Lens website?

Martron

Is there a website that gives you a breakdown and posibly comparison of lenses. as in what lense is best for what type of shooting i.e. landscapes , portraits, action, closeup.

i think it would be handy to know as the kit lens i have is good all rounder but not great at anything either if that makes sense.

thanks.

hoganpoly

photographyireland.com is a great source for advice and camerapricebuster.co.uk gives up to date price comparisons hope it helps

democrates

I'm guessing moving up from the kit zoom that budget will be your main constraint. If you want to buy lenses for different types of photography you're unlikely to be looking at the 'best lens' for each as they're very pricey, but for example the best macro lens for €x. Think well on what kind of shots you want to take, that narrows your selection and you can put the bulk of your budget toward that genre.

I'd also stagger it over time, both for funding and to learn each lens. I'd start with portraiture purely to start getting good shots of family and friends asap unless there's some other priority.

At this stage you probably haven't spent so much compared with what you'll spend on lenses so it's feasible to consider a complete switch to another brand based on the total cost including lenses.

Good sites:
http://www.flickr.com/cameras/ - find photos taken with various cameras
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/macro/ - you can change that last part of the url to find photos for any tag, eg MPE65 for the Canon MP-E 65mm (remove spaces, dashes etc) or the search does the same thing
On Flickr pages for individual photos if you find 'more properties' down on the right you can click to see what settings were used eg

http://www.fredmiranda.com/reviews/ - user reviews for each lens
http://www.dpreview.com/ - lens reviews by professionals and also discussion boards

Lens manufacturers sites eg Canon or Sigma

Enjoy!

Martron

yeah i was thinikin that i want a lense to take portriats/closeup

the lense i have is ok but i can tell it does not produce "rich " photos if you know what i mean.

DaireQuinlan

Martron wrote: »

the lense i have is ok but i can tell it does not produce "rich " photos if you know what i mean.

What DO you mean by 'rich photos' ? How do you feel your current kit is letting you down ? It could be that working a little on some specific aspects of your photography would be a cheaper way of getting shots you like. Simply buying a more expensive lens probably isn't really going to get you anywhere much.

Martron

i find wheni go in close. there is still too much in focus. i want to isolate more in the frame. have tried manual focus and opening the apeture as much as it would go.

i feel some of my pictures are flat. as in there is no depth to the and i fell this is because of the focus. i have tried different settings but all seems the same and i put iit down to the lens ( poor photograhers always blames their lens ha ha)

ratsam

This is a great website for lens reviews.... might be worth a look...

http://www.photozone.de/Reviews/overview

Rats

FX Meister

Martron wrote: »

i find wheni go in close. there is still too much in focus. i want to isolate more in the frame. have tried manual focus and opening the apeture as much as it would go.

i feel some of my pictures are flat. as in there is no depth to the and i fell this is because of the focus. i have tried different settings but all seems the same and i put iit down to the lens ( poor photograhers always blames their lens ha ha)

It's not really down to your focus. A better prime like the 50mm 1.8 will give you a shallower depth of field and it is a cheap lens to buy.

Martron

thats what i was thinking alright

swingking

Also remember the closer you
get to your subject the more out of focus the background will be. ie. Shallower depth of field

One suggestion I'd make is to invest in a good tripod. It improves the sharpness on photos an unbelievable amount. This is due
to the lack of camera shake causing motionblur

Martron

yeah got the tripod and found that it did help with the clarity of the picture. even got a remote ( such a gadget freak)

DaireQuinlan

Martron wrote: »

yeah got the tripod and found that it did help with the clarity of the picture. even got a remote ( such a gadget freak)

Ok, so that aspect of it was merely technique, improve your handholding and learn whats best in the way of shutter speeds that you can shoot at and you can get adequately 'sharp'pictures without a tripod too. Sharpness is overrated anyway. A picture can look great without being sharp, a super sharp utterly dull shot is still worthless for all its sharpity.

What kit lens are you shooting with at the moment ? I assuming some sort of wide->short tele, and probably 3.5 or 4.5 -> 5.6 or so ? Try settung it to its longest setting (ie 55 or 80 or whatever) and widest aperture, then taking a head and shoulders shot from as closely as possible. You'll see that seperation that you're after.