Mike Clegg

I have recently started to realise just how much of a pain it is to have multiple lenses with different focal lengths, walking around, seeing different subjects, but often not having the ideal lens fitted to get the best composition for the shot.

This means, I often have to stop in the middle of a street, unplug my current lens, exposing the sensor to all sorts of things, and then go into my bag to get my other lens and fit it. This is a bit tedious and takes time but it is better than missing a great shot. For everyday use, ideally you need a lens with a focal length of 18-55mm so that if you CN Tower at sunset CN Tower at sunset see a good subject, and you only have a small amount of time to get the shot, you won’t risk it being cropped out if you are using a larger telephoto lens. This could work both ways though, as you may see something quite far away, but if you only have your smaller lens fitted, this would mean the point of interest in your photo might look like an ant on a horizon.

With so many different lenses out there, such as wide angle, telephoto, prime, fish eye, to name a few, what is the best thing to do. The pro thing to do, is to have 2 camera bodies, one with a standard lens maybe 18-55mm and then a second fitted with a telephoto lens 55-300 or something like that. This means you can react to both scenarios, such as getting the shot of somebody or something far away, or getting that wide angle shot or portrait that is close up.

If you would prefer to only have one lens, you could just buy a lens that has a good range such as 24-105mm. This would allow fairly wide shots, and good zoom opportunities although you wouldn’t have the range of a full telephoto lens and you would be limiting your range for landscapes and similar photos.

So as for a camera lens conundrum, I would say think about what you love to photograph and your future shoots, invest wisely in your kit and try to be as adaptable as possible if necessary.