Chockstone Forum

      Sponsored By
      ROCK
   HARDWARE

Chockstone Photography

Australian Landscape Prints

Chockstone Forum - Gear Lust / Lost & Found

Rave About Your Rack Please do not post retail SPAM.

Topic Date User

camera gear 19-Oct-2006 At 12:31:05 PM Ronny

Message

On a camera with a 35mm frame (like a normal old flim SLR) a 14mm lens is very wide. However most (there are some exceptions) of the modern DSLRs use sensors that are smaller than a 35mm frame, so cover a smaller amount of the image created by the lens on the back of the camera. Many new DSLRs have about a 1.5 or 1.6 times 'crop factor'. So the 14mm lens would be in effect 21 mm. That said, 21mm is still pretty wide.

I used to use a 28mm on my flim camera, and am still using it on my DSLR - so its about 40mm equivilant - but its too narrow. Anything below 18mm should be fine.

Prime/fixed lenses are still common, and will be better quality, but for most people modern zoom lenses are fine. I remember having this argument with my dad when I bought my first slr a few years back. he said 'never, ever, ever get a zoom lens' - but that was because his last camera buying/using experience was over 25 years ago. Much of the money/development in these consumer type lenses in that time have gone into zooms - so you'll probably find that they're fine.

Also, the more often you take your lens off with a dslr the more risk there is of getting dust on the sensor - which is a hassle. So if having a zoom reduces this and doesn't compromise quality too much that's a good thing.

Zoom lenses should also have an apeture shown. They will show the maximum aperture that the lens can do. If it is a range, like F3.5-F4.5 then it means f3.5 at its widest and f4.5 at its narrowest. Aperture isn't strictly related to quality, but it tends to be. To make a lens faster, you need better quality glass and better engineering, so generally faster lenses are better - but it would be possible to make a lens that is f1 that isn't sharp.

I dont' know much about those particular lenses - but you can probably find reviews around if you look hard enough - start with dpreview.

James