The must have DSLR lenses for Beginners

You have spent ours to surf the internet on which will be the best DSLR for you as a beginner. You have looked through a lot of options from the e-commerce websites, done a comparison on buying a Canon, Nikon and Sony camera but still not sure on the lenses you need for the DSLR that will produce the stunning and expressive pictures that you intent on portraying. Here, I will take you through the various DSLR beginner lenses that one must have to embark on the journey of photography and explore the world of pixels.

So, the 3 most important questions that you must answer before you start looking for the right DSLR lens;

1. Will you be doing photography or vlogging?
2. If photography, then whats the genre of photography?
3. Whats the budget?

For filtering down I have kept the budget within Rs. 25,000 for a beginner to start buying lenses for themselves as I find it the maximum budget if you really intend to invest in your DSLR lenses as a newbie.

Now before I answer the remaining question the two most important factors that you should understand before buying the right lens, are;

1. Focal length: The focal length is inversely proportional to the view angle. That means the lesser the focal length the wider will be the frame and more contents can be fitted into the picture. So, depending upon the focal length the types of lenses are;

• Zoom lens or variable focal length: The lenses whose focal length can be varied according to the position of your subject in the field. Now, they are categorized into;

18mm focal length. RAW image.

 > Wide angle lenses: As you can figure out from the name that its has a wide viewing angle that means the focal length is really small. For e.g, if you consider the 18-55 mm kit lens, then at 18mm the size of frame that the DSLR can produce is much much wider considering the same at 55mm. The viewing area is large and elaborative.

But the tricky part is at really low focal lengths you will be getting distortions at the edges of the frame which makes the objects look more stretched to fill out the frame.

Best for;

1. Landscapes
2. Event
3. Real Estate
4. Vlogging

           
 > Telephoto lenses: In this category the viewing angle is more narrow and compressed compared to the wide angle lens. For e.g if you consider a 55-200 mm telephoto lens, then at 200 mm you can only find the subject and nothing else in the frame.





The subject looks more bulkier because of the compression it faces at the edges of the frame.

 Best for;

1. Wildlife 
2. Zoom shots/ Macro

55mm focal length. RAW image.

200mm focal length. RAW image.

COMPARISON OF THE WIDE AND TELEPHOTO LENSES





fig 1: Viewing angle comparison.





fig 2: Viewing angle comparison





• Prime lens or fixed focal length: These are the lenses whose focal lengths cannot be altered and you have to change the position relative to the subject in the field. The lenses produce a shallow depth of field and gives a good amount of blur to the background forcing the subject to pop out in the frame and be more distinctive. 

Best for;

1. Portraits
2. Streets

50mm Prime lens. RAW image.

         2. F-stop number: On the lenses you can see that a number is specified which looks like "f/4-f/6".      

         

What does this mean?

Its the f-stop number which is inversely proportional to the aperture. That means at lesser f-stop number you will have a wider aperture that brings in more exposure to the picture and creates a shallow depth of field in the images. At f/4 your DSLR sensor will be exposed to more light thus lifting the ambiance of the frame all together than at f/6.

Comparison of f-stop number and the aperture. 

For prime lenses this is an added advantage as they have really less f-stop number compared to the zoom lenses. But does that make the zoom lenses less significant? No, not at all.

You can always tweak the shutter speed in your camera settings to get more light in the images but your hands need to be more stable as the slightest of movement can bring in shakiness to the pictures.

Once you have these two considerations in your mind then its gets really easy for you to select the right lens for the right genre of photography. Moreover, you should always check the mount type of the lenses that means your DSLR should be compatible with the lens you are buying otherwise, ITS A LOSS.

Below are some of the affiliate links of the lenses that you can try for a day to day genre based photography;

For wide angle zoom lens: ( Landscapes, event, real estate )

Telephoto zoom lens: ( Wildlife-Zoom shots )

Prime Lens: ( Portraits, streets )

Other than this you can use the standard kit lens and also the telephoto lens mostly every DSLR comes out of the box with.

Finally, if I talk about vlogging where people have questions regarding which lens will be the most optimized and easy to use then I would recommend the 18-55 mm kit lens which does a good job at creating the wide angle view for the video creators to fit in more contents to their vlogs without compromising on the budget as they come out of the box. It creates the distorted edges which I personally find the YouTube vibe as more and more people are taking up this trend. Now, its completely your preference whether you need to carry that vibe.

Other options that you can go for are the 24mm or the 35mm  prime lens.

Drawing conclusion that by now you have your questions answered that what genre of photography demands what type of lenses. You right quite informative on what you need to look as a beginner and not indulge yourself in too complex photography terms like the professionals.

If you need to check on the video that I made on "The lens you need" then check the video link below. Hope you find it useful. For any queries hit me up in the comments and I will try to get back to you as soon as possible.