Camera Lens

by Philip Greenspun

Once you've settled on the subject and the light, you have to decide on the relative prominence of objects in
the scene. By moving the camera position back and forth, you can adjust the relative size of objects in the
scene. After you're happy with the position, you pick a camera lens whose angle of view encompasses all
the objects that you want to include in the photo.

Objects? Relative prominence? I only want to take a picture of my friend Cyrano! There is only one object
in the scene and it is Cyrano's head.

Au contraire! The objects in this scene are Cyrano's nose, Cyrano's ears, and Cyrano's eyes. Suppose that
you position your camera 10" from Cyrano's eyes. If his nose sticks out 5" in front of his eyes, then it will be
only half the distance from the camera as the eyes and therefore relatively more prominent. Stretch out your
arm right now and compare the size of your index finger to the lines of text on the monitor. Only about as
big as a paragraph, right? Now close your left eye and bring that same finger in until it is just in front of
your nose. Note that your finger appears taller than the entire monitor.

Aesthetic tip from MIT: when your nose sticks out 5" in front of your eyes, you don't want it to appear
relatively more prominent.

Suppose that you actually want this photo as the "before" illustration in a plastic surgeon's advertisement.
Well, then haul out the 24mm wide angle lens and you can have a complete portrait taken from 10" away.

Suppose that you wish to flatter Cyrano. You'll want to back up until you are separated by the length of a
football field. Now his nose is still 5" closer to the camera but that is 5" out of 100 yards (note for European
readers: 100 yards is just short of half a standard furlong.) So instead of being 50% of the distance to the
camera as Cyrano's eyes, the nose is 99.86% of the distance away. It will not be significantly more
prominent.
What about the 24mm lens from this camera position? It will give you a nice photo of the entire stadium and
the city behind it. Cyrano's face will appear as a portion of a grain of silver on the film. You're now 100
yards away from Cyrano so you will need the Mother of All Telephoto Camera Lenses . In fact, according
to the formulas in my Kodak Professional Photoguide, if Cyrano's face is 12" high, you will need a 7500mm
lens to fill the frame with it. Cyrano will be flattered but considering that a Canon 600mm lens costs almost
$10,000, the effect on your wallet will not be a happy one.

Exactly how long a camera lens do you need?

How far away is your subject? (in feet)

How high is the object you want to fill the frame?

Submit

Apologies to people from countries that have adopted sensible units.

If sensors and camera lenses were perfect... you would need only
one lens!
In a perfect world, you would leave the house with only a Canon 14 super-wide lens. You would worry only
about camera position, secure in the knowledge that the 14mm lens was wide enough to capture the entire
subject under 99% of conditions. Then if you wanted a picture of just a friend in the middle of the frame,
you'd crop down to just the center and use that. The result would be the same as if you'd used a 100mm
portrait lens.

The reason this doesn't work is that lenses and sensors aren't perfect. If you throw away 98% of the area of
the digital sensor (and/or make a huge enlargement), you can expect to have some pretty crummy looking
pixels. So if you're sure at exposure time that you will want more magnification, it is best to carry some
higher magnification camera lenses.

The rest of this article discusses what kinds of camera lenses we might want to lug around.

Wide angle camera lenses

With a full-frame digital SLR or 35mm film, a wide angle lens is generally considered anything with a focal
length of 35mm or less.
Here are a couple of snapshots taken with an ancient Canon 20-35/2.8L zoom lens (replaced by Canon EF
16-35mm f/2.8L USM, $1520 (review)). Note that the image on the left, at 20, appears to be significantly
distorted if you view it from far away. But try clicking on it so that you get a monitor-filling JPEG. Then
move your face in close to the monitor so that you are viewing it from a few inches away. The distortion
disappears, right? A wide angle lens does not distort perspective but, if the viewer of the ultimate image
does not adjust his viewing position, it appears to do so.

(camera closer
(camera
to car)
farther from car)

As a practical matter, most people these days aren't impressed by a wide-angle effect until you get down to
24mm. Wide angle camera lenses start to get expensive at 20mm ($500) and wider. So good compromises
these days are are probably a fixed 24 ($250) or a high-quality 16-35 zoom ($1500). See the Canon and
Nikon system pages for an idea of what's available.

Normal Lenses

A "normal" or "standard" camera lens is one that produces prints with no apparent wide angle or telephoto
distortion. In other words, when viewed at a standard distance, a print taken with a normal lens will appear
to have no unusual perspective. For a camera taking 35mm film, a 50mm lens is considered normal.

Normal lenses are easy and cheap to fabricate. A 50/1.8 costs under $100 and will optically outperform
most of the lenses in any manufacturer's line. Furthermore, normal camera lenses allow photography in
rather low light with no flash or tripod. A yuppie with a mid-range zoom lens has a maximum aperture of
f/4. A photographer with a 50/1.8 not only saves $200 but is gathering 4 times as much light (2 f-stops).
With a standard single-lens reflex (SLR; viewing through the lens), this makes viewing and composition
easier because the viewfinder is 4 times brighter.
 If you don't feel like saving $200, you can get a 50/1.4 which will gather another factor of 2 in light. If
you are a real wastrel, you can splurge $2500 on a lens like the discontinued Canon 50/1.0. This gathers
16 times as much light as a typical mid-range zoom.

Another common option is the 50mm macro lens. I refer you to my article on macro photography and my
review of the Nikon 60/2.8 AF lens.

Telephoto Camera Lenses

Telephoto lenses are high-magnification devices. These are for when you are photographing
something from far away either because you want to flatten perspective or because you are
unable to approach your subject.

It is difficult and expensive to produce a high-quality telephoto lens. In fact, only in the last
couple of decades have manufacturers been able to design really high quality 300mm and
longer camera lenses.

Telephoto lenses can be useful for portraits, most often in the 85-180mm range. Photography of large
animals is facilitated by 300-600mm lenses. Photography of birds starts with a 600mm lens and goes up
from there.

Telephoto camera lenses that serious Canon EOS photographers buy include the following:
• Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM, $529 (review), capable of focusing down to 1:1, useful for
both macro and portraits
• 85-135mm super-fast portrait lenses, e.g.,
o Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM, $380 (review)
o Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L II USM, $1970 (review)
o Canon EF 100mm f/2 USM, $435 (review)
o Canon EF 135mm f/2L USM, $999
• 180-200mm macro or portrait-only lens, e.g.,
o Canon EF 180mm f3.5L Macro USM, $1370 (review)
o Canon EF 200mm f/2.8L II USM, $769
• Canon EF 300mm f/4L IS USM, $1269 (review) + 1.4X teleconverter lightweight wildlife kit
($1,500)
• Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM, $4340 (review) + 1.4X teleconverter heavyweight wildlife kit
($5,000)
• Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS USM, $8050 (review) + 1.4X teleconverter bird photography kit
($10,000)

For the equivalents in the Nikon system, please see our Nikon System Explained page.

Teleconverters
A teleconverter is a small lightweight intermediate optic that will increase the magnification of a lens, while
reducing its effective aperture. So a 2X teleconverter turns a 300/2.8 into a 600/5.6. A lot of times new
photographers ask me if they can save money by buying a teleconverter and sticking it onto their 28-70
zoom to get a 140mm lens. Sadly, good teleconverters cost $400 or $500 and they only work optically on
expensive lenses. With a typical zoom lens, you'll get vignetting (darkening of the corners) when using a
teleconverter.

Teleconverters are for professionals who own expensive lenses and want to save weight by not carrying two
lenses. They are also useful sometimes with specialized tilt-shift lenses so that you don't have to buy these
in lots of different focal lengths.

Zoom lenses
Why carry around a whole bag of fixed focal length ("prime") lenses when you could just buy a Tamron 28-
300 zoom lens for less than $400? With a twist of a ring, the Tamron will give you any focal length from
28mm to 300mm. The only problem with this idea is that, sadly, the laws of physics and common sense
have not been repealed.

Photographic lenses in general are not very good. They only appear to be good because people very seldom
enlarge or closely inspect images. Camera lenses are subject to many kinds of distortion, all of which are
more difficult to reduce in a zoom lens design. Furthermore, zoom lenses tend to be slower (admit less light)
than prime lenses. This forces the photographer into using flash and/or a tripod.
Does that mean you shouldn't buy a zoom lens? Absolutely not. The average Canon EOS photographer will
own three beautiful zoom lenses: Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L USM (review), Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L
USM (review), Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM (review). These are a great convenience for the lazy
and/or pressed-for-time photographer. However, none of these are as good as prime lenses in their focal
length range. Each of these zooms costs over $1000, so they won't help you out if you don't like the prices
of the prime lenses.

If you can only have one lens, the Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM is probably better than the Canon EF
50mm f/1.8 II, $93 (review). But the 50/1.8 is better than cheaper mid-range zooms.

Weird Camera Lens #1: The Fisheye

See our review of the Canon 15mm fisheye lens.

Weird Camera Lens #2: The Beyond 1:1 Macro lens

As far as I know, Canon is the only company in the world that makes a lens intended for convenient
photography of objects smaller than the film or digital sensor. See the photo.net review of the Canon MP-E
65mm 1X-5X macro lens.

Be Careful (and rich)

Modern digital cameras produce extremely high quality images. In reasonable lighting conditions, the
limiting factor in the quality of your image will almost always be the lens. If you want to achieve a good
result, you must have the correct lens for the job and it must be a high quality example of that kind of lens.

Lots of companies make high-quality lenses. Sadly, none of them have figured out how to break physical
laws and do so cheaply. So if your creative goals require a long telephoto or very wide angle lens, prepare to
cough up the big bucks. If you are using a larger format than 35mm, prepare to cough up the big bucks for
any lens!

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Frequently Asked Questions regarding lenses

by David Jacobson

This is the Lens FAQ. It is a technical document describing a lot of optics related information of use to
photographers and was originally published in the USENET rec-photo newsgroup. It does not answer
questions about particular commerical lenses. You won't find out whether Canon or Nikon is better. But you
will find all sorts of formulas and technical information.
Q1. What is the meaning of the symbols in the rest of this FAQ?
A.
f - focal length
So - distance from front principal point to object (subject)
Sfar - distance from front principal point to farthest point in focus
Sclose - distance from front principal point to closest point in focus
Si - distance from rear principal point to film (image) plane
M - magnification
N - f-number or f-stop
Ne - effective f-number (corrected for bellows factor)
c - diameter of largest acceptable circle of confusion, or the diameter of the circle of confusion
h - hyperfocal distance
* - the symbol for multiplication e.g. 3*4 means 3 times 4, which is equal to the number 12.
^ - the symbol for exponentiation. e.g. 2^2 respresents 2 raised to the power of 2, i.e. 2 squared, and is equal
to the number 4.

Here we use the more technical term "object" for the thing being focused on. Informally it is equivalent to
the subject. See technical notes [1] - [3] at the end for more information on object distances, more
information on the meaning of f-number and limitations to be observed when applying these formulas to
lenses in which the aperture does not appear the same size front and rear.

Q2. What is the meaning of focal length? In other words, what

about a 50mm lens is 50mm?
A. A 50mm lens produces an image of a distant object on the film that is the same size as would be
produced by a pinhole 50mm from the film. See also Q5 below.

Q3. What is meant by f-stop?

A. The focal length of the lens divided by the diameter of the aperture (as seen from the front). It is also
called an f-number, and is written like f/8, which means the aperture diameter is 1/8th the focal length.

The term is used both in regard to the maximum aperture of a lens and in regard to the aperture selected in a
specific situation.

The brightness of the image on the film is inversely proportional to the f-number squared. The depth of field
increases but diffraction is worsened when using a large f-number. The effective f-number for all 3 effects
changes if the lens is focused extremely close. See Q7.

The term "stops" purportedly comes from old technology in which the aperture was selected by turning a
wheel with various sized holes in it, each one of which let in twice the light of the preceding one. Thus the
phrase "open up a N stops" means to change to an aperture allowing in 2^N times as much light, and
conversely with "stop down N stops".
Q4. What is the basic formula for the conditions under which an
image is in focus?
A. There are several forms.

• 1/Si + 1/So = 1/f (Gaussian form)

• (Si-f)*(So-f) = f^2 (Newtonian form)

Q5. What is the formula for magnification?

There are several forms.

• M = Si/So
• M = (Si-f)/f
• M = f/(So-f)

Q6. For a given lens and format what is angle of coverage?

A. If the format has a width, height, or diagonal of distance X, the angle of coverage along width, height, or
diagonal is 2*arctan(X/(2*f*(M+1))). For example a 35mm frame is 24x36 mm, so with a 50 mm lens and a
distant object (i.e. M virtually zero), the coverage is 27 degrees by 40 degrees, with a diagonal of 47
degrees. See technical note [4] at the end for qualifications.

Q7. How do I correct for bellows factor?

A. Ne = N*(1+M)

Bellows factor is the factor by which the effective f-number gets multiplied as the lens is focused up close.
See the technical notes.

Q8. What is meant by circle of confusion?

A. When a lens is defocused, a object point gets rendered as a small circle, called the circle of confusion.
(Ignoring diffraction.) If the circle of confusion is small enough, the image will look sharp. There is no one
circle "small enough" for all circumstances, but rather it depends on how much the image will be enlarged,
the quality of the rest of the system, and even the subject. Nevertheless, for 35mm work c=.03mm is
generally agreed on as the diameter of the acceptable circle of confusion. Another rule of thumb is c=1/1730
of the diagonal of the frame, which comes to .025mm for 35mm film. (Zeiss and Sinar are known to be
consistent with this rule.)

Q9. What is hyperfocal distance?

A. The closest distance that is in acceptable focus when the lens is focused at infinity. (See below for a
variant use of this term.)

h = f^2/(N*c)

Q10. What are the closest and farthest points that will be in
acceptably sharp focus?
A. Sclose = h * So / (h + (So - f)) Sfar = h * So / (h - (So - f))

or, we can define a "hyperfocal ratio", hr = h/(So - f), or roughly the ratio of the hyperfocal distance to the
object distance. Then

Sclose = So * hr/(hr+1) Sfar = So * hr/(hr-1)

These formulas are also correct when hr is defined as hr = h/So and the N used in computing h is actually
Ne.

If the denominator is zero or negative, Sfar is infinity.

Q11. What is depth of field?

A. It is convenient to think of a rear depth of field and a front depth of field. The rear depth of field is the
distance from the object to the farthest point that is sharp and the front depth of field is the distance from the
closest point that is sharp to the object. Sometimes the term depth of field is used for the combination of
these two, i.e. the distance from the closest point that is sharp to the farthest point that is sharp.

• frontdepth = So - Sclose
• frontdepth = Ne*c/(M^2 * (1 + (So-f)/h))
• frontdepth = Ne*c/(M^2 * (1 + (N*c)/(f*M)))
• frontdepth = So /(hr + 1)

Similarly,

• reardepth = Sfar - So
• reardepth = Ne*c/(M^2 * (1 - (So-f)/h))
• reardepth = Ne*c/(M^2 * (1 - (N*c)/(f*M)))
• reardepth = So/(hr - 1)

In the last three, if the denominator is zero or negative, reardepth is infinity.

These formulas using hyperfocal distance can be used as follows. Suppose I know that the object distance,
So, is 1/8th of the hyperfocal distance. Then the range of distances that is acceptably sharp is from 8/9 of So
to 8/7 of So. The front and rear depths of field are 1/9 So and 1/7 So.
Q12. What is Depth of Field Preview?
A. It is a feature on higher quality SLR cameras that allows you to stop down the lens while looking though
the viewfinder. Ostensibly it allows you to "preview" the depth of field. Of course, since this stops down the
aperture, the image also gets dimmer.

Most people find it difficult to judge from a dim viewfinder image whether some part of the image will
appear sharp in a slide or print. However, in many cases photographers will select a large aperture to
deliberately blur background or foreground objects. DOF preview lets you see just what the effect will be.

Q13. Where should I focus my lens so I will get everything from

some close point to infinity in focus?
A. At approximately the hyperfocal distance. More precisely, at So = h + f. In this condition the closest
point that will be in focus is at half the object distance. (Some authorities use this as the definition of
hyperfocal distance.)

Q14. Are there some simpler approximate formulas for depth of

field?
A. Yes. When the object distance is small with respect to the hyperfocal distance, the front and rear depth of
field are almost equal and depend only on the magnification and effective f-stop and the following
approximate formulas can be used.

• frontdepth = reardepth = Ne*c/M^2

• frontdepth = reardepth = So/hr

In non-macro situations Ne is the same as the marked f-number.

Q15. I have heard that one should use a long lens to get a shallow
depth of field and a short lens to get a large depth of field. Is this
true?
A. Assuming that you frame the subject the same way, and that the object (subject) distance is small
compared with the hyperfocal distance for the shortest focal length being considered, the front and rear
depths of field are approximately equal and constant regardless of focal length. (See Question 14.)

However, there are two situations in which focal length does matter.

First, when the focal length is short enough, the hyperfocal distance, which varies with the square of the
focal length, will not be many times longer than the object distance, violating the condition above. In this
case the front depth of field is smaller and the rear depth of field is larger, with the latter extending to infinty
about when the hyperfocal distance is less than the object distance.

Second, the focal length of the lens also has a big effect on how fuzzy very distant points appear.
Specifically, if the lens is focused on some nearby object rendered with magnification M, a point at infinity
will be rendered as a circle of diameter c, given by

c=fM/N

which shows that the distant background point will be fuzzed out in direct proportion to the focal length.
(See the lens tutorial for some graphs that may make this more intuitive.)

Q16. If I focus on some point, and then recompose with that point
not in the center, will the focus be off?
A. Yes, but maybe only a little bit. If the object is far enough away, the depth of field will cover the shift in
distance.

An approximate formula for the minimum distance such that the error will be covered by depth of field is
given by

d = w^2/(2 N c)

where d = minimum distance to make the point be sharply rendered d is measured from the film plane w =
distance image point on the film is from center of the image

For the 35mm format w^2/(2 c) is 5.4 meters, so you can recompose the image with the subject at the edge
of the frame and still have it be sharp if the subject distance (at the center) was at least 5.4 meters (18 feet)
divided by the f-number. See technical note [5] at the end for a bunch of assumptions.

Q17. If I get glasses (or bifocals) will my focusing be off?

A. No. The focusing screen is a diffusing plane in the same optical position as the film. If the image is sharp
on the focusing screen, it will also be sharp on the film. Many single lens reflex cameras have a split image
focusing aid. In effect one half causes the eye to see through the left side of the lens and the other half
causes the eye to see through the right side of the lens. Objects appear to be in the same position in both
halves only if the image plane coincides with the plane of the focusing screen and thus with film plane, and
hence are in sharp focus. All your glasses do is enable you to see the focusing screen or focusing aid better.

Q18. What are vignetting and light falloff?

A. Vignetting is a reduction in light falling on the film far from the center of the image that is caused by
physical obstructions. Light falloff is a reduction of light far from the center because of fundamental optical
reasons: First, an off-axis object sees a foreshortened apparent aperture (entrance pupil) so less light is
collected. This results in a cos(theta) falloff, where theta is the angle off axis. Second, in a rectilinear lens
the solid-angle-to-area magnification increases with cos^3(theta), spreading the light from a patch near the
edge over more film than if the patch had been near the center. (The patch is presumed to face the camera at
a constant very large distance.) As a result there is an overall cos^4(theta) falloff. The optical designer can
compensate for these effects by making the entrance pupil enlarge and tip when viewed from off the optical
axis. An alternative approach is to compensate by using a filter whose density varies appropriately with
distance from the center.

Q19. How can I tell if a lens has vignetting, or if a filter is causing

vignetting?
A. Open the back and, if necessary, trick the camera into opening the shutter and stopping down. Imagine
putting your eye right in the corner of the frame and looking at the diaphragm. Or course, you really can't do
this, so you have to move your head and sight through the corner of the frame, trying to imagine what you
would see. If you "see" the entire opening in the diaphragm and through it to object space, there is no
vignetting. However, at wide apertures in most lenses the edge of the rear element or the edge of the front
element or filter ring will obstruct your vision. This indicates vignetting. Try to estimate the fraction of the
area of the diaphragm that is obstructed. Log base two of this fraction is the falloff in f-stops at the corner.

You can also do this from the front. With SLRs hold the camera a fair distance away with a fairly bright
area behind the viewfinder hole. With non-SLRs open the back and arrange so a reasonably bright area is
behind the camera. Look through the lens, and rotate the camera until you are looking right at one corner of
the viewing screen or frame. (If you are using the mirror-down technique with an SLR, choose an upper
corner of the frame, i.e. look from below the axis.) Now for the hard part. Look at the aperture you see. If
there is vignetting you see something about the shape of an American football. If the filter is causing the
vignetting, one of the edges of the football is formed by the filter ring.

A third way to detect vignetting is to aim the camera at a small bright spot surrounded by a fairly dark
background. (A distant street light at night would serve well.) Deliberately defocus the image some and
observe the shape of the spot, particularly in the corners. If it is round there is no vignetting. If it looks like
the intersection of some arcs (i.e. like an American football), then there is vignetting. Note that near top of
the image the top of the circle may get clipped a bit. This is because in many cameras some light (from the
top part of the image) misses the bottom of the mirror. This affects only the viewfinder, not the film. You
can use depth of field preview (if your camera has it) to determine the f-stop at which the spot becomes
round. With wide-angle lenses the circle of confusion may not get large enough for this technique to be
useful.

Q20. For panoramic pictures, where is the best place to pivot the
camera?
A. The axis of the pivot should pass through the entrance pupil. The entrance pupil is the virtual image of
the aperture as seen through the front of the lens.
When you've got it right, the entrance pupil will not shift relative to fixed objects as you rotate the camera.
(Stop down the lens so you can see the diaphragm and aperture.)

There is a whole different type of panoramic camera in which the lens is rotated relative to the film. In this
type of camera the lens rotates around the rear nodal point (for objects at infinity). See the lens tutorial for
an explanation of nodal points.

Q21. What is diffraction?

A. When a beam of light passes through any aperture it spreads out. This effect limits how sharp a lens can
possibly be.

The diffraction is caused by the limiting of the beam to the size of the aperture, not primarily by sharp edges
of the aperture. Even if one made a "soft edged" aperture that faded slowly from clear to opaque, there
would still be diffraction, and the size of the central part of the diffraction pattern would not change much
compared with the sharp-edged case.

Q22. What is the diffraction limit of a lens.

A. All lenses are diffraction limited to no more than about 1500/N to 1800/N line pairs per mm. See below
under the question 27 - "What is MTF?".

Q23. What are aberrations?

A. Aberrations are image defects that result from limitations in the way lenses can be designed. Better
lenses have smaller aberrations, but aberrations can never be completely eliminated, just reduced.

The classic aberrations are:

• Spherical aberration. Light passing through the edge of the lens is focused at a different distance
(closer in simple lenses) than light striking the lens near the center.
• Coma. Off axis points are rendered with tails, reminiscent of comets, hence the name. It can be
shown that coma must occur if the image formed by rays passing near the edge of the lens has a different
magnification than the image formed by rays passing near the center of the lens.
• Astigmatism. Off-axis points are blurred in their the radial or tangential direction, and focusing can
reduce one at the expense of the other, but cannot bring both into focus at the same time. Think of it as the
focal length as varying around the circumference of the lens. (Optometrists apply the word "astigmatism" to
a defect in the human eye that causes on-axis points to be similarly blurred. That astigmatism is not quite the
same as astigmatism in photographic lenses.)
• Curvature of field. Points in a plane get focused sharply on a curved surface, rather than a plane (the
film). Or equivalently, the set of points in the object space that are brought to sharp focus on the film plane
form a curved surface rather than a plane. With a plane subject or a subject at infinite distance the net effect
is that when the center is in focus the edges are out of focus, and if the edges are in focus the center is out of
focus.
• Distortion (pincushion and barrel). The image of a square object has sides that curve in or out. (This
should not be confused with the natural perspective effects that become particularly noticeable with wide
angle lenses.) This happens because the magnification is not a constant, but rather varies with the angle
from the axis.
• Chromatic aberration. The position (forward and back) of sharp focus varies with the wavelength.
• Lateral color. The magnification varies with wavelength.

Q24. Can I eliminate these aberrations by stopping down the lens?

A. The effect of all aberrations except distortion and lateral color is reduced by stopping down. The amount
of field curvature is not affected by stopping down, but its effect on the film is. But note that stopping down
also increases diffraction.

Q25. Why do objects look distorted when photographed with a wide

angle lens?
A. This is because the size of the image of an object depends on the distance the object is from the lens. This
is not a defect in the lens---even pinhole cameras with no lens at all exhibit this perspective effect.

For image calculation purposes, think of the lens as being a pinhole one focal length in front of the film, and
centered over the center of the film. (If the lens is not focussed at infinity, the distance from the film will be
somewhat larger.) Then the image of an object point can be found by drawing a straight line from the object
point through the pinhole and finding its intersection with the film. That line represents one light ray.
(Diffraction and out-of-focus conditions have been ignored here, since they are irrelevant to this effect.)

If you do this, you'll find that the image of a nearby object will be larger than the image of the same object
farther away, by the ratio of the distances. You'll also find that any straight line in object space, no matter at
what angle or position, will be rendered as a straight line on the film. (Proof outline: a line, and a point not
on the line define a plane. All rays from the object line will stay in the plane defined by the line and the
pinhole, and the intersection of that plane with the film plane is a straight line.) But parallel lines in object
space are not necessarily parallel on the film.

Q26. How does focal length affect perspective?

A. It doesn't; it is subject distance that affects perspective. However, a longer lens provides more subject
magnification at a given distance, so you can get farther from your subject without having the image be too
small. By moving back, you make the magnification ratio between the front and back of your subject
smaller, because the distance ratio is closer to one. So, in a portrait, instead of a nose that's magnified much
more than the rest of the head, the nose is magnified only very slightly more than the rest of the head, and
the picture looks more pleasing.

You can get the same perspective with a shorter focal length lens by simply moving back, and enlarging the
central portion of the image. Of course, this magnifies grain as well, so it's better to use a longer lens if you
have one.
Q27. What is "MTF".
A. MTF is an abbreviation for Modulation Transfer Function. It is the normalized spatial frequency
response of film or an optical system. The spatial frequency is usually measured in cycles per millimeter.
For an ideal lens and ignoring diffraction, the MTF would be a constant 1 at all spatial frequencies. For all
practical lenses lenses, the MTF starts out near 1 and falls off at increasing frequencies. MTFs vary with the
aperture, the distance the image region is from the center, the direction of the pattern (along a radius or 90
degrees to that), the wavelength of the light, and the subject distance.

Even for an ideal lens, diffraction effects fundamentally force the MTF be be zero at spatial frequencies
beyond 1/(lambda*N) cycles per mm, where lambda is the wavelength of the light. For lambda = 555nm,
the peak of the eye's response, this is very close to 1800/N cycles per mm.

The MTF of a system is the product of the properly scaled MTFs of each of its components, as long as there
are not two consecutive non-diffusing components. (Thus with proper scaling you can multiply camera lens
MTF by film MTF by enlarger lens MTF by paper MTF, but usually not a telescope objective MTF by an
eyepiece MTF. There are also some other obscure conditions under which MTFs can be multiplied.)

Note that although MTF is usually thought of as the spatial frequency response function and is plotted with
spatial frequency as the abscissa, some manufacturers (e.g. Canon) publish plots of the MTF at specific
spatial frequencies with distance from the center of the image as the abscissa.

Q28. What is SQF?

SQF is an abbreviation for Subjective Quality Factor. SQF was developed by Ed Grainger of Eastman
Kodak as an objective measurement that correlated well with subjective rankings of print quality. Somewhat
simplified, it is just the MTF in the print (or referred to a designated print size or magnification) averaged
from .5 to 2 cycles per mm. See technical note [6]. One well-known popular magazine reports lens test
results in terms of what they claim to be SQF, but they apparently use some other definition of SQF, despite
showing Ed Grainger's picture and referring readers to his original SQF paper.

Q29. What are "elements" and "groups", and are more better?
A. The number of elements is the number of pieces of glass used in the lens. Single uncemented elements or
two or more elements cemented together are called a group. Thus a lens that has 8 elements in 7 groups has
8 pieces of glass with 2 cemented together. It is impossible to completely correct all aberrations. Each
additional element the designer has at his/her disposal gives a few more degrees of freedom to design out an
aberration. So one would expect a 6 element lens to be better than a 3 element lens. However, each surface
also reflects a little light, causing flare. So too many elements is not good either. Note that an unscrupulous
manufacturer could slap together 13 pieces of glass and claim to have a 13 element lens, but it might be
terrible. So by itself the number of elements is no guarantee of quality.

Q30. What is "low dispersion glass".

A. Low dispersion glass is specially formulated to have a small variation of index of refraction with
wavelength. This makes it easier for the designer to reduce chromatic aberration and lateral color. This kind
of glass is most often used in long lenses. Marketing designators such as ED and SLD hint at the use of low-
dispersion glass.

Q31. What do APO and Apochromatic mean?

A. The distance behind the lens at which monochromatic light (light of a single wavelength) comes to focus
varies as a smooth function of the wavelength. If this function has a zero derivative in the visible range, and
hence if there are two wavelengths at which the light comes to focus in the same plane, the lens is called
achromatic. If there is a higher order correction, usually with the result that 3 or more visible wavelengths
come to focus at the same distance, the lens is called apochromatic. Some authorities add more conditions.
Apochromatic lenses often contain special low-dispersion glasses. APO is an abbreviation for apochromatic.

Q32. What is an "aspheric element"?

A. It a lens element in which the radius of curvature varies slightly with angle off axis. Aspheric elements
give the lens designer more degrees of freedom with which to correct aberrations. They are most often used
in wide angle and zoom lenses.

Q33. What is a teleconverter?

A. A teleconverter is a device that enlarges the center portion of the normal frame to fill the whole frame. In
35mm systems where the frames are 24x36 millimeters, a 2X teleconverter expands the central 12x18 mm
to fill the full 24x36mm frame.

Q34. How does a teleconverter affect exposure, focusing, depth of

field and image quality?
A. A lens of focal length f and f-number N with a teleconverter of magnification K attached will behave in
all respects like a lens of focal length K*f and f_number K*N.

If the aperture diameter and focus are left untouched and an ideal teleconverter is attached, the lens will
focus at the same distance, the image, including the diffraction effects and lens aberration effects, will be K
times as large, the exposure will need to be K^2 times longer, the hyperfocal distance will be multiplied by
K and the depth of field will be divided by K. A practical teleconverter will also contribute some of its own
aberrations. (See technical note [7].)

On the other hand, if you open the aperture to keep the same effective f-number and hence the same
exposure time, the image will be enlarged by K, the diffraction will be unchanged, the depth of field will be
divided by K^2 and the hyperfocal distance multiplied by K^2. The aberrations are increased by three
effects: the lens is opened to a larger aperture, the teleconverter multiplies those (probably larger)
aberrations by K, and then combines them with some of its own.
Since the focusing is unchanged, the minimum focusing distance is the same whether or not a teleconverter
is attached. (See technical note - [8].)

Q35. What is the difference between using a teleconverter at the

time the picture is exposed vs. enlarging more in the printing
process?
A. Assuming the aperture diameter is the same in the two cases, the teleconverter case will require K^2
times the exposure while the enlarging case will enlarge the grain in the film K times as much. The
teleconverter adds some aberrations of its own, while enlarging more will make aberrations in the enlarging
lens more apparent. All other effects are identical. In 35mm format, grain is usually the dominate factor in
image quality.

Q36. How can I take "close up" pictures.

A. There are several ways.

• Use a true macro lens.

• Move the lens farther from the film with extension tubes or bellows.
• Screw on "diopter lenses" or closeup "filters".
• Use the macro setting on many zoom lenses.

A true macro lens generally gives the best quality. The f-number needs to be corrected according to the
formulas above, unless metering is done through the lens. Most macro lenses go from infinity to 1:1 or 1:2
(mag = 1 or 1/2). Some that go to 1:2 come with an accessory screw-on lens that gets to 1:1.

Extension tubes and bellows move the lens farther from the film, allowing it to focus closer. All lenses are
optimized for specific situations, and using extension tubes or bellows makes the lens operate out of the
region for which it was designed, possibly compromising the quality a bit. You can compute the
magnification from the extension using the formulas above. If the magnification exceeds one, it is best to
reverse the lens with an adapter. Extending the lens also changes the effective f-number. See the formulas
above. However, if you meter through the lens, the meter is affected in exactly the same way, so you don't
need to do any calculation. Lenses on some modern electronic cameras require electrical connections to the
body, complicating the construction of these devices.

Add-on lenses shorten the effective focal length of the lens and reduce the working distance. Single element
add-on lenses are of inadequate quality for critical work. Many photographers report good results using 2-
element lenses at small apertures. No correction is required to the effective f-number.

Some zoom lenses have special macro ranges. However, few zoom lenses get larger magnification than 1:4,
and in many lenses the macro feature operates only at the short focal length end of the zoom. This is not for
really serious work.
If you are photographing flat objects, such as postage stamps, freedom from distortion is important, as is a
reasonably flat field.

Working distance is the distance from the front of the lens to the subject at a particular magnification. For
nature work, a reasonably long working distance is important because working farther away is less likely to
frighten insects, etc., and shadows are less likely to fall on the subject.

Q37: What is the optimum aperture for a pinhole camera?

A. d = .036 sqrt(Si), where d is the diameter of the pinhole in millimeters and Si is the distance from the
pinhole to the film in millimeters. See technical note [9].

Q38. How can I use my photographic light meter or camera to

measure illumination?
A. Take an exposure reading with an incident meter or a reflected meter pointed at an 18% gray subject
(gray card). (Meters built into cameras are reflected meters. If the lens is a variable aperture zoom, be sure it
is zoomed to where the aperture reading is correct. Turn off special intelligent or evaluative metering
modes.) Then use one of the following formulas, where E is illuminance.

• E_in_foot_candles = 25 N^2 / (ISO * exposure_time_in_seconds)

• E_in_lux = 269 N^2 / (ISO * exposure_time_in_seconds)

See technical note [10].

More Questions?
If this document doesn't answer your questions, there are additional resources on photo.net:

• Lens Tutorial (more technical)

• Discussion forums

Technical notes:

[1] - The object distance, So, as used in the formulas is measured from the object to the lens's front principal
point. More commonly one hears of the front nodal point. These two points are equivalent if the front
medium and rear medium are the same, e.g. air. They are the effective position of the lens for measurements
to the front. In a simple lens the front nodal/principal point is very near the center of the lens. If you know
the focal length of the lens, you can easily find the front nodal point by taking the lens off the camera and
forming an image of a distant object with the light going through the lens backwards. Find the point of sharp
focus, then measure one focal length back (i.e. toward the distant object). That is the position of the front
nodal point.
[2] - On most cameras the focusing scale is calibrated to read the distance from the object to the film plane.
There is no easy way to precisely convert between the focusing scale distance and So.

[3] - The formulas presented here all assume that the aperture looks the same size front and rear. If it does
not, use the front diameter and note that the formulas for bellows correction and depth of field will not be
correct at macro distances. Formulas for this situation are given in the lens tutorial, posted separately.

[4] - The formula for angle of coverage applies to rectilinear lenses. An alternative form, 2*arctan(X/
(2*Si)), applies to both rectilinear lenses and pinholes. (Rectilinear lenses give the same projection as a
pinhole.) These formulas do not usually apply to fisheye lenses, and can't possibly apply to a fisheye lens
that covers 180 degrees or more.

[5] - The conditions under which the formula for the minimum distance at which the effect of focusing and
re-composing will be covered by depth of field are:

1. w is no more than the focal length of the lens. At the edge w=18mm for 35mm, so this will very
seldom be a problem.
2. The lens's two nodal points are not very widely separated. But if the front nodal point is in front of
the rear nodal point, which I think is the more common case, the formula is too conservative, so this is not a
problem either.
3. The camera is rotated about the front nodal point. Almost always the camera will be rotated about an
axis behind the front nodal point which again makes the formula too conservative. The guide number given
assumes c=.03mm.

[6] - The SQF is the weighted average of the MTF over the range .5 to 2 lines per mm referred to a
designated print size or magnification. The weighting function is 1/spf, where spf is the spatial frequency. It
turns out that this is equivalent to just a simple "visual" average when the MTF is plotted against the log of
the spatial frequency. A further mean is taken between the the saggital (optics-speak for radial) and
tangential components. It appears to this author that an additional, probably weighted, averaging must be
done over regions of the image (center, edges, corners). When I find out the specifics of this weighting I will
add it to the lens FAQ.

[7] - Note that the section on teleconverters in several places assumed that the aperture diameter was left
unchanged. On lenses with mechanical aperture setting levers or rings this will happen naturally if the
aperture setting is not changed. However, beware that fancy electronic cameras may compensate for the
presence of the teleconverter.

[8] - Most camera systems have focusing scales that read from some reference mark on the body, usually at
the film plane. With a teleconverer attached, they read from a point the thickness of the teleconverter in
front of this reference mark.

[9] - The optimum aperture for a pinhole camera depends on what criteria is used. The formula given
maximizes the spatial frequency at which the MTF for 555nm light will be 20%.

[10] - There is no universal agreement on the constant in the relation between exposure, film speed, and
illumination. This document tentatively shows 25 for the foot-candles case, which I reverse engineered from
a Gossen Lunasix meter, but one can find values from 18 to 30 in the literature or by reverse engineering
other meters. The constant for lux is 10.7639 (the number of square feet in a square meter) times the value
for foot-candles.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Lens Tutorial
by David Jacobson

This note gives a tutorial on lenses and gives some common lens formulas. I attempted to make it between
an FAQ (just simple facts) and a textbook. I generally give the starting point of an idea, and then skip to the
results, leaving out all the algebra. If any part of it is too detailed, just skip ahead to the result and go on.

The theory is simplified to that for lenses with the same medium (e.g. air) front and rear: the theory for
underwater or oil immersion lenses is a bit more complicated.

The tutorial is arranged into six parts:

• Object and Image distances. Magnification

• Apertures, f-stop, bellows correction factor, pupil magnification
• Depth of Field
• Diffraction
• Modulation Transfer Function (MTF)
• Illumination(by John Bercovitz)

Part I - Object distance, image distance, and magnification

Throughout this article we use the word "object" to mean the thing of which an image is being made. It is
loosely equivalent to the word "subject" as used by photographers.

In lens formulas it is convenient to measure distances from a set of points called "principal points". There
are two of them, one for the front of the lens and one for the rear, more properly called the primary principal
point and the secondary principal point. While most lens formulas expect the object distance to be measured
from the front principal point, most focusing scales are calibrated to read the distance from the object to the
film plane. So you can't use the distance on your focusing scale in most calculations, unless you only need
an approximate distance. Another interpretation of principal points is that a (probably virtual) object at the
primary principal point formed by light entering from the front will appear from the rear to form a (probably
virtual) erect image at the secondary principal point with magnification exactly one.
"Nodal points" are the two points such that a light ray entering the front of the lens and headed straight
toward the front nodal point will emerge going straight away from the rear nodal point at exactly the same
angle to the lens's axis as the entering ray had. The nodal points are identical to the principal points when
the front and rear media are the same, e.g. air, so for most practical purposes the terms can be used
interchangeably.

In simple double convex lenses the two principal points are somewhere inside the lens (actually 1/n-th the
way from the surface to the center, where n is the index of refraction), but in a complex lens they can be
almost anywhere, including outside the lens, or with the rear principal point in front of the front principal
point. In a lens with elements that are fixed relative to each other, the principal points are fixed relative to
the glass. In zoom or internal focusing lenses the principal points generally move relative to the glass and
each other when zooming or focusing.

When a camera lens is focused at infinity, the rear principal point is exactly one focal length in front of the
film. To find the front principal point, take the lens off the camera and let light from a distant object pass
through it "backwards". Find the point where the image is formed, and measure toward the lens one focal
length. With some lenses, particularly ultra wides, you can't do this, since the image is not formed in front of
the front element. (This all assumes that you know the focal length. I suppose you can trust the
manufacturer's numbers enough for educational purposes.)

So object to front principal point distance.

Si rear principal point to image distance
f focal length
M magnification

1/So + 1/Si = 1/f

M = Si/So
(So-f)*(Si-f) = f^2
M = f/(So-f) = (Si-f)/f

If we interpret Si-f as the "extension" of the lens beyond infinity focus, then we see that this extension is
inversely proportional to a similar "extension" of the object.

Ray Tracing

For rays close to and nearly parallel to the axis (these are called "paraxial" rays) we can approximately
model most lenses with just two planes perpendicular to the optic axis and located at the principal points.
"Nearly parallel" means that for the angles involved, theta ~= sin(theta) ~= tan(theta). (~=
means approximately equal.) These planes are called principal planes.

The light can be thought of as proceeding to the front principal plane, then jumping to a point in the rear
principal plane exactly the same displacement from the axis and simultaneously being refracted (bent). The
angle of refraction is proportional the distance from the center at which the ray strikes the plane and
inversely proportional to the focal length of the lens. (The "front principal plane" is the one associated with
the front of the lens. It could be behind the rear principal plane.)

Let us define an ideal lens as one that forms undistorted sharp images of an object plane on an image plane.
Such an ideal lens is only possible for a specified set of planes. A ray from an object point in the specified
object plane and passing through the front nodal point exits the rear nodal point a the same angle and passes
through the image point. All rays passing through the object point also pass though the image point. The
exiting ray can be computed by the following technique. Consider a spherical surface centered on the object
point and of such radius that the front principal point is in the surface. Consider a second surface centered
on the image point and of such radius that the rear principal point is in the surface. Any ray through the
object point can be considered to proceed to the first surface, then jump parallel to the axis to the second
surface (backwards if necessary), and from there proceed to the image point. Only the first and last
components contribute to the optical path length.

Part II - Apertures, f-stop, bellows correction factor, pupil

magnification
We define more symbols

D diameter of the entrance pupil, i.e. diameter of the aperture as

seen from the front of the lens
N f-number (or f-stop) D = f/N, as in f/5.6
Ne effective f-number, based on geometric factors, but not absorption

Light from an object point spreads out in a cone whose base is the entrance pupil. (The lens elements in
front of the diaphragm form a virtual image of the physical aperture. This virtual image is called the
entrance pupil.)

Analogous to the entrance pupil is the exit pupil, which is the virtual image of the aperture as seen though
the rear elements.

Let us define Ne, the effective f-number, as

Ne = 1/(2 sin(thetaX))

where thetaX is the angle from the axis to the edge of the eXit pupil as viewed from the film plane. It can be
shown that for any lens free of coma the following also holds

Ne = M/(2 sin(thetaE)).

We will ignore the issue of coma throughout the rest of this document.

The first equation deals with rays converging to the image point, and is the basis for depth of field
calculations. The second equation deals with light captured by the aperture, and is the basis for exposure
calculations.

This section will explain the connection between Ne and light striking the film, relate this to N, and show to
compute Ne for macro situations.

If an object radiated or reflected light uniformly in all directions, it is clear that the amount of light captured
by the aperture would be proportional to the solid angle subtended by the aperture from the object point. In
optical theory, however, it is common assume that the light follows Lambert's law, which says that the light
intensity falls off with cos(theta), where theta is the angle off the normal. With this assumption it
can be shown that the light entering the aperture from a point near the axis is proportional to
sin^2(thetaE), which is proportional to the aperture area for small thetaE.

If the magnification is M, the light from a tiny object patch of unit area gets spread out over an area M^2 on
the film, and so the relative intensity on the film is inversely proportional to M^2. Thus the relative intensity
on the film, RI, is given by

RI = sin^2(thetaE)/M^2 = 1/(4 Ne^2)

with the second equality by the defintion of Ne. (Of course the true intensity depends on the subject
illumination, etc.)

For So very large with respect to f, M is approximately f/So and sin(thetaE) is approximately
(D/2)/So. Substituting these into the above formula get that RI = ((D/2)/f)^2 = 1/(4N^2), and
thus for So >> f,

Ne = D/f = N.

For closer subjects, we need a more detailed analysis. We will take D = f/N as determining D,

Let us go back to the original approximate formula for the relative intensity on the film, and substitute more
carefully

RI = sin^2(thetaE)/M^2 = ((D/2)^2/((D/2)^2+(So-zE)^2))/M^2

where zE

is the distance the entrance pupil is in front of the front principal point.

However, zE is not convenient to measure. It is more convenient to use "pupil magnification". The pupil
magnification is the ratio of exit pupil diameter to the entrance pupil diameter.

p pupil magnification (exit_pupil_diameter/entrance_pupil_diameter)

For all symmetrical lenses and most normal lenses the aperture appears the same from front and rear, so
p~=1. Wide angle lenses frequently have p>1. It can be shown that zE = f*(1-1/p), and substituting
this into the above equation, carrying out some algebraic manipulations, and solving with RI = 1/(4
Ne^2) yields

Ne = Sqrt((M/2)^2 + (N*(1+M/p))^2).

If we further assume thetaE is small enough that sin(thetaE) ~= tan(thetaE), the (M/2)^2
term drops out and we get
 Ne = N*(1+M/p).

This is the standard equation, and will be used throughout the rest of this document. The essence of the
approximation is the distinction between the axial distance to the plane of the entrance pupil and the
distance along the hypotnuse to the edge of the entrance pupil, which is the really correct form. Clearly in
typical photographic sitations that distinction is insignificant.

An alternative, but less fundamental, derivation is based on the relative illumination varying with the
inverse square of the distance from the exit pupil to the film. This distance is just f*(1+M) - zX, where
zX is the distance the exit pupil is behind the rear principal point. It can be shown that zX = -f*(p-1),
so Ne/N = (f*(1+M)+f*(p-1))/(f+f*(p-1)) = 1+M/p, and hence Ne = N*(1+M/p).

It is convenient to think of the correction in terms of f-stops (powers of two). The correction in powers of
two (stops) is 2*Log2(1+M/p) = 6.64386 Log10(1+M/p). Note that for most normal lenses p=1,
so the M/p can be replaced by just M in the above equations.

Part III - Circle of confusion, depth of field and hyperfocal

distance.
The light from a single object point passing through the aperture is converged by the lens into a cone with
its tip at the film (if the point is perfectly in focus) or slightly in front of or behind the film (if the object
point is somewhat out of focus). In the out of focus case the point is rendered as a circle where the film cuts
the converging cone or the diverging cone on the other side of the image point. This circle is called the
circle of confusion. The farther the tip of the cone, ie the image point, is away from the film, the larger the
circle of confusion.

Consider the situation of a "main object" that is perfectly in focus, and an "alternate object point" this is in
front of or behind the main object.

Soa alternate object point to front principal point distance

Sia rear principal point to alternate image point distance
h hyperfocal distance
C diameter of circle of confusion
c diameter of largest acceptable circle of confusion
N f-stop (focal length divided by diameter of entrance pupil)
Ne effective f-stop Ne = N * (1+M/p)
D the aperture (entrance pupil) diameter (D=f/N)
M magnification (M=f/(So-f))

The diameter of the circle of confusion can be computed by similar triangles, and then solved in terms of the
lens parameters and object distances. For a while let us assume unity pupil magnification, i.e. p=1. When
So is finite

C = D*(Sia-Si)/Sia = f^2*(So/Soa-1)/(N*(So-f))

When So = Infinity,
 C = f^2/(N Soa)

Note that in this formula C is positive when the alternate image point is behind the film (i.e. the alternate
object point is in front of the main object) and negative in the opposite case. In reality, the circle of
confusion is always positive and has a diameter equal to Abs(C).

If the circle of confusion is small enough, given the magnification in printing or projection, the optical
quality throughout the system, etc., the image will appear to be sharp. Although there is no one diameter that
marks the boundary between fuzzy and clear, .03 mm is generally used in 35mm work as the diameter of the
acceptable circle of confusion. (I arrived at this by observing the depth of field scales or charts on/with a
number of lenses from Nikon, Pentax, Sigma, and Zeiss. All but the Zeiss lens came out around .03mm. The
Zeiss lens appeared to be based on .025 mm.) Call this diameter c.

If the lens is focused at infinity (so the rear principal point to film distance equals the focal length), the
distance to closest point that will be acceptably rendered is called the hyperfocal distance.

h = f^2/(N*c)

If the main object is at a finite distance, the closest alternative point that is acceptably rendered is at distance

Sclose = h So/(h + (So-F))

and the farthest alternative point that is acceptably rendered is at distance

Sfar = h So/(h - (So - F))

except that if the denominator is zero or negative, Sfar = infinity.

We call Sfar-So the rear depth of field and So-Sclose the front depth field.

A form that is exact, even when P != 1, is

depth of field = c Ne / (M^2 * (1 +/- (So-f)/h1))

= c N (1+M/p) / (M^2 * (1 +/- (N c)/(f M))

where h1 = f^2/(N c), ie the hyperfocal distance given c, N, and f and assuming P=1. Use + for front
depth of field and - for rear depth of field. If the denominator goes zero or negative, the rear depth of field is
infinity. (!= means "is not equal to".)

This is a very nice equation. It shows that for distances short with respect to the hyperfocal distance, the
depth of field is very close to just c*Ne/M^2. As the distance increases, the rear depth of field gets larger
than the front depth of field. The rear depth of field is twice the front depth of field when So-f is one third
the hyperfocal distance. And when So-f = h1, the rear depth of field extends to infinity.

If we frame an object the same way with two different lenses, i.e. M is the same both situations, the shorter
focal length lens will have less front depth of field and more rear depth of field at the same effective f-stop.
(To a first approximation, the depth of field is the same in both cases.)
Another important consideration when choosing a lens focal length is how a distant background point will
be rendered. Points at infinity are rendered as circles of size

C = f M / N

So at constant object magnification a distant background point will be blurred in direct proportion to the
focal length.

This is illustrated by the following example, in which lenses of 50mm (red) and 100 mm (green) focal
lengths are both set up to get a magnification of 1/10. Both lenses are set to f/8. The graph shows the circles
of confusions as a function of the distance behind the object.

The slope of both graphs virtually identical out to well beyond where the diameter of the cirlce of
consfusion is .03mm, showing that to a first approximation both lenses have the same depth of field.
However, the size of the circle of confusion for in infinitely distant point is twice as large for the 100mm
lens (1.25mm) as for the 50mm lens (.625mm).

Part IV - Diffraction
When a beam of parallel light passes through a circular aperture it spreads out a little, a phenomenon known
as diffraction. The smaller the aperture, the more the spreading. The normalized field strength (of the
electric or magnetic field) at angle phi from the axis is given by

2 J1(x)/x, where x = 2 phi Pi R/lambda

and where R is the radius of the aperture, lambda is the wavelength of the light, and J1 is the first order
Bessel function. The normalization is relative to the field strength at the center. The power (intensity) is
proportional to the square of this function.

The field strength function forms a bell-shaped curve, but unlike the classic E^(-x^2) one, it eventually
oscillates about zero. Its first zero is at 1.21967 lambda/(2 R). There are actually an infinite number
of lobes after this, but about 83.8% of the power is in the circle bounded by the first zero.

Approximating the aperture-to-film distance as f and making use of the fact that the aperture has diameter
f/N, it follows directly that the diameter of the first zero of the diffraction pattern is
2.43934*N*lambda. Applying this in a normal photographic situation is difficult, since the light
contains a whole spectrum of colors. We really need to integrate over the visible spectrum. The eye has
maximum sensitivity around 555 nm, in the yellow green. If, for simplicity, we take 555 nm as the
wavelength , the diameter of the first zero, in mm, comes out to be 0.00135383 N.

As was mentioned above, the normally accepted circle of confusion for depth of field is .03 mm, but .
03/0.00135383 = 22.1594, so we can see that at f/22 the diameter of the first zero of the diffraction pattern is
as large is the acceptable circle of confusion.

A common way of rating the resolution of a lens is in line pairs per mm. It is hard to say when lines are
resolvable, but suppose that we use a criterion that the center of a dark band receive no more than 80% of
the light power striking the center of a light band. Then the resolution is 0.823 /(lambda*N) lpmm. If
we again assume 555 nm, this comes out to 1482/N lpmm, which is in close agreement with the widely
used rule of thumb that the resolution is diffraction limited to 1500/N lpmm. However, note that the MTF,
discussed below, provides another view of this subject.

Part V - Modulation Transfer Function

The modulation transfer function is a measure of the extent to which a lens, film, etc., can reproduce detail
in an image. It is the spatial analog of frequency response in an electrical system. The exact definitions of
the modulation transfer function and of the related optical transfer function vary slightly amongst different
authorities.

The 2-dimensional Fourier transform of the point spread function is known as the optical transfer function
(OTF). The value of this function along any radius is the fourier transform of the line spread function in the
same direction. The modulation transfer function is the absolute value of the fourier transform of the line
spread function.

Equivalently, the modulation transfer function of a lens is the ratio of relative image contrast divided by
relative object contrast of an object with sinusoidally varying brightness as a function of spatial frequency
(e.g. cycles per mm). Relative contrast is defined as (Imax-Imin)/(Imax+Imin). MTF can also be
used for film, but since film has a non-linear characteristic curve, the density is first transformed back to the
equivalent intensity by applying the inverse of the characteristic curve.

For a lens, the MTF can vary with almost every conceivable parameter, including f-stop, object distance,
distance of the point from the center, direction of modulation, and spectral distribution of the light. The two
standard directions are radial (also known as sagittal) and tangential.

The MTF for an an ideal lens (ignoring the unavoidable effect of diffraction) is a constant 1 for spatial
frequencies from 0 to infinity at every point and direction. For a practical lens it starts out near 1, and falls
off with increasing spatial frequency, with the falloff being worse at the edges than at the center. Adjacency
effects in film can make the MTF of film be greater than 1 in certain frequency ranges.

An advantage of the MTF as a measure of performance is that under some circumstances the MTF of the
system is the product (frequency by frequency) of the properly scaled MTFs of its components. Such
multiplication is always allowed when the phase of the waves is lost at each step. Thus it is legitimate to
multiply lens and film MTFs or the MTFs of a two lens system with a diffuser in the middle. However, the
MTFs of cascaded ordinary lenses can legitimately be multiplied only when a set of quite restrictive and
technical conditions is satisfied.

Let lambda be the wavelength of the light, and spf the spatial frequency in cycles per mm.

For pure diffraction the formula is

OTF(lambda,N,spf) = 2/Pi (ArcCos(lambda N spf) - lambda N spf Sqrt(1-(lambda N

spf)^2))
[if lambda N spf <=1]

OTF(lambda,N,spf) = 0 [if lambda N spf >=1]

Note that for lambda = 555 nm, the OTF is zero at spatial frequencies of 1801/N cycles per mm and
beyond.

For a diffraction-free circle of confusion of diameter C,

OTF(C,spf) = 2 J1(Pi C spf)/(Pi C spf)

where, again, J1(x) is the first order Bessel function. The OTF goes negative at certain frequencies.
Physically, this would mean that if the test pattern were lighter right on the optical center than nearby, the
image would be darker right on the optical center than nearby. Some authorities use the term "spurious
resolution" for spatial frequencies beyond the first zero. The MTF is the absolute value of the OTF.

For the case where there is a combination of diffraction and focus error dz (resulting in a circle of confusion
of diamter dz/N), the OTF is given by the following formula, which involves an integration that must be
done numerically. Let s = lambda N spf, and a = Pi spf dz / N.

OTF = 4/(Pi a) integral y=0 to sqrt(1-s^2) of sin(a(sqrt(1-y^2)-s)) dy

for s < 1
0 for s >= 1

This formula is an approximation that is best at small apertures.

Here is a graph of the OTF of the f/22 diffraction limit, a .03mm circle of confusion assuming no
diffraction, and the combined effect.

Note how the combination is not the product of each of the effects taken separately.
Some authorities present MTF in a log-log plot.

The classic paper on the MTF for the combination of diffraction and focus error is H.H. Hopkins, "The
frequency response of a defocused optical system," Proceedings of the Royal Society A, v. 231, London
(1955), pp 91-103. Reprinted in Lionel Baker (ed), Optical Transfer Function: Foundation and Theory,
SPIE Optical Engineering Press, 1992, pp 143-153.

Part VI - Illumination
(by John Bercovitz)

The Photometric System

Light flux, for the purposes of illumination engineering, is measured in lumens. A lumen of light, no matter
what its wavelength (color), appears equally bright to the human eye. The human eye has a stronger
response to some wavelengths of light than to other wavelengths. The strongest response for the light-
adapted eye (when scene luminance >= .001 Lambert) comes at a wavelength of 555 nm. A light-adapted
eye is said to be operating in the photopic region. A dark-adapted eye is operating in the scotopic region
(scene luminance <= 10^-8 Lambert). In between is the mesopic region. The peak response of the eye shifts
from 555 nm to 510 nm as scene luminance is decreased from the photopic region to the scotopic region.
The standard lumen is approximately 1/680 of a watt of radiant energy at 555 nm. Standard values for other
wavelengths are based on the photopic response curve and are given with two-place accuracy by the table
below. The values are correct no matter what region you're operating in - they're based only on the photopic
region. If you're operating in a different region, there are corrections to apply to obtain the eye's relative
response, but this doesn't change the standard values given below.

Wavelength, nm Lumens/watt Wavelength, nm Lumens/watt

400 0.27 600 430
450 26 650 73
500 220 700 2.8
550 680

Following are the standard units used in photometry with their definitions and symbols.

Luminous flux, F, is measured in lumens.

Quantity of light, Q, is measured in lumen-hours or lumen-seconds. It is the time integral of luminous flux.

Luminous Intensity, I, is measured in candles, candlepower, or candela (all the same thing). It is a measure
of how much flux is flowing through a solid angle. A lumen per steradian is a candle. There are 4 pi
steradians to a complete solid angle. A unit area at unit distance from a point source covers a steradian. This
follows from the fact that the surface area of a sphere is 4 pi r^2.

Lamps are measured in MSCP, mean spherical candlepower. If you multiply MSCP by 4 pi, you have the
lumen output of the lamp. In the case of an ordinary lamp which has a horizontal filament when it is burning
base down, roughly 3 steradians are ineffectual: one is wiped out by inter- ference from the base and two
more are very low intensity since not much light comes off either end of the filament. So figure the MSCP
should be multiplied by 4/3 to get the candles coming off perpendicular to the lamp filament. Incidentally,
the number of lumens coming from an incandescent lamp varies approximately as the 3.6 power of the
voltage. This can be really important if you are using a lamp of known candlepower to calibrate a
photometer.

Illumination (illuminance), E, is the _areal density_ of incident luminous flux: how many lumens per unit
area. A lumen per square foot is a foot-candle; a one square foot area on the surface of a sphere of radius
one foot and having a one candle point source centered in it would therefore have an illumination of one
foot-candle due to the one lumen falling on it. If you substitute meter for foot you have a meter-candle or
lux. In this case you still have the flux of one steradian but now it's spread out over one square meter.
Multiply an illumination level in lux by .0929 to convert it to foot-candles. (foot/meter)^2= .0929. A
centimeter- candle is a phot. Illumination from a point source falls off as the square of the distance. So if
you divide the intensity of a point source in candles by the distance from it in feet squared, you have the
illumination in foot candles at that distance.

Luminance, B, is the _areal intensity_ of an extended diffuse source or an extended diffuse reflector. If a
perfectly diffuse, perfectly reflecting surface has one foot-candle (one lumen per square foot) of
illumination falling on it, its luminance is one foot-Lambert or 1/pi candles per square foot. The total
amount of flux coming off this perfectly diffuse, perfectly reflecting surface is, of course, one lumen per
square foot. Looking at it another way, if you have a one square foot diffuse source that has a luminance of
one candle per square foot (pi times as much intensity as in the previous example), then the total output of
this source is pi lumens. If you travel out a good distance along the normal to the center of this one square
foot surface, it will look like a point source with an intensity of one candle.

To contrast: Intensity in candles is for a point source while luminance in candles per square foot is for an
extended source - luminance is intensity per unit area. If it's a perfectly diffuse but not perfectly reflecting
surface, you have to multiply by the reflectance, k, to find the luminance.

Also to contrast: Illumination, E, is for the incident or incoming flux's areal _density_; luminance, B, is for
reflected or outgoing flux's areal _intensity_.

Lambert's law says that an perfectly diffuse surface or extended source reflects or emits light according to a
cosine law: the amount of flux emitted per unit surface area is proportional to the cosine of the angle
between the direction in which the flux is being emitted and the normal to the emitting surface. (Note
however, that there is no fundamental physics behind Lambert's "law". While assuming it to be true
simplifies the theory, it is really only an empirical observation whose accuracy varies from surface to
surface. Lambert's law can be taken as a definition of a perfectly diffuse surface.)

A consequence of Lambert's law is that no matter from what direction you look at a perfectly diffuse
surface, the luminance on the basis of _projected_ area is the same. So if you have a light meter looking at a
perfectly diffuse surface, it doesn't matter what the angle between the axis of the light meter and the normal
to the surface is as long as all the light meter can see is the surface: in any case the reading will be the same.

There are a number of luminance units, but they are in categories: two of the categories are those using
English units and those using metric units. Another two categories are those which have the constant 1/pi
built into them and those that do not. The latter stems from the fact that the formula to calculate luminance
(photometric Brightness), B, from illumination (illuminance), E, contains the factor 1/pi. To illustrate:

B = (k*E)(1/pi)
Bfl = k*E

where: B = luminance, candles/foot^2

Bfl = luminance, foot-Lamberts
k = reflectivity 0<k<1
E = illuminance in foot-candles (lumens/ foot^2)

Obviously, if you divide a luminance expressed in foot-Lamberts by pi you then have the luminance
expressed in candles /foot^2. (Bfl/pi=B)

Other luminance units are:

stilb = 1 candle/square centimeter sb

apostilb = stilb/(pi X 10^4)=10^-4 L asb
nit = 1 candle/ square meter nt
Lambert = (1/pi) candle/square cm L

Below is a table of photometric units with short definitions.

Symbol Term Unit Unit Definition

Q light quantity lumen-hour radiant energy

lumen-second as corrected for eye's
spectral response

F luminous flux lumen radiant energy flux

as corrected for eye's
spectral response

I luminous intensity candle one lumen per steradian

candela one lumen per steradian
candlepower one lumen per steradian

E illumination foot-candle lumen/foot^2

lux lumen/meter^2
phot lumen/centimeter^2

B luminance candle/foot^2 see unit def's. above

foot-Lambert = (1/pi) candles/foot^2
Lambert = (1/pi) candles/centimeter^2
stilb = 1 candle/centimeter^2
nit = 1 candle/meter^2

Note: A lumen-second is sometimes known as a Talbot.

To review:
Quantity of light, Q, is akin to a quantity of photons except that here the number of photons is pro-rated
according to how bright they appear to the eye.

Luminous flux, F, is akin to the time rate of flow of photons except that the photons are pro-rated according
to how bright they appear to the eye.

Luminous intensity, I, is the solid-angular density of luminous flux. Applies primarily to point sources.
Illumination, E, is the areal density of incident luminous flux. Luminance, B, is the areal intensity of an
extended source.

Photometry with a Photographic Light Meter

The first caveat to keep in mind is that the average unfiltered light meter doesn't have the same spectral
sensitivity curve that the human eye does. Each type of sensor used has its own curve. Silicon blue cells
aren't too bad. The overall sensitivity of a cell is usually measured with a 2856K or 2870K incandescent
lamp. Less commonly it is measured with 6000K sunlight.

The basis of using a light meter is the fact that a light meter uses the Additive Photographic Exposure
System, the system which uses Exposure Values:

Ev = Av + Tv = Sv + Bv

where: Ev = Exposure Value

Av = Aperture Value = lg2 N^2 where N = f-number
Tv = Time Value = lg2 (1/t) where t = time in sec.s
Sv = Speed Value = lg2 (0.3 S) where S = ASA speed
Bv = Brightness Value = lg2 Bfl

lg2 is logarithm base 2

from which, for example:

Av(N=f/1) = 0
Tv(t=1 sec) = 0
Sv(S=ASA 3.125) E
Bv( Bfl = 1 foot-Lambert) = 0

and therefore:

Bfl = 2^Bv
Ev (Sv = 0) = Bv

From the preceeding two equations you can see that if you set the meter dial to an ASA speed of
approximately 3.1 (same as Sv = 0), when you read a scene luminance level the Ev reading will be Bv from
which you can calculate Bfl. If you don't have an ASA setting of 3.1 on your dial, just use ASA 100 and
subtract 5 from the Ev reading to get Bv. (Sv@ASA100=5)
Image Illumination

If you know the object luminance (photometric brightness), the f-number of the lens, and the image
magnification, you can calculate the image illumination. The image magnification is the quotient of any
linear dimension in the image divided by the corresponding linear dimension on the object. It is, in the usual
photographic case, a number less than one. The f-number is the f-number for the lens when focussed at
infinity - this is what's written on the lens. The formula that relates these quantities is given below:

Eimage = (t pi B)/[4 N^2 (1+m)^2]

or: Eimage = (t Bfl)/[4 N^2 (1+m)^2]
where: Eimage is in foot-candles (divide by .0929 to get lux)
t is the transmittance of the lens (usually .9 to .95 but lower
for more surfaces in the lens or lack of anti-reflection
coatings)
B is the object luminance in candles/square foot
Bfl is the object luminance in foot-Lamberts
N is the f-number of the lens
m is the image magnification

References:

G.E. Miniature Lamp Catalog

Gilway Technical Lamp Catalog
"Lenses in Photography" Rudolph Kingslake Rev.Ed.c1963 A.S.Barnes
"Applied Optics & Optical Engr." Ed. by Kingslake c1965 Academic Press
"The Lighting Primer" Bernard Boylan c1987 Iowa State Univ.
"University Physics" Sears & Zemansky c1955 Addison-Wesley

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Canon EOS Digital SLR System

a photo.net guide by Philip Greenspun

The Canon EOS system of digital single-lens reflex (SLR) bodies and lenses is the standard choice among
professional photographers worldwide. This page makes it easy to shop for Canon digital bodies and EOS
lenses. Every component manufactured by Canon is covered, plus a few exceptionally good third-party
components. If you are new to photography, you might want to start with our article "Building a Digital
SLR System".

This article goes through every section of the Canon EOS system and concludes with some starter system
recommendations.

Canon EOS Bodies

Small sensor bodies are good for telephoto work, such as wildlife photography. A 100mm telephoto lens
that would be ideal for portraits on a film or full-frame sensor body gives a 150mm equivalent perspective
on a small sensor ("APS-C") body. The full-frame sensor bodies are good for wide angle photography, low-
light photography, and ultimate image quality.

small sensor

• Canon Digital Rebel XTi (Black) (review), introduced October 2006, the right camera for most
consumers who want a responsive accurate machine (replaces the similarly named, but obsolete, Canon
Digital Rebel XT, $444 (review))
• Canon Digital Rebel XSi, $485 (review), the new replacement for the Rebel XTi
• Canon EOS 40D (review), larger and heavier than the Rebel with comparable image quality and
capabilities, but more convenient controls; great camera for wildlife and sports photography
• Canon EOS 50D, $930 (review), an upgrade to the EOS 40D, which includes Live View
• Canon EOS 1D Mark III, $3570 (review), the ideal camera for professional sports photographers

full-frame sensor

• Canon EOS 5D (review), the best camera for most advanced amateurs and professionals
• Canon EOS 5D Mark II (review), with 21MP and HD video capabilities—do more with a camera
than you have ever been able to before
• Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III, $6115 (review), same size and weight as a brick; weather-sealed against
rain and dust

For nostalgia buffs, Canon still makes some film bodies that work with all of the lenses below, except those
marked "small sensor only". And older Canon film bodies that

• Canon EOS-1V Professional SLR Body, $1650 (review), fully weather-sealed professional body
with 100 percent viewfinder coverage
• Canon EOS-3 35mm SLR Camera (Body Only), $945 (review), just about as useful as the 1V,
without the 100-percent viewfinder
• Canon EOS Elan 7ne 35mm Film Body, $343, bulkier than the Rebel with a rear control wheel just
like the big Canon bodies
• Canon Rebel T2, $205, pair with Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II, $93 (review), for a cheap, light, high-
quality, general-purpose camera
• Canon EOS Rebel K2, $130, pair with Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II, $93 (review)

An EOS-3 is good enough for almost any photographic purpose, it is incredibly rugged, and you should be
able to buy one cheap in the photo.net classifieds.

Nomenclature
F-number: lower is better.

IS is "image stabilization", a technology lifted from camcorders in which the camera electronically
compensates for unsteady hands. IS is especially important at long focal lengths, e.g., 200mm and above,
because the lens magnifies camera shake at the same time it is magnifying the subject. An IS lens will allow
you to use slower shutter speeds without introducing camera shake. The alternative to an IS lens would be
mounting the camera on a tripod or using a high ISO setting, which reduces image quality but allows the use
of higher shutter speeds.

USM is "ultrasonic motor". All Canon EOS-system lenses have built-in focus motors. There is no motor in
the body as is the case with Nikon, for example. The cheaper Canon lenses have a motor that must be
clutched out with a switch if the photographer wishes to focus manually. When using a USM lens, the
photographer can push the shutter release (or a button on the rear of the camera, if a custom function is set)
and let the autofocus system do its best, then touch up the focus manually by twisting the lens ring.

The L lenses are Canon's expensive lenses designed for professional photographers. An L lens will always
have good optical performance, even if it is a wide-range zoom that is challenging to design. An L lens will
always be mechanically tough and well-sealed against water and dust. An L lens might be very heavy and
expensive. Note that there are some non-L prime (fixed focal length or non-zoom) lenses, such as the
50/1.4, that offer extremely high optical quality. The non-L Canon zoom lenses are optimized for light
weight and low cost and won't be especially high in optical quality.

EF-S lenses are designed for Canon's small-sensor digital cameras, such as the Digital Rebel. The "EF" in
"EF-S" is the standard Canon EOS "Electro-Focus" mount, introduced in 1987. The "-S" stands for "short
back focus" and means that the lens design protrudes more deeply into the camera body. This protrusion
would damage a full-frame camera's mirror, so a mechanical interlock prevents these lenses from being
mounted on a standard EOS camera. An EF-S lens will work with any of the small-sensor bodies introduced
since 2003, including the original Digital Rebel (300D) and the 20D.

Normal Lenses

A normal or standard lens is light in weight and approximates the perspective of the human eye. Normal
lenses have large maximum apertures, indicated by small f-numbers such as f/1.4 or f/1.8, and thereby
gather much more light than zoom lenses. It may be possible to take a photo with a normal lens in light only
1/8th or 1/16th as bright as would be required for the same photo with a consumer-priced zoom lens.
Another advantage of the large maximum aperture is that the viewfinder will be correspondingly brighter
and therefore easier to use in dim light. (SLRs keep the lens wide open for viewing and stop down to
whatever aperture you have set just before taking the picture; this is why the viewfinder always looks the
same even if you switch from f/1.4 to f/8 to f/16.)
 small sensor (Rebel and 30D)

• Sigma 30/1.4, $439, ultrasonic motor, equivalent to a 45mm perspective on a film or full-frame
camera; Canon does not bother to make a competitive lens

full-frame sensor (EOS 5D)

• Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM, $349 (review), includes an ultrasonic motor that allows simultaneous
use of manual and autofocus, high quality (metal) mechanical construction
• Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II, $93 (review), cheap plastic case, high image quality, no ultrasonic motor
and therefore autofocus is slower, noisier, and harder to override with a manual twist

In terms of flare, contrast, and sharpness, these are the highest quality lenses that you will ever attach to
your camera. If you can do the job with a 50/1.4, as many of the 20th Century's greatest photographers did,
you can save yourself a lot of weight and cost. There are good zoom lenses, mostly in the Canon L series,
but they are very expensive and heavy.

Wide-to-Telephoto Zoom Lenses

A wide-to-tele zoom is what you get as a standard "kit" lens with a cheaper digital SLR body. The range
goes from moderately wide through normal to moderately telephoto. They are good when you are too busy
to change lenses, e.g., at a wedding reception. The 24mm perspective (full-frame) will capture a table of
guests; the 70mm or 105mm long end is good for a flattering portrait. The main weakness of these lenses is
that the cheaper ones have a very small maximum aperture, e.g., f/4 or f/5.6, and can only be used in bright
light, on a tripod, or with a blast of on-camera flash that gives everyone a moon face.

digital-only

• Canon EF-S 17-55 f/2.8 IS USM, $1060 (review), if you have a small sensor and must have a
midrange zoom, this is the one to get; f/2.8 and L-class image quality would make it a good lens; image
stabilization makes it a great lens
• Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM, $450, image stabilization will enable you to handhold slower
shutter speeds indoors and therefore despite the slow maximum aperture, you might not have to use flash all
the time--you will still suffer with a dim viewfinder
• Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 USM (review), the "kit" lens that Canon tosses in with most of
Digital Rebels sold, works well enough outdoors on bright sunny days

full-frame

• Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM, $1329 (review), heavy, but very high quality and the ultimate
wedding reception tool
• Canon EF 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5 USM (review)
• Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM, $1059 (review), much lighter than the 24-70, but still superb
optical quality, the loss of one f-stop compensated for somewhat by the provision of image stabilization
• Canon EF 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 II, $150, cheap "kit" lens designed for the film Rebel
• Canon EF 28-90mm f/4-5.6 II USM, $98 (review), cheap "kit" lens with a faster quieter autofocus
• Canon EF 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 II USM, $249 (review), reasonably cheap, reasonably good for
outdoor use
• Canon EF 28-105mm f/4-5.6 USM, $149 (review), spectacularly cheap, spectacularly crummy
• Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM, $410 (review), average image quality, image stabilization
useful if you must take pictures from an unstable platform, such as a boat
• Canon EF 28-200mm f/3.5-5.6 USM, $375, convenient range, acceptable image quality if used on a
tripod and stopped down to f/8
• Canon EF 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6L IS USM, $2420 (review), incredibly heavy, exceptional range,
reasonably good quality, image stabilizer enables handheld use at longer focal lengths without the use of a
tripod or flash

Here are a few photos from my brother's wedding, taken with a discontinued Canon 28-70/2.8L (superseded
by the 24-70/2.8L):

Wide-angle Zoom Lenses

Good for general-purpose dramatic wide angle photography. More distortion than wide-angle prime lenses,
which makes them less suitable for photographing architecture (though many kinds of distortion can be
fixed by a PhotoShop wizard).

small sensor (Rebel and 30D)

• Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM, $770 (review), a touch slow, but dramatically wide

full-frame sensor

• Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L USM, $1520 (review), zoom from very dramatic (16mm) to boring
(35mm) wide angle
• Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM, $750 (review)
• Canon EF 20-35mm f/3.5-4.5 USM

Telephoto Zoom Lenses

These are good complements to a normal lens when traveling. The long end may not be useful indoors due
to a small maximum aperture.

small-sensor only

• Canon EF 55-200mm f/4.5-5.6 II USM, cheap, slow, and crummy

• Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4.0-5.6 IS, $255 (review), Canon's latest zoom IS lens

full-frame

• Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM, $1799 (review), the image-stabilized version of the classic 70-
200 zoom lens, good for portraits and stretchable with a Canon EF 1.4X II Extender, $309 (review)
• Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L USM, $1300 (review), just as good (and heavy) optically, but without
image stabilization
• Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L USM, $639 (review), a good lens for travel, especially given the digital
camera's ability to be reset for a higher ISO speed; too bad that it doesn't come with image stabilization
• Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L IS USM, $1210 (review), all the same details as the previous lens but
includes image stabilization
• Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM, $549 (review), remember that these slow maximum aperture
lenses aren't good for stopping action, even if the image stabilizer cuts down on camera shake; sports
photography would require a maximum aperture of f/4 or f/2.8 rather than the f/5.6 this lens provides
• Canon EF 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 DO IS USM, $1250 (review)
• Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 III, $160
• Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 III USM, $200
• Canon EF 80-200mm f/4.5-5.6 II, $146
• Canon EF 100-300mm f/4.5-5.6 USM
• Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM, $1610

Interesting third-party lenses:

• Sigma 300-800/5.6 HSM, $7995, ultrasonic motor, good for covering an airshow where you need the
range and don't have time to switch focal lengths

Wide-angle Prime Lenses

These let you get close to your subject while still showing a lot of background information. Wide angle
lenses are good for "environmental portraits" in which the subject occupies most of the frame, but nearby
objects are in sharp focus. Photojournalism has gone gradually wider and wider over the years. A typical
photo in a newspaper these days might be taken at 20-24mm on a full-frame camera.

A prime wide angle lens will have much lower distortion of vertical and horizontal lines than a zoom lens
and is therefore preferred for architectural photography. All of these lenses are designed for film and full-
frame sensor cameras.
• Canon EF 14mm f/2.8L USM, $2199 (review), a great lens, but difficult to use effectively
• Canon EF 15mm f/2.8 Fisheye Lens, $649 (review), the fisheye effect was cool when Playboy
magazine was "groovy"
• Canon EF 20mm f/2.8 USM, $470, the modern photojournalist's standard lens
• Canon EF 24mm f/1.4L USM (review)
• Canon EF 24mm f/2.8, $340, an old design without USM
• Canon EF 28mm f/1.8 USM, $459
• Canon EF 28mm f/2.8, $259, an old design without USM
• Canon EF 35mm f/1.4L USM, $1400, designed for professional photojournalists who need a
somewhat wide perspective and who need to work in dim light
• Canon EF 35mm f/2, $299, an old design without USM

Telephoto Prime Lenses

A prime or fixed focal length telephoto lens offers maximum image quality, light gathering capability
(aperture), and magnification. The good ones are big, heavy, and designed for use on a monopod or tripod.
Sports and wildlife photography require these lenses.

• Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L II USM, $1970 (review)

• Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM, $380 (review), a great gift for a family with a new baby and a small-
sensor digital camera
• Canon EF 100mm f/2 USM, $435 (review)
• Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM, $529 (review), one f-stop slower, but usable for portraits and
also has macro capability
• Canon EF 135mm f/2L USM, $999, superb optical quality, ultrasonic motor
• Canon EF 135mm f/2.8 Soft Focus, $499, clunky focusing due to lack of ultrasonic motor, unique
soft focus feature, adjustable from completely sharp to flatteringly soft

the bigger iron starts here

• Canon EF 200mm f/2.8L II USM, $769, good for fashion photography

• Canon EF 200mm f/2L IS USM, $5300
• Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM, $4340 (review), the standard sports photographer's starting lens;
heavy, so plan on using a monopod
• Canon EF 300mm f/4L IS USM, $1269 (review), much lighter, but not as amenable to autofocus
operation with a teleconverter as the 300/2.8
• Canon EF 400mm f/2.8L IS USM, $7190
• Canon EF 400mm f/4 DO IS USM, $5820
• Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L USM, $1209
• Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS USM, $6140
• Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS USM, $8050 (review), the starting point for serious bird photographers
• Canon EF 800mm f/5.6L IS USM, $10900
• There is a 1200/5.6L lens that Canon will make to special order for about $75,000

for use with any of the above

• Canon EF 1.4X II Extender, $309 (review), turns a 300/2.8, for example, into a 420/4 (lose one f-
stop)
• Canon EF 2X II Extender, $309 (review), turns a 300/2.8, for example, into a 600/5.6 (lose two f-
stops)

The better Canon telephoto lenses are designed to work optically with the tele-extenders. Image quality will
be acceptable, even at maximum aperture. As noted above, however, there is no free lunch. A tele-extender
provides additional magnification, but the overall amount of light gathered by the lens remains the same.
Thus, you lose one f-stop of light with the 1.4X converter and two f-stops with the 2X converter. The
viewfinder will be dimmer and the camera will have a tougher time autofocusing. With the 2X converter
and a slower lens, therefore, you will lose the ability to autofocus with many bodies.

These are heavy lenses. If you have a tripod quick-release system, get plates for each lens and remember to
mount the lens, not the camera body, to the tripod.

Macro Lenses

Macro lenses let you fill your photograph with a subject that is physically small. The longer the focal length
of the macro lens, the farther away you can be from your subject, which is important with live insects, for
example. A macro lens that goes down to "1:1" can be used to take a frame-filling photo of something that is
24x36mm (1x1.5 inches) in size, the same dimensions as a frame of 35mm film or the sensor on a full-frame
digital body. All Canon macro lenses, except for the MP-E 65mm, can be used for ordinary photographic
projects as well, i.e., they will focus out to infinity if desired. In the old days, a lot of photographers would
get a 50mm normal lens and then a 100mm macro lens that would double for use with portraits and macro
projects.
 small-sensor only

• Canon EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro USM, $422 (review), goes down to 1:1, but remember that the "1"
of a small-sensor camera is actually smaller than the 24x36mm film standard, so you can fill the frame with
a subject as small as 15x22mm (the size of a penny)

full-frame

• Canon EF 50mm f/2.5 Macro, $265, an old design that lacks an ultrasonic motor, goes to 1:2; you
need Canon Life Size Converter EF, $275 to get to 1:1
• Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM, $529 (review), goes to 1:1, probably the best macro lens for
the full-frame crowd
• Canon EF 180mm f3.5L Macro USM, $1370 (review), goes to 1:1, good for photographing insects
where you want more separation between the camera and the subject

specialty

• Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5X Macro, $950 (review), a unique lens that lets you take pictures of
things much smaller than the 24x36mm frame; good for photographing details in jewelry, for example; will
not focus to infinity like the other macro lenses (see example image at right)

If you are using a non-macro lens and need to focus closer for some reason, you can place either Canon EF
12 II Extension Tube, $85 or Canon EF 25 II Extension Tube, $140 between the body and the lens.
Extension tubes move the lens farther away from the plane of the sensor. You could, for example, take
pictures of just part of a person's face with a telephoto lens. If, however, you then wanted a sharp picture of
a subject at infinity, you'd have to unmount the lens, remove the extension tube, and remount the lens.

Tilt-Shift Lenses

The shift part of the tilt-shift lens lets you take a picture of a building, from ground level, without the lines
converging and making it look as though the building is falling over. To some extent, this is obsolete
because these kinds of linear distortions can be fixed post-exposure in a digital editing tool such as Adobe
PhotoShop. The tilt part of a Canon tilt-shift lens lets you control the plane of sharp focus, e.g., if you want
everything on a table top to be sharp. This is an effect that must be done at exposure time. A Canon tilt-shift
lens lets you do many of the perspective and focus adjustments available to a photographer with a
cumbersome 4x5 view camera (cloth over head, bellows in between film and lens)... at a price that is only
about double what a used view camera sells for.

• Canon TS-E 24mm f/3.5L, $1200 (review), good for interiors

• Canon TS-E 45mm f/2.8, $1299
• Canon TS-E 90mm f/2.8, $1209

Flashes

The easiest way to ruin a photograph is to use on-camera flash, which blasts the subject with an unflattering
light. The resulting lack of shadows means that it is tough for a viewer to make out the features of the
subject. On-camera flash is useful outdoors for filling in harsh shadows. Otherwise, the professional uses
flash mostly bouncing up towards the ceiling or held as far away from the camera as possible. This is why
the professional camera bodies don't incorporate the pop-top flashes the way that consumer bodies do.

• Canon Speedlite 220EX Flash, $125 (review), cannot be tilted up for bouncing, good for fill-in light
• Canon Speedlite 430EX II Flash, $280 (review), tilts up, swivels sideways, powerful enough for
most projects, especially with

a Sto-Fen bounce diffuser

• Canon Speedlite 580EX II Flash, $445 (review), monster power, tilt up at 45-degree angle and add a
bounce diffuser
• No product information for canon_580ex_II
• Canon STE2 Speedlite Transmitter, $200, wireless control of EOS flash units that are held or
mounted away from the camera (this is the way that most professionals use flash)
• Canon Off Camera Shoe Cord, $60 (review), the same idea, but corded and you hold the flash in
your left hand while holding the camera body in your right (or use a flash bracket like a wedding
photographer)
 macro flash

• Canon MR-14EX Macro Ring Lite, $495 (review), shadowless uniform illumination; this is what
dentists use
• Canon MT-24EX Macro Twin Lite Flash, $729 (review), a little more potential for artistic lighting

Note that a standard flash, with an off-camera cord and a bit of diffusion material, may be substituted for a
macro flash.

Accessories
• Zeiss lens cleaning kit
• SanDisk flash cards: 16 GB; 8 GB; 4 GB

For a camera body and one lens, the average professional photographer would not use a case at all. To hold
a camera system, you should probably find a nearby professional camera shop and experiment to see how
your gear fits. I usually end up preferring Tamrac and Lowe cases. Here are a few ideas:

• Tamrac Velocity 7, for a Digital Rebel and small prime or small (cheap) zoom lenses
• LowePro Off Trail 1, belt back for smaller bodies and lenses
• Tamrac 5606, one 30D or EOS 5D body, two or three professional-sized lenses, one flash

Recommended Starter Systems

Averag family:
• Canon Digital Rebel XTi (Black) (review)
• Sigma 30/1.4, $439, for high quality indoor photos without flash and general photography (zoom
alternative: Canon EF-S 17-55 f/2.8 IS USM, $1060 (review))
• Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM, $770 (review), for travel
• Canon EF 200mm f/2.8L II USM, $769 for sports (equivalent to 300mm on a full-frame camera), or
possibly a telephoto zoom (Canon doesn't make any good telephoto zoom lenses designed specifically for
the small-sensor cameras, the Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L USM, $639 (review) is probably the best match)

Serious photographer:

• Canon EOS 5D (review)

• Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM, $349 (review)
• Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L USM, $1520 (review)
• Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM, $1799 (review)

More
• Lens chapter from Making Photographs
• Lens Chart from Canon USA
• Canon EOS discussion forum

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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Nikon Digital SLR System

a photo.net guide by Philip Greenspun

The Nikon system of digital single-lens reflex (SLR) bodies and lenses is a popular choice among serious
photographers worldwide. This page makes it easy to shop for Nikon digital bodies and Nikkor lenses.
Every component manufactured by Nikon is covered, plus a few exceptionally good third-party
components. If you are new to photography, you might want to start with my article "Building a Digital
SLR System".

This article goes through every section of the Nikon system and concludes with some starter system
recommendations.

Nikon Camera Bodies

Most Nikon digital SLR bodies incorporate a "small sensor" or "APS-C" sized sensor. This is smaller than
the standard 35mm film frame and effectively multiplies the magnification of any lens attached to the body.
A small sensor is good for telephoto work, such as wildlife photography, where a 300mm lens that is too
short for bird photography on a film camera becomes a 450mm (effective) lens. In November 2007, Nikon
added the D3, their first full-frame sensor DSLR professional camera to their arsenal of DSLR bodies. The
full-frame sensor bodies are good for wide angle photography, low light photography, and optimum image
quality.

• Nikon D40, 18-55mm kit (review) (discontinued), 6 MP and good enough for most family
photography; best user interface of any digital SLR, with example photos displayed on the rear LCD to
show appropriate situations for different settings. Note that the D40 requires SD memory cards rather than
the standard CF cards used by other Nikon bodies
• Nikon D40x, $590 (review), same idea, but 10 MP; if you care about image quality, pair with Sigma
30mm f/1.4 EX DC for Nikon, $439
• Nikon D60, $561 (review), 10 MP, Nikon's latest addition to the line of small-body DSLRs, an
upgrade to the D40/D40x
• Nikon D80 (review), 10 MP, Nikon's answer to the Canon Digital Rebel XTi; the kit zooms are
reasonably good, but too slow for indoor usage
• Nikon D90, $900 (review), 12 MP, Nikon's latest prosumer model, includes GPS and a movie mode
capable of capturing 1280x720 pixel images at 24 fps HD with sound.
• Nikon D200 (review) (discontinued), 10 MP, great for advanced amateurs
• Nikon D300 (review), 12 MP, released at the same time as the D3, a fast camera with 51 AF points
• Nikon D2HS, $5987 (review), only 4 Megapixels but tremendously fast; intended for sports
photojournalists
• Nikon D2Xs (review), 12 MP, before the full-frame sensor cameras came along, this was Nikon's
top-of-the-line camera
• Nikon D700, $2697 (review), 12 MP, D3 image quality at about half the price
• Nikon D3 (review), 12 MP, Nikon's first full frame sensor DSLR
• Nikon D3X, $7999 (review), 24.5 MP, D3 image quality with about double the resolution
• Nikon D3s, $5200 (review), 12MP, D3 image quality with ISO up to 12,800 (102,400 with boost),
and HD video capture

For nostalgia buffs and collectors, Nikon still makes film bodies:

in-production

• Nikon F6, $2399 (review), autofocus, probably the best 35mm film SLR that will ever be made
• Nikon FM10 with 35-70 lens, $320, manual focus, designed for students in intro photography
classes

discontinued

• Nikon F5, $1100

• Nikon F100, $550 (review), much lighter and smaller than the F-series and almost as durable; this
was the standard "second body" that professionals carried in the film days
• Nikon N80, $217 (review), mostly plastic body, reasonably good autofocus and autoexposure
systems; rememeber that it is the lens that determines image quality (might actually be cheaper as a kit with
a crummy lens: Nikon N80 with 28-80 lens, $300 (review))
• Three incredibly cheap, all plastic, not very good bodies: Nikon N55, $150;

Nikon N65, $488 (review); Nikon N75, $129

• Nikon FM3A, $800 (review), hard to find; Nikon came out with this all-metal manual focus body in
2001. It is a beautifully balanced camera and, with a 50/1.4 lens, will take much better pictures than what 99
percent of digital camera owners capture with their cheap kit zoom lenses.

Nomenclature
F-number: lower is better.

VR is "vibration reduction", a technology lifted from camcorder image stabilizers. The lens electronically
compensates for unsteady hands. VR is especially important at long focal lengths, e.g., 200mm and above,
because the lens magnifies camera shake at the same time it is magnifying the subject. A VR lens will allow
you to use slower shutter speeds without introducing camera shake. The alternative to a VR lens would be
mounting the camera on a tripod or using a high ISO setting, which reduces image quality but allows the use
of higher shutter speeds.

"ED" is "extra-low dispersion" glass, a more expensive and higher quality glass that reduces chromatic
aberration, in which light of different colors takes different paths through the lens, which would result in a
dot of white light being fuzzed up by the time it reaches the film or sensor.

"IF" is internal focus, meaning that the lens does not change physical length as you focus on subjects that
are closer or farther away.

"DX" are Nikon's lenses that only work on its small-sensor digital SLR bodies, i.e., they don't cast a large
enough image circle to be used on a film camera.

"FX" refers to the full frame sensor

"G" lenses are Nikon's newest lenses. They don't have an aperture ring, which is a shame because it means
that you are forced to adjust the aperture with a command wheel on the camera. The G lenses don't work on
older bodies.

AF-S is "silentwave motor". Old-style Nikon autofocus lenses did not have motors in the lens, but relied on
a screwdriver blade in the camera body to turn the focus ring. An AF-S lens has a built-in ultrasonic motor,
a technology copied from the Canon EOS system. When using an AF-S lens, the photographer can push the
shutter release (or a button on the rear of the camera, if a custom function is set) and let the autofocus
system do its best, then touch up the focus manually by twisting the lens ring. The AF-S lenses also focus
faster and more quietly.

Normal Lenses
A normal or standard lens is light in weight and approximates the perspective of the human eye. Normal
lenses have large maximum apertures, indicated by small f-numbers such as f/1.4 or f/1.8, and thereby
gather much more light than zoom lenses. It may be possible to take a photo with a normal lens in light only
1/8th or 1/16th as bright as would be required for the same photo with a consumer-priced zoom lens.
Another advantage of the large maximum aperture is that the viewfinder will be correspondingly brighter
and therefore easier to use in dim light. (SLRs keep the lens wide open for viewing and stop down to
whatever aperture you have set just before taking the picture; this is why the viewfinder always looks the
same even if you switch from f/1.4 to f/8 to f/16.)

digital bodies

• Sigma 30mm f/1.4 EX DC for Nikon, $439, ultrasonic motor, equivalent to a 45mm perspective on a
film camera; Nikon does not bother to make a competitive lens
• Nikon 35mm f/2.0 AF, $360 (review); designed for a film camera and the viewfinder will be only
half as bright as the Sigma, but possibly higher optical quality, especially since you're only using the center
portion of the lens.

film AF

• Nikon 50mm f/1.8D AF Nikkor, $124, a great lightweight bargain and one of the highest optical
quality lenses in the Nikon line; you could use this as a portrait lens on a digital SLR
• Nikon 50mm f/1.4D AF Nikkor, $320 (review), less than one f-stop faster than the 1.8; similar
optical quality

film manual focus

• Nikon 45mm f/2.8 Nikkor AI-S Manual Focus, $400, very compact and designed cosmetically to go
with the FM3a nostalgia body
• Nikon 50mm f/1.2 Nikkor AI-S Manual Focus, $670, a half-stop faster than the 50/1.4, but you lose
autofocus and the image quality at f/1.2 is not very good

In terms of flare, contrast, and sharpness, these are the highest quality lenses that you will ever attach to
your camera. If you can do the job with a normal lens, as many of the 20th Century's greatest photographers
did, you can save yourself a lot of weight and cost. There are good zoom lenses, but they are very expensive
and heavy.

Wide-to-Telephoto Zoom Lenses

A wide-to-tele zoom is what you get as a standard "kit" lens with a cheaper digital SLR body. The range
goes from moderately wide through normal to moderately telephoto. They are good when you are too busy
to change lenses, e.g., at a wedding reception. The 24mm perspective (full-frame) will capture a table of
guests; the 70mm or 105mm long end is good for a flattering portrait. The main weakness of these lenses is
that the cheaper ones have a very small maximum aperture, e.g., f/4 or f/5.6, and can only be used in bright
light, on a tripod, or with a blast of on-camera flash that gives everyone a moon face.

made for the small-sensor digital cameras

• Nikon 17-55mm f/2.8G ED-IF AF-S DX, $1340

• Nikon 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ED AF-S DX, $230
• Nikon 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5G ED IF AF-S DX
• Nikon 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6G ED-IF AF-S DX
• Nikon 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED-IF AF-S VR DX, this kind of super wide range zoom is typically
not very good, but Nikon lards on the dollars and the weight (more than one pound) and the results are
acceptable; the vibration reduction compensates to some extent for the slow maximum aperture of f/5.6.
• Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8G ED AF-S, $1740
• Nikon 24-85mm f/2.8-4.0D IF AF, $540

leftovers from the film days

• Nikon 24-85mm f/2.8-4.0D IF AF, $540

• Nikon 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5G ED-IF AF, $410
• Nikon 24-120mm f/3.5-5.6G ED-IF AF VR, $560
• Nikon 28-70mm f/2.8D ED-IF AF-S, $1700, big and heavy, but fast and constant aperture; the
standard tool for wedding photographers
• Nikon 28-80mm f/3.3-5.6G AF (Black), $250, kit lens for Nikon's cheapest film bodies
• Nikon 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5D, $279, reasonably good, reasonably light, reasonably cheap
• Nikon 28-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED IF, $425, no vibration reduction and therefore unlikely to be useful
at the 200mm f/5.6 end unless you are willing to carry a tripod
• Nikon 35-70mm f/2.8D AF, $900, superseded to a large extent by the 28-70/2.8, but still a very high
quality lens; no silentwave motor

Wide-angle Zoom Lenses

Good for general-purpose dramatic wide angle photography. More distortion than wide-angle prime lenses,
which makes them less suitable for photographing architecture (though many kinds of distortion can be
fixed by a PhotoShop wizard).

made for the small-sensor digital cameras

• Nikon 12-24mm f/4G ED IF Autofocus DX, $999 (review)

• Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8G ED AF-S, $1825
 leftovers from the film days

• Nikon 17-35mm f/2.8D ED-IF AF-S, $1765, the professional's lens, with its fast and constant
maximum aperture, turns into a moderately wide to normal very high quality zoom lens on a Nikon
digital SLR
• Nikon 18-35mm f/3.5-4.5D ED-IF AF, $540, a reasonably good alternative

Telephoto Zoom Lenses

These are good complements to a normal lens when traveling. The long end may not be useful indoors due
to a small maximum aperture.

made for the small-sensor digital cameras

• Nikon 55-200mm f4-5.6G ED AF-S DX Nikkor Zoom (Black), $175, cheap, slow, crummy
• Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II AF-S, $2319, version 2 of the popular 70-200/2.8 lens,
with improved VR

leftovers from the film days

• Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G ED-IF AF-S VR, the standard professional choice, and a good lens for a
digital SLR too; very heavy
• Nikon 70-300mm f/4-5.6D ED AF, $319
• Nikon 70-300mm f/4-5.6G AF Nikkor SLR Camera, $155, half the weight, half the cost, half the
optical quality of the 70-300/5.6D
• Nikon 80-200mm f/2.8D ED AF Zoom Nikkor, $1100 (review), no silentwave motor, no vibration
reduction, shoulder-crushing weight, high optical quality, superseded by the 70-200 AF-S VR lens
• Nikon 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6D ED Autofocus VR Zoom Nikkor, $1650

Wide-angle Prime Lenses

These let you get close to your subject while still showing a lot of background information. Wide angle
lenses are good for "environmental portraits" in which the subject occupies most of the frame, but nearby
objects are in sharp focus. Photojournalism has gone gradually wider and wider over the years. A typical
photo in a newspaper these days might be taken at 20-24mm on a full-frame camera, which would be 14-
17mm on a small sensor digital camera.

A prime wide angle lens will have much lower distortion of vertical and horizontal lines than a zoom lens
and is therefore preferred for architectural photography. All of these lenses are designed for film and full-
frame sensor cameras.
 made for the small-sensor digital cameras

• Nikon 10.5mm f/2.8G ED AF DX Fisheye, $695, very wide, very curved corners, good for the
cramped interior of a submarine; considered a "groovy" effect back in the 1960s

leftovers from the film days

• Nikon 14mm f/2.8D ED AF, $1400

• Nikon 16mm f/2.8D AF Fisheye, $930, full-frame fisheye
• Nikon 18mm f/2.8D AF, $1500
• Nikon 20mm f/2.8D AF, $565 (review), a focal length that became popular in the 1980s for
photojournalism, but not dramatically wide on a Nikon digital SLR
• Nikon 24mm f/2.8D AF, $360 (review)
• Nikon 28mm f/1.4D AF, $2380
• Nikon 28mm f/2.8D AF, $265
• Nikon 35mm f/2.0 AF, $360 (review)

defrosted leftovers from the 1970s

• Nikon 24mm f/2.0 AI-S Manual Focus, $590, maximum aperture and image quality for
available light photojournalism
• Nikon 35mm f/1.4 Nikkor AI-S Manual Focus, $1160

Telephoto Prime Lenses

A prime or fixed focal length telephoto lens offers maximum image quality, light gathering capability
(aperture), and magnification. The good ones are big, heavy, and designed for use on a monopod or tripod.
Sports and wildlife photography require these lenses. Nikon does not make any telephoto lenses specifically
for their small-sensor digital cameras, which is a shame because it would be possible to cut the cost and
weight dramatically without the requirement of casting a 24x36mm image for an old film camera.

leftovers from the film days

• Nikon 85mm f/1.4D AF Nikkor, $1225

• Nikon 85mm f/1.8D AF Nikkor, $450
• Nikon 105mm f/2.0D AF DC-Nikkor, $1080, first of Nikon's innovative lens design giving the
photographer the ability to throw foreground or background intentionally out of focus
• Nikon 135mm f/2.0D AF DC-Nikkor, $1300, the other Nikon lens that lets you selective blur
portions of the image
• Nikon 180mm f/2.8D ED-IF AF, $890, an incredibly sharp and light lens, standard choice for studio
fashion photographers with full-frame film bodies in the late 1980s; becomes the equivalent of a 300mm
lens on a Nikon digital body and therefore good for animals in the zoo and dramatic telephoto images
• Nikon 200mm f/2.0G ED AF-S VR, $4999 (review)
• Nikon 200-400mm f/4G IF-ED AF-S VR, $6100, a great lens for wildlife
• Nikon 300mm f/2.8 ED-IF AF-S, $4490 (review), the standard lens for sports photographers,
supplemented by a teleconverter
• Nikon 300mm f/4.0D ED-IF AF-S, $1485
• Nikon 400mm f/2.8D ED-IF AF-S, the same idea as the 300/2.8, but a bit more magnification,
weight, and expense
• Nikon 400mm f/2.8G ED AF-S, $8800
• Nikon 500mm f/4D ED-IF AF-S, $7900, about the same size as the 300/2.8, but more magnification
and smaller maximum aperture
• Nikon 500mm f4D ED-IF II AF-S, $7900
• Nikon 600mm f/4 ED-IF II AF-S, bigger than a 300/2.8, more expensive than a Kia subcompact
sedan
• Nikon 600mm f/4D ED-IF II AF-S, available soon (as of August 2007)

manual focus

• Nikon 85mm f/1.4 Nikkor AI-S Manual Focus, $1350, a very poor value compared to the newer
autofocus 85/1.4
• Nikon 135mm f/2.8 Nikkor AI-S Manual Focus, $570
• Nikon 500mm f/8.0 Reflex-Nikkor Manual Focus, $1000; mirror lenses are slow and out-of-focus
highlights have an unnatural donut shape; just because it works on the Hubble Space Telescope doesn't
mean that it will work for you...

Teleconverters

• Nikon TC-14E II 1.4x AF-S, AF-I Auto Focus Teleconverter, $400

• Nikon TC-17E II (1.7x) Teleconverter AF-S, $460
• Nikon TC-20E II (2.0x) Teleconverter AF-S, $385
• Manual focus teleconverters: Nikon TC-14A (1.4x) Teleconverter AI-S, $280;

Nikon TC-14B (1.4x) Teleconverter AI-S, $530; Nikon TC-201 (2.0x) Teleconverter AI-S, $400;
Nikon TC-301 (2.0x) Teleconverter AI-S, $618

The better Nikon telephoto lenses are designed to work optically with the teleconverters. Image quality will
be acceptable, even at maximum aperture. As noted above, however, there is no free lunch. A teleconverter
provides additional magnification, but the overall amount of light gathered by the lens remains the same.
Thus, you lose one f-stop of light with a 1.4X converter and two f-stops with a 2X converter. The
viewfinder will be dimmer and the camera will have a tougher time autofocusing. With a 2X converter and a
slower lens, therefore, you will lose the ability to autofocus with many bodies.

These are heavy lenses. If you have a tripod quick-release system, get plates for each lens and remember to
mount the lens, not the camera body, to the tripod.

Macro Lenses
Macro lenses let you fill your photograph with a subject that is physically small. The longer the focal length
of the macro lens, the farther away you can be from your subject, which is important with live insects, for
example. A macro lens that goes down to "1:1" can be used to take a frame-filling photo of something that is
24x36mm (1x1.5 inches) in size, the same dimensions as a frame of 35mm film or the sensor on a full-frame
digital body. All Nikon macro lenses can be used for ordinary photographic projects as well, i.e., they will
focus out to infinity if desired. Note that a "macro zoom" will focus reasonably close, but is not a substitute
for a "macro lens".

• Nikon 60mm f/2.8D AF Micro-Nikkor, $470 (review)

• Nikon 105mm f/2.8G ED-IF AF-S VR Micro Nikkor, $890, a new design with everything good that
a lens can have.. image stabilizer, internal focus, ultrasonic autofocus motor, 9-bladed diaphragm for
attractive out-of-focus highlights ("bokeh"); maximum magnification 1:1
• Nikon 200mm f/4.0D ED-IF AF Micro-Nikkor, $1650, good for photographing insects and in other
situations where you need to get farther back from your subject

Flashes

The easiest way to ruin a photograph is to use on-camera flash, which blasts the subject with an unflattering
light. The resulting lack of shadows means that it is tough for a viewer to make out the features of the
subject. On-camera flash is useful outdoors for filling in harsh shadows. Otherwise, the professional uses
flash mostly bouncing up towards the ceiling or held as far away from the camera as possible. This is why
the professional camera bodies don't incorporate the pop-top flashes the way that consumer bodies do.

• Nikon SB-600 Speedlight, $220 (review), bounces up, bounces sideways, zooms in and out, the right
flash for most consumers
• Nikon SB-800 AF Speedlight (review), same basic idea as the SB-600, but more power; built-in
ultra wide angle adaptor
• Nikon SB-30 AF Speedlight, $88, a simpler flash, good for on-camera fill light or in a multiple flash
setup
• Nikon R1 Wireless Close-Up Speedlight System, $459, great macro flash system to use with bodies
that have a built-in flash, such as the D200

bodies that have a built-in flash, such as the D200

• Nikon R1C1 Wireless Close-Up Speedlight System, $730, the same idea, but for bodies such as the
D2x that do not have a built-in flash
Nikon makes a great line of products, both wired and wireless, for coordinating and controlling multiple
flashes. Covering all of these accessories is beyond the scope of this article, but if you are going to use flash
as a primary light you should consider added additional speedlights and mounting them off-camera.

Perspective Correction Lenses

A perspective correction (PC) lens lets you take a picture of a building, from ground level, without the lines
converging and making it look as though the building is falling over. It works because you are able to shift
the front portion of the lens up, the lens being designed to cast a larger image than the 35mm film frame. To
some extent, this is obsolete because these kinds of linear distortions can be fixed post-exposure in a digital
editing tool such as Adobe PhotoShop. Some of Nikon's older PC lenses were designed for their film bodies
and are manual focus. If you are deeply interested in in-camera perspective adjustments, note that Canon
makes a more flexible line of "tilt-shift" lenses that come closer to what is possible with a 4x5 view camera
(cloth over head, bellows, sheet film).

• Nikon 24mm f/3.5D ED PC-E, $1990

• Nikon 45mm f/2.8D ED PC-E, $1850
• Nikon 85mm f/2.8D PC-E, $1760

leftovers from the film days

• Nikon 28mm f/3.5 PC Manual Focus, $1350

• Nikon 85mm f/2.8 PC Micro-Nikkor, offers very close focusing for macro work as well as
perspective correction

Accessories
• Zeiss lens cleaning kit
• SanDisk flash cards: 8 GB; 4 GB

For a camera body and one lens, the average professional photographer would not use a case at all. To hold
a camera system, you should probably find a nearby professional camera shop and experiment to see how
your gear fits. I usually end up preferring Tamrac and Lowe cases. Here are a few ideas:

• Tamrac Velocity 7, for a D40 or D80 and small prime or small (cheap) zoom lenses
• LowePro Off Trail 1, belt back for smaller bodies and lenses
• Tamrac 5606, one D200 body, two or three professional-sized lenses, one flash

Recommended Starter Nikon SLR Systems

Average family:

• Nikon D40, 18-55mm kit (review)

• Sigma 30mm f/1.4 EX DC for Nikon, $439 for indoor photos without flash (zoom alternative: Nikon
17-55mm f/2.8G ED-IF AF-S DX, $1340)
• Nikon 12-24mm f/4G ED IF Autofocus DX, $999 (review) for the first family trip
• Nikon 180mm f/2.8D ED-IF AF, $890 for the soccer game
• Lexar 2GB SD card (SanDisk SD cards are supposedly prone to failure)

Serious photographer:

• Nikon D200 (review)

• Sigma 30mm f/1.4 EX DC for Nikon, $439
• Nikon 12-24mm f/4G ED IF Autofocus DX, $999 (review)
• Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G ED-IF AF-S VR
• SanDisk 8 GB CF card

More
• Lens chapter from Making Photographs
• Nikon discussion forum

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