Read our complete guide explaining the different types of camera lenses, their pros and cons, and use cases. We also recommended which camera lenses to invest in for both beginners and enthusiasts.
That fancy lens mounted on a camera body is the eye of your camera body and shapes how an image will be imprinted on the sensor. There is no escape for any photographer or videographer to not learn the different types of camera lenses and how they work if they seek to be good at what they are doing. In a broad classification, there are a total of four camera lenses based on how they function and are used in different scenarios.
Types of Camera Lenses:
1. Prime Lenses
They have a fixed focal length, which might make them look like a lens with limitations, but in fact, they are loved by professional photographers due to their consistent results. The sharpness, low-light performance, and shallow depth of field you get with such a lens are by far better than any other lens system.
Fixed focal length means that you can't do that fancy zooming in and zooming out, but you will get much wider apertures and a camera lens that has a more compact construction. The lighter profile makes them lovable by many outdoor photographers who want something light on their camera.
Standard prime lenses come in 50mm to 85mm view ranges, also known as normal lenses. Then there are also wide-angle primes, which range between 14 mm and 35 mm, and short telephoto primes, which range from 85mm to 135mm. Anything above 200mm falls under the telephoto prime lenses.
Each lens has its own pros; for example, telephoto lenses are designed to capture a narrow point of view and can capture distant subjects, such as wildlife, sports, and events. Wide-angle lenses are great for expansive landscapes, interiors, and architecture, and normal lenses work great for portraits and everyday photos.
2. Zoom Lenses
As the name suggests, they can zoom, unlike prime lenses. They come in different types as well; the lenses that can zoom between 24 and 70 mm and all the way up to 24 and 105 mm are characterized as standard zoom lenses.
Then there are two more categories with higher zoom values: the telephoto lens with 70 to 200mm and 100 to 400mm ranges and super zoom lenses with ranges of 18mm to 200mm and 28mm to 300mm.
Although they offer zoom, they are significantly heavier and also suffer optical quality issues when zoomed in (newer generations have few) and often offer much slower apertures compared to primes. They still are a great option for those looking to shoot popular choices for travel, events, and situations without changing lenses for different situations.
3. Macro Lenses
These lenses are designed to create a true 1:1 reproduction of close-up shots with exceptional details and are quite popular among professionals dealing with nature (flowers, insects, etc.) and product photography.
4. Anamorphic Lenses:
These lenses have special optics designed to compress video inwards so that they can get that cinematic feel, but they do that by not cropping and preserving the resolution and detail of the original footage. These were once exclusive to Hollywood due to their cost and bulky size but now newer generations of these lenses are cost-efficient and produce stunning professional footage for filmmaking.
5. Cine Lenses:
Then there are also cine lenses, similar to common videography lenses, but designed with a range of features that are not typically found in still photography lenses. They are used for filmmaking where output quality is required to be at a professional level.
They are characterized by features like a heavy build and smooth and dampened focus with aperture rings that can be used for precise and repeatable adjustments. The lens body also comes with click-less aperture rings, which make no sound during the adjustments.
6. Special Lenses:
Some lenses are called starfish lenses, which can create an ultra-wide-angle view often set between 8 and 15 mm and create strong visual distortion. They are often used to mimic the visual presentation of some living organisms or just for creative purposes in many media fields. Another common lens system is the tilt-shift lens, which allows you to correct perspective distortion by letting you control the plane of focus.
Which lens is for you?
After reading about the above types of camera lenses, one can easily pick a category according to the niche they are in. Professional photographers always invest in camera lens systems that, as much as possible, have good security of being relevant in the camera body’s ecosystem of its specific mount and have a fast aperture. You can find all of that in the latest SIRUI Night Walker T1.2 camera lens system, available in different focal lengths.
Featuring a fast T1.2 aperture for exceptional low-light performance, this lens comes with compatibility with Super35 sensors and boasts a compact design at a price that makes its competition shy. You can choose different focal lengths according to your needs; for example, if you intend to get bokeh for portraits, go for 75mm of this lens system. For a wide angle of view with minimal distortion, the 16mm works best.
