Buying A Canon Lens
Buying a Canon Lens
Your ready to own a Canon DSLR and need to buy a Canon lens for your new camera? If you are new to DSLR cameras and are trying to learn which kinds of lenses you can use it can be confusing!
You’ll see indicators such as USM, L, EF, EF-S and IS on a Canon Lens. I don’t find it all that easy to learn what they mean. In this article, I will try to help you learn what all these letters mean.
The designation IS means image stabilization. This helps to shoot with lower light as it reduces some of the shake we all have when we try to photograph. That shake becomes a bigger issue in low light and when shooting a longer and heavier lens. This type of Canon lens will be more expensive.
If you’ve bought a Canon DSLR made after 2003 then your camera will work with both EF and EF-S. EF is the mount type of your Canon camera. In 2003, Canon redesigned the lens so that the actual lens is now closer to the camera’s sensor. The EF-S lens is backward compatible with older Canon DSLR cameras like the Rebel XT. If you have a modern Canon camera all the EF lenses will work with your camera.
You might also see people talking about a faster lens. What do they mean? The speed of the lens is the “f” rating you see on a lens. The lower the number the faster the lens will be. Also the lower the number the more expensive the lens will be.
The top line of Canon lenses are designated with the an “L” for luxury. These are of course also the most expensive lenses that Canon offers.
One more set of letters that a Canon lens may include is “USM” which means it has a motor built into the lens. The letters USM mean ultrasonic motor.
A Canon Lens Example
So let’s look at the model number of one Canon lens:
Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L II IS USM Telephoto Zoom Lens
So we know this is a fast lens because it has an F rating of 2.8. It is a Luxury class lens because of the L. We also see that it has a ultrasonic motor included with the lens. It has a telephoto range of 70 to 200mm which refers to the level of magnification or how close you can bring an object in. A wide angle lens will have a lower number such as 35mm. We also see that it has image stabilization because of the designation of IS. Since it doesn’t have the EF-S we know that it will work with older cameras as well as new cameras.
This is a high quality professional grade lens and the cost will reflect that. At the time this article is published the price of that lens is over $2300.
Many will tell you the most important part of your camera is the lens. I would have to agree with that when taking picture quality into account. The camera body gives you the bells and whistles. Things like auto-focus points and the speed of how fast it will take pictures. Also the metering is controlled by the camera body and is a very important aspect.
Many will buy only the camera body and then spend more for the best lens they can for their intended purpose.
I believe this article will help you take some of the mystery out of buying a Canon Lens.
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