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If you use a Point & Shoot or Prosumer camera, you can pretty much skip most of what is said here, this is more aimed at users of cameras that have an interchangeable lens system. Rangefinders and SLRs.

When it comes to lens, there are two types of lenses, zoom lenses which can change the focal length, and prime lenses, which have a fixed focus.

The Nikon 17-55mm is an example of a zoom lens.

The Nikon 50mm is an example of a prime lens.

Each types have their pros and cons. Zoom lenses offer you excellent versatility especially when shooting events where you often need to have a wider view angle, when photographing groups of people, to being able to focus in on the action. If you just have a prime lens on, you have to do your zooming with you feet, or fumble around with multiple lenses at any given time for the situation. However zoom lenses with today’s technology can only have a max aperture of f/2.8 without being really expensive or very large. Prime lenses, can be a little cheaper than a zoom lens, but be much faster, my 50mm f/1.8 lens is only $150.00. Prime lenses are great for portrait work, or low light situations. I once shot almost an entire concert using my 50mm f/1.8 lens.

There are four categories into which both types of lenses fall into, based on the focal length of the lens.

The first is Ultra-Wide, this is what lenses with a focal length less than, but not including 35mm, fish-eye lenses (which offer a 180° angle of view) fall into this category. Best to use these for landscape and architecture work.

The Tameron 11-18mm lens, is an example of an ultra-wide zoom lens.

An example photo using an ultra-wide lens, using the Tamron mentioned above @ 11mm

The second category is Normal, the reason it’s called “normal” is because is almost duplicates the angle of view that your eyes have (eyes are approximatly a 50mm lens so if you’re on a crop sensor camera, use the mag factor to determain what lens will give you the 50mm length, on Nikon & Canon you’ll want a 35mm lens, on 4/3 camera a 17mm lens). This covers the range of focal lengths between 35mm and 70mm.

Nikon’s 35mm lens.

Taken with a 35mm lens, with the crop factor it is at 52mm.

The third category is telephoto, this covers focal lengths between 70mm and 135mm, often used for portrait, street, and photojournalism, as you can often get a compact lens that still give you a good reach. You can even still get a fast lens for a decent price at this range, even in zoom and prime. Again have a crop sensor, gives these lenses even more reach.

An old Nikon Manual Focus 105mm telephoto lens, a classic lens favoured by photojournalists.

An example of a photo, even on a modern dSLR, the old Manual lenses perform wonderfully.

The fourth and final category is super telephoto, this occupy any focal length greater than 135mm, there are some lenses that are 500mm and higher available. If you’re doing a lot of sports, nature (wildlife), and aerial photography (or stalking) these are the lenses for you, often bulky, and for a good fast lens, you’ll be shelling out upwards of $2000.00. However if you do spend the money, it is well worth it, even for street photography, if the area is crowded enough, you can get the shot you want without being seen.

The Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 lens is great telephoto lens, for moderate duty, plus if you add a telecoverter to it, you can get it to reach even further. However it is a bit noticeable, and rather bulky to carry around.

An example photo @ 200mm

Stay Tuned for Part 2, more on how to choose a lenses and why to use certain lenses for each application!

Sorry I haven’t been posting more of these, but I’ve been collecting my thoughts on what else to post in this series. One question that I often am asked is the “What type of camera should I get?” so hopefully if you’re asking this question and stumble across this post I’ll be able to answer them for you!

Today there are several different types of cameras available to users, both in the film and digital range.

First off, there’s the Point and Shoot (P&S) cameras.

The Canon A460 is an excellent example of the lower end of the P&S spectrum, often these cameras have a simple zoom lens, or a fixed focus lens very little in the way of manual overrides, designed mostly for quick snap shots on the family vacation. Of course, there are higher end point and shoots, like Contax (in the Film world) and even Canon’s G-Series. Higher end cameras often have better lenses, more manual control, and better image quality.

The Canon G7

Prosumer cameras, are exclusively digital, these cameras, often have the look and feel of a Single Lens Relflex camera, often with a powerful zoom lens, manual control, and excellent image quality.

The Panasonic Lumix FZ-7 is an example of a Prosumer camera.

Direct view cameras, or Range Finders are often associated with the brand Leica, who has legendary cameras and lenses. These cameras, especially in the film world were unique in the fact that the view finder was offset from the lens itself. In the digital world, the viewfinder has been replaced for the most part with a LCD screen. These cameras feature interchangeable lenses, and have recently been making a comeback with the Micro Four Thirds system being used in the Olympus E-P1 (pictured above) and the new Panasonic GF1. Leica also has it’s M8 and M9 digital rangefinders.

The SLR, or Single Lens Reflex camera, has been one of the most popular and well known cameras in the photography world, the design hasn’t really changed since they were first invented and released. The name itself comes from the way you operate the camera. Single Lens, easy, when you look in the viewfinder you’re looking through the lens itself, the Reflex is the mirror traveling up, blocking the viewfinder and sending the light onto the film through the shutter curtain. These cameras offer a wide range of modes of operations, making it very versatile.

So, now that we’ve covered the basic cameras that are readily available, you can work on making a choice on what sort of camera to get. The first step is to of course figure out what sort of things you’ll be needing your camera for.

If you just want a camera to carry around in your pocket to capture family stuff, events with friends, you’re going to want to go with a Point and Shoot. The type you go with all depends on how comfortable you are with photography. Have big hands, but just need a basic camera a Prosumer one would be the way to go.

When it comes to Rangefinders and SLRs, most people who go for them already are well versed in the area of photography, but even now these days most companies are building SLRs aimed at the entry level market (Canon XS and Nikon D5000/D3000). If you are considering to really ramp up your photography, or want to do most photojournalism, in addition to capturing family moments, go with an SLR.

Another type of camera that is making a come back is medium format. Again both are available in film and digital varieties, although I only have major experience with the film type, but I have used the digital ones and they are amazing to use. The film used in Medium format cameras comes in various sizes, but all share the same basic characteristics, it comes in rolls, usually with some form of backing paper, it is rolled off one spool and onto another one. The two main types of Medium format that are still readily available these days is 120 and 220, the difference between them is that 220 has twice the length of 120, and lacks backing paper.

The size of the negative on the film depends on the type of camera you shoot with, it ranges from 6cm x 4.5cm up to 6cm x 24cm. Most cameras use 6×4.5, 6×6, or 6×9 these days. Like the cameras mentioned previously, you can get range finders, SLR, and one other type, Twin Lens Reflex (or TLR). With TLRs look different from most cameras you see, for the most part you look through the top of the camera to compose the shot using the top lens. But it is the bottom lens that actually lets the light in to expose the film. TLRs are very uncommon to find new these days, but there are a few “toy” or cheap plastic ones that are still produced today.

An Agfa Box camera, produced in the 1930s, uses 120 film and produces a 6×9 negative.

A Yashica-12 Twin Lens Camera, produces a 6×6 negative.

A Mamiya 645, a SLR type medium format camera, it can use both 120 and 220 film, and produces a 6×4.5 negative. This type of camera you replace the film magazine with a digital back, another major brand of this type of camera is Hasselblad, which also has digital backs for their cameras.

Hasselblad also produces a strictly digital medium format camera, which are very expensive, yet fun to use.

Medium Format cameras were at one time used for portrait work, because with a larger negative could produce cleaner enlargements, but modern digital technology has taken over these, because of two reasons, you can get more shots on a card, and you won’t have to carry around tonnes of film. Digital Medium Format cameras are uses almost exclusivly by the fashion industry (Melissa Rodwell is known to shoot with a Hasselblad Digital Medium Format.), and commercial photography that requires huge billboard sized enlargements. TLRs and toy cameras are aimed these days at the art students, often producing strange effects on the resulting shots.

The Final type of camera is large format, these are exclusively film cameras, and use what’s called Sheet Film, one shot per sheet. Ranging in size from 4 inches by 5 inches, and upwards to 11 inches by 14 inches. Commonly you still see 4×5 and 8×10 cameras around these days.

A Crown Graphic, a common 4×5 type camera.

You would use a large format camera if you want amazing details, and no need for enlarging your shots from a smaller format, as you can easily shoot in the format you want to print. LF produces the least amount of grain in an image, with the highest definition of detail, it blows the lid off any smaller format and any digital camera commercially available. Of course You only get one shot per sheet, and 8×10 negatives are running upwards of 110.00 for a pack of 25 (4.50 per sheet), so if you mess up, you’re out almost five dollars. It is also very hard to find places that actually develop LF these days, unless you can do them yourself.

Today we’re going to discuss aperture. Not the popular Apple software product for cataloging and editing photos.

Your camera’s aperture controls how much light is let into the camera, but also and more importantly how much of your image will be in focus. But first, covering how aperture is noted.

You will encounter the aperture noted in terms of f-stops, or more commonly f/2.8. Unlike many things, the smaller the f number on a lens, the wider the aperture is. It is based on a logarithmic equation, seen below.

The f-number f/#, often notated as N, is given by the above equation. Where f is the focal length, and D is the diameter of the entrance pupil. By convention, “f/#” is treated as a single symbol, and specific values of f/# are written by replacing the number sign with the value. For example, if the focal length is 16 times the pupil diameter, the f-number is f/16, or N = 16. The greater the f-number, the less light per unit area reaches the image plane of the system; the amount of light transmitted to the film (or sensor) decreases with the f-number squared. Doubling the f-number increases the necessary exposure time by a factor of four. Equation and following text is care of Wikipedia.

But enough math…you’re probably wanting something more concrete and practical. So let’s use my handy manual focus 50mm lens for that. The lens is rated at f/1.4, it is the lens with the widest aperture that I own.

To the left is the lens wide open (f/1.4) as you can see, it will let in a lot of light, to the right is the lens at f/16.

So while having the lens wide open lets in a lot of light, which is great for dark places, there is a downside, you loose how much of the image will be in focus, this is called Depth of Field (DoF).

How does this translate into your photos.

Let’s call in my friend Jay for a bit.

(50mm ~ f/1.8 ~ 1/50″ ~ ISO-1600)

As you can see, very little of the image is in focus, pretty much the only thing in focus is the “Hold” tag on him. Opening the aperture can create some pretty dynamic effects and can really help make the subject pop out of the rest of the frame.

So now we’ve had it wide open let’s close it all the way down. Here’s one of my favourite shots, in fact it’s the one used in the banner for my website and this blog, taken using the same lens as the above image (just to be fair).

(50mm ~ f/22 ~ 1/60″ ~ ISO-200)

As you can see, the image from the CN Tower in the background to the houses in the foreground everything is sharp and in focus.

How do you apply this to your photography, well again it’s all about your subject matter. When it comes to portrait work you want your subject(s) to be the only thing in focus in the frame, so you want a shallow depth of field, for group shots, a deeper depth of field so that poor Uncle Bill isn’t out of focus. When it comes to landscapes, you want all the details to be in focus so closing the aperture is desired.

The question that was posed to me this afternoon standing outside an abandoned building.

I was framing up my shot when I notice a woman walking past me, then a tap on my shoulder, the woman whom I had really paid no mind to had returned.

“Are you good with cameras?” she asked.

Obviously my D300 with grip and 17-55mm lens made some form of impression on her. She proceeded to say she was on her way to pickup a video camera “camcorder” and wanted to know if she was getting a good one then handed me a sheet of paper about said camera. I read over the specs while she said it was a gift for her husband for father’s day, and for video taping the grandkids and putting the videos online. She was getting it from Henry’s a name, that I trust (I explained that all of my equipment even the bag and film was from Henry’s). I handed her the paper back and said she was getting a good camera and was in excellent hands. She thanked me and left.

I proceeded into the building.