Bintan 2008

Sunny Sunday at the Barclays Singapore Open

My Flickr Photostream

The Lenses...

In my previous post, i mentioned briefly about the flexibility a DSLR provides with the ability to change lenses. In this post, i will try and explain how i chose my first lens. But first, some basics about DSLR lenses.

Lenses are like the "eye" of the camera. The light enters the camera through the lens and falls on the image sensor after passing through some camera assembly. The lens is undoubtedly the most important part of the camera setup (yes, even more than the DSLR body itself!). The lens specification greatly affects what you can photograph and how good the result is.

Before buying a DSLR (and the lens with it) it is crucial to understand what the lens specifications means. I will try and explain it using the specs of my own lens: AF-S DX Nikkor 18-105mm F/3.5-5.6G ED VR

In this post, I will focus on "Focal Length" with subsequent specs in later posts (watch this space!).

Focal Length (18-105mm) : 

This is the most important specification of the lens. Not going into much optics (difficult for me as i'm from a physics background :D), what this number essentially means is the coverage the lens provides. Take for example, trying to shoot the Eiffel Tower. If you are close to the monument and can't step back any further, with a digicam it is nearly impossible to capture this stunning wonder in its full glory without cutting off the top or bottom. This is because the digicam uses a lens who's focal length is not small enough to provide a "wide angle".

On the other extreme, remember trying to zoom through the window of your hot neighbour and just falling short (ok, this is not recommended :D). Well this is because the maximum focal length of the digicam is not large enough to see far away objects more closely. This requires a "telephoto" lens.

How are these terms defined? The focal length which closest matches the magnification of the human eye is 50mm. Lenses with focal length less than 50mm are called "wide-angle" while those with greater than 50mm are called "telephoto". Lenses which have a variable focal length (like mine) are called "zoom" lenses and those with a fixed focal length are called "prime" lenses. Zoom lenses are very popular because of the flexibility they provide, however it is believed that prime lenses give a better image quality.

However, one important thing to remember in all this is the "crop factor". Let me explain. The numbers that i mentioned above essentially apply only to DSLRs with a full-frame sensor. These are DSLRs with a bigger image sensor eg. Nikon D3, Nikon D700 (much more expensive models $$). Most DSLRs (like my D90) have physically smaller sensors which crop the field of view. This in turn results in the "effective focal length" to be: the the lens focal length multiplied by 1.5 (1.6 for Canon). Hence, my D90+lens has an effective focal length of 27-157 mm. As you can see this can be advantageous for telephoto, but not for wide angle. (consequently super wide angle lenses like 10mm are extremely expensive!)

Because of the popularity of cropped-sensor DSLRs (cheaper), Nikon and Canon offer lenses which are only corrected for this smaller sensor. Nikon calls this lens series as "DX" (hence the DX in the name). Canon calls it EF-S. Disadvantage here is that these lenses won't work on a full-frame sensor DSLR.

Now as you must have guessed already, an 18-105mm focal range is a very convenient range for most photographic scenerios. It provides a decent wide-angle for landscape photography as well as a nice telephoto for zooming in distant objects without having to change lenses. Not to mention that this range is ideal for portrait and street photography. While buying the D90 i had to choose between:

Kit 1: Body + 18-105mm

Kit 2: Body + 18-55mm + 55-200mm (more expensive)

My choice was obvious. With Kit 1 i get the flexibility of range without requiring a change of lens for every other shot i take. With Kit 2, i would have to change lenses to get any telephoto whatsover.  Many newbie's jump on to the opportunity of owning 2 lenses without giving it much thought. Maybe after reading this post more people can make a better, well informed choice :)

The above 2 photographs compare the two extremes in focal length of my lens. Pic1 (above) is taken at 18mm (wide-angle) and Pic2 (below) is taken at 105mm (telephoto). Notice that i have zoomed into the black car in the carpark in Pic1 to shoot Pic2. Impressive huh?

In my next post, I will discuss about aperture, auto-focus and other lens specifications. These are equally important while choosing the correct lens for one's needs.

The Beginning..

2009 has kicked in. I am not among those to make new year resolutions only to break them as februry approaches. However, this year I'm going to make an exception. This year I am going to finally spend more time pursuing a hobby i have always been passionate about. Photography!

I have always loved taking photographs. Something about them has always interested me. As soon as i have got a camera in my hands or seen a camera pointed at me, i have turned into a ten year old kid with a new toy or a super model who can't stop posing. Drooling at those wonderful SLR photos for years, I have finally decided to 

spend some of my hard earned cash on a digital SLR. After a lot of market research, I decided to gift myself a Nikon D90 as my new year's present. 

Choosing the right DSLR (Digital SingleLens Reflex) for myself wasen't easy by any means, simply because i had no idea abouts SLRs, or the interchangeable lenses that are used with them. Although i was well verse with digital cameras (I have owned a Nikon P1 point-and-shoot for more than 2 years now and it has served me well during my EuroTrip and other adventures) digital SLR is a totally different ball game altogether. So time to call upon my photographer friends to give me some "gyaan".  One particular friend was very helpful in my quest of becoming a photography pro (cheers mate!). He let me try my hands on his D40 and told me some basics of DSLRs.

Ok, so the first few differences i noticed between the DSLR and a standard point-and-shoot digicam were:

1. The Viewfinder: To my surprise, I found that DSLR's are not meant to use the LCD display to compose the photograph. In fact, probably 99% (its only a recent development that "LiveView" is being provided in DSLRs, i will touch upon this topic on a later post as i'm still to discover more about it) of the DSLR users in the world cannot use the LCD to take photos, something which is standard in a point-and-shoot. I found it rather strange, since shooting through the viewfinder seemed quite a lot of effort. However the pleasure that I got looking through the viewfinder of my friend's D40 and taking my first shot, answered my own skeptism.

 

Let me elaborate. For one, LCDs are difficult to see sometimes, say in sunlight or due to reflections. The optical viewfinder provides a beautiful image in all situations. Secondly, the optical viewfinder provides the exact same image that will be exposed since the light is routed directly from the lens. In contrast, an electronic viewfinder (for LCD) has a lag. This is essential if the scene we are trying to shoot is changing fast, say a moving car. Thirdly, the viewfinder is simply a pleasure to look into (my opinion atleast)

2. AutoFocus: Remember pressing the shutter-release button on a digicam half way and waiting for it to focus till what seemed like eternity? Well, with a DSLR its almost instantanious.  This fast autofocussing is due to the superior technology used in the build of the camera.

3. Night Shooting: I have always been dissapointed with my digicam's pics taken at night. Without the flash nothing can be seen and using the flash just kills the mood of the scene (try shooting a romantic candle light dinner with your digicam :P). Fiddling with the modes, i have only managed to capture dull or blurred images. The DSLR scores bigtime here.  The night pics are a treat to watch. I will definately write a post on night photography when i learn the intricacies of shooting in low light.

4. Interchangeable lenses: One of the first things one notices about SLRs is the heavy duty lenses attached infront of them. This is probably the biggest advantage a DSLR offers over a digicam for a serious photographer, the ability to change lenses as per one's need. Lenses can get expensive though. Anywhere from $200 to $20k (Nikon and Canon must be making a killing off these!) . Nikon and Canon are the two main camera companies making high quality lenses. Nikon lenses work only on Nikon DSLRs and Canon lenses only on Canon (duh!) . This is important to know beforehand if you intend to share lenses with friends (unless you want a giant hole in your pocket everytime you have the urge to try out a new lens). Sigma, Tamron are some so called "3rd party lens makers". A typical Nikon lens will have the specification: AF-S DX Nikkor 18-105mm F/3.5-5.6G ED VR (this is the lens i got with my D90). The name is long and confusing, what all do these numbers and abbreviations mean anyways?!. I'll try and answer this in my next post.

Ok, so with my dear friend's advise and taking in account my budget, i went forward and decided to join the "Nikon Club" (there's always an ongoing battles between Nikon and Canon owners for photographic superiority :D) with my D90. With my tools in place, i now embark upon a journey, a journey of understanding both the art and science involved in the awesome field of photography! (ok i know sounds a li'l cheezy). 

If this post has interested you, do check back to see how a newbie photographer finds his way around a new hobby. cheers!