of features found on more expensive lenses but, quite frankly, some of those features are those that will never be missed.
Image sharpness
Images produced by today's high megapixel count cameras do not appear very sharp when viewed at 100 percent on a computer monitor, even when properly focused. When reduced in size, as is typical, images become sharper. With some basic editing such as adjusting brightness and contrast and sharpening, it's often near impossible to see the differences between images taken with a quality budget priced lens, or one that costs many times more.
Buy a budget or expensive DSLR lens?
If you’re a new DSLR user, you may want to begin with a quality, budget lens. Some DSLRs come packaged with a kit zoom lens, or lenses, which range from wide angle to long telephoto. Kit lenses, when purchased along with a camera body, can cost less than the exact same lens purchased separately.
This is not to say you shouldn’t start off with a better lens if it meets your photographic needs and is what your wallet can afford. But don’t assume that a better lens will automatically make you a better photographer.
How do you know if you need a better lens? The answer is simple: when you are no longer happy with the results of the one you currently own.
