The Top 3 Things You SHOULD Consider Before Buying A New Camera

Things To Consider Before Buying a New Camera

#1 It might make more sense to upgrade your kit lens first

If you’re still shooting with your camera’s kit lens you’re definitely not pushing your camera to it’s full potential. I shoot Canon and the kit lens that came with my body was the EF 24-105 f4L lens. Don’t get me wrong it’s a great piece of glass but, it’s not as good as my EF 70-20mm f2.8L IS II USM.

Most cameras come with a kit lens that generally works well as a decent all-around workhorse. A common focal range for these lenses is 18-55mm, which means they are capable of wide-angle shots as well as medium-telephoto pictures, and everything in between. The tradeoff for this zoom range, however, is a limited maximum aperture range of roughly f/3.5 when zoomed out (18mm), and f/5.6 when zoomed in to 55mm.

Of course some kit lenses cover a longer focal range and have different maximum apertures, but overall most kit lenses are designed for the types of all-around shooting conditions in which you may often find yourself. While this is not necessarily a bad thing, it does mean that the kit lens is more of a jack of all trades while being the master of none, and after a while you might start wondering what other options are available to you and how they will affect your photography. This all begs the question: which lens should you buy when you want to upgrade from the one that came with your camera?

LENSES ARE LIKE APPS

Think of lenses like different apps for your camera, and just as apps on your smartphone or tablet have specific functions, each lens is designed to meet a specific set of photographic needs. Next, think of the kit lens as a basic set of apps you might find on a device. It does many things well, but doesn’t really unlock the true potential of your camera. For some people, that’s fine: they don’t feel the need to install new apps (i.e. buy new lenses) and instead only use the ones that come with their device.

Read more on upgrading your kit lens on the original article at Digital Photography School

Source: Digital Photography School

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About Johnny Yakubik

Johnny Yakubik is the Founder- Editor- Publisher- Chief Cook and Bottle Washer at Modern Lens Magazine. He's a professional family and portrait photographer living in Southern California. You can see some of his work at http://californiabeachphotography.com

15 comments

5DS / SR wait to see – not sure they offer much more – debated on the 1DX when I got the 5D3 but bulked at the price so really can’t afford a Hasselblad

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