So many lenses to choose from, which is which?

[Love Photos]

I had some very good reply about selecting on my first camera, and the best way would be getting a descent camera body, and invest good money onto the lenses, the question is there are so much lenses in the market, how do you know which one is good for taking certain topic photos, for example, landscape? Portrait? nighttime photo? etc.

My current interest is family photo and landscape.

Many Thanks

[archiescat]

I had some very good reply about selecting on my first camera, and the best way would be getting a descent camera body, and invest good money onto the lenses, the question is there are so much lenses in the market, how do you know which one is good for taking certain topic photos, for example, landscape? Portrait? nighttime photo? etc.

My current interest is family photo and landscape.

Many Thanks

Lenses are very much brand-specific; are you Canon? in basic terms, you will want a workhorse lens that can zoom, the 28-135mmf3.5-5.6usm will be good enough with Image Stabilisation. Once you have your workhorse lens, you will see what you need either side of this range and whether you need to invest in 2.8s or L glass or both and to look at the competitors like Sigma, Tamron and Tokina. I would find a basic lens, even kit lens, begin to use it heaps and just read read and read. Check out youtube and eventually your thoughts will crystallise. I would advise that people have to understand aperture and light before they can fully understand the lenses they are buying. There are some amazing portrait lenses out there (the ef24-70mmf2.8Lusm, and 17-55mmf2.8) but you must do lots of research first. Also to complicate things there are extenders also which give a bit more reach. The 70-200mm range has a lot of competitors, but the L series in either f/4 or f2.8 with preferably IS are just industry quality. It boils down to what you want. Read all the forums and check out Youtube. Even using a lens hood can make a difference on a lens.

Don't rush into buying anything.

[archiescat]

actually read this:

http://photonotes.org/articles/beginner-faq/lenses.html

it is the last word on the subject!!!!

the cat

[Rick0r]

Some allrounders I'd suggest:

18-50 f2.8
50 f1.8
50-200 f2.8

Nothing specific, but they're good bases for your searches/