complete n00b question on lenses.

[Vicelord John]

I'm curious what different people shoot with different zoom ranges. I have my ideas, but I may not be right.

wide angle lenses (10-20 range)
mid (20-50 range)
tele (50+ even up to 400)

Is there a breakdown somewhere of all this?

I would tend to think wide would be best for architecture and landscape. Mid for general purpose but I start to get foggy after that... I use my 70-300 for some portraits and long range skyline. Or anything I want to completely blur the background.

What are they all for?

 

[KmH]

Nikon Camera Lenses

 

[Vicelord John]

I guess my terrible communication skills must have led you astray again. I am not looking for a list of lenses. I'm curious what people use specific zoom ranges for. What does one buy a 400mm lens to shoot? What are the favorite ranges for portraits? If one has a 10-20, what are they using it to shoot mostly?

 

[dxqcanada]

This is in reference to APS-C:

16mm for landscape
50mm or 90mm for portraits
stuff in the middle is general ...
300mm or 400mm for wildlife

 

[TJ K]

You buy a long lens for long reach. If you're shooting something that you don't want to disturb i.e. birds and other wildlife that's when you break out the 400-500-600 primes.

If you want landscapes and things like that and want to capture great large scenes in one frame go super wide. If you're doing something like skateboarding a fisheye could be nice.

If you are doing walk around general stuff then a 24-70 would be nice it gives decent wide angle on FF at least to short telephoto range.

A 70-200 is a nice lens to walk around with and use for action and sports.

Someone with 10-20 is probably doing architecture,landscape,even just fun walk around type stuff.

Then of course there are people like me who will say there isn't really a lens for a specific thing. You can find a use for any lens and work with the limitations and be as creative as possible.

TJ

 

[Vicelord John]

great answer thanks. That's exactly what I was looking for.