If I get a dime every single time I get asked the above question, well.. I still wouldn’t be rich. I’d end up with a load, a good darn load, of dimes, though.   And don’t get me wrong, folks. When I take that long long pause before I answer your question, when I give that odd odd look before I let out that sad sad sigh; It’s not you, it’s me. My overloaded brain simply cannot churn out a simple answer to that seemingly innocent question.  And I just hadn’t been able to find the perfect opportunity to try and put the words together. But since you’re stuck here with this article with no chance of cutting my sentences or ask any follow-up questions, the timing just couldn’t be more perfect!

First things first, lenses are more important than SLR’s. Yes folks, don’t max out your cards on the most expensive SLR you can get and slap a cheapo lens on that monster. SLR sensors are like your eyes, and lenses are like a pair of sunglasses you wear. No matter how sharp your eyes may be, if the sunglasses aren’t top notch, you won’t see sharp images. And with the digital photography industry shifting its gear up year on year, SLR’s get obsolete faster and faster. But not lenses. Some of my go-to lenses are designed back in the 1990’s. So people, spend wisely, invest on lenses.

Full Frame vs APS/Non-Full Frame

I don’t have the whole magazine to work with, So I’ll make it short and use the APS/Non-full frame point of reference throughout this article. For those full-framers still wondering how the full-frame-to-APS conversion works, you gotta be kidding me!!

Kit Lenses (e.g. 18-55/3.5-5.6, 18-105/3.5-5.6)

                 They come with the cameras, so they must be good! J Well, two good things about kit lenses are: they’re cheap, and errrr.. they come with the cameras.

Kit lenses are good for snapshooters used to pocket cameras, who wouldn’t worry about picture sharpness or blurring the background.

All Around Lenses (e.g. 18-200/3.5-5.6, 18-270/3.5-6.3)

                 You heard it. The one lens that can do it all. The one lens that will make all other lenses obsolete. Sounds too good to be true? It is. Lens manufactures have to stack so many glasses inside these lenses to accommodate that huge zoom range that sharpness suffer and distortion becomes inconsistent. And since the maximum aperture is only so-so (f/3.5-6.3 range), blurring the background can only be achieved at the longer end of the zoom range. But, if you’re a traveler who’d love to travel light, and would not complain too much about picture sharpness, this is the one for you.

Fixed Lenses (e.g. 50/1.4, 85/1.8, 135/2)

                 Ahhh.. The lenses you “zoom” with your feet. That’s right, no zooming with these lenses. You really have to walk forward or backward to get different magnification. But you gain so much more in terms of lens sharpness and maximum aperture. Try these lenses once, and you’d be hooked for life! Super-sharp objects on a super-blur background, who wouldn’t fall in love?

Just find out the focal length that would best suit you. Low light? Get the 50/1.4. Model aficionado? Get the 85/1.8 or 105/2. Want the super smooth bokeh? The legendary 135/2 awaits you.

Professional Zoom Lenses (e.g. 24-70/2.8, 70-200/2.8)

                 Losing sleep deciding between the convenience of zoom lenses and the superior image quality of fixed lenses? Don’t. These zoom lenses are darn sharp! Expensive, but sharp! They would cause you to miss a couple of mortgage payments, but did I mention that they’re darn sharp?!

Other Lenses

                 Go call the magazine now for me. They wouldn’t let me have any more pages

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I had just set my super duper heavy camera backpack on the floor of an airport waiting room when I saw a very confident-looking person putting his Canon EOS 50d through the security scanner. The guy did not bring any other piece of luggage; just his vertical-grip-enhanced camera, complete with the ever-so-intimidating 24-70/2.8 Canon L lens; no camera bag. I couldn’t help but look him up and down, analyzing every little detail on him. Sunglasses on, body-fit white fancy shirt, rolled-up sleeves, tucked in into the oh-so-tight jeans, ending with a pair of leather boots. Then I looked at his big chunk of camera, left stranded by his side, untouched, while he’s looking around the room. He then kept looking around the room. And looked some more. And more. (insert long pause here) Took off his sunglasses, put them back on. And looked around the room again. ^_^

Yes folks, he wasn’t lugging his heavy camera to take pictures. On the contrary, he probably was hoping he’d have his picture taken. ^_^ The guy wanted people to notice him with his SLR. He probably was *this* close to voluntarily handing out his photographer cards all around the room. ^_^

And mister, if you’re reading this, skip to the end. Trust me, you looked darn cool. Keep those sunglasses on.  But next time, don’t put a full-frame oriented lens on a non-full-frame camera. ^_^

Moral of the story? Mmmm.. None. I simply wanted to vent ^_^

Now as a small token of thank you for listening to my rambling, I’ll let you in on a well-known (yet largely disputed) fact: pocket cameras CAN take good pictures. Put your hands down, large camera manufacturers. I’m not saying pocket cameras can technically beat SLRs. If you want superiorities (or if you want to get noticed), get SLRs. Just don’t forget your sunglasses. ^_^ But if you love to travel light, or if you like having access to a camera at all time, nothing beats a pocket camera. You just have to know its limitations, and then maximize what it’s good at.

Most pocket cameras have limited zoom range. Coupled with the commonly slower lenses (lenses with higher aperture number), you can forget about blurring the background.

And while pixel counts on pocket cameras are getting higher these days, sensor sizes remain small. This equals to noise in higher ISO setting, and since manufacturers economically couldn’t put high-end sharp lenses on pocket cameras, this also leads to unsharp enlargements.

Response is also much slower in pocket cameras. You just don’t get the “snappiness” of SLRs. It takes a while for the camera to focus and fire.

But no worries, there’s still many aspects left in photography beside the above limitations.

Focus on composition, lines, and patterns. They’re much more challenging than just blurring the fore/background.

Get out early while light is abundant, so you can keep you ISO below 800, keeping your images noise-free. Set your f-stop to 1 or 2 stops below the maximum aperture (e.g. if the maximum aperture is 4.0, set to 5.6 or 8.0), this is where most lens is the sharpest, allowing sharper enlargements.

Find objects that will wait for you and your camera, such as landscapes, still objects, buildings, and many others. Or, just scold your kids to stop running ^_^

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