So What Lens should you buy next?

Goodness, aren't they all the same??

Photo by ‘csaveanu‘ on flickr

Recently, I have several friends of mine asking my advice on their next lens purchase. All of them are beginner DSLR owner with varying skill level that are still not sure what they should specialize into.

My advice is always the same. Find the style that you are most passionate about, and buy primes or fast lenses for it.

If you love landscapes, get super wide angles like:
-9mm
-11mm
-20mm
-12-24mm

If you love portraits, get medium range lenses, such as:
-85mm
-105mm
-135mm
-70-200mm

If you love actions and wildlife, get the super long lenses, such as:
-200-400mm
-300mm
-600mm

If you love travel, get the super zooms so you don’t need to bring a lot of lens and weighing you down:
-18-200 VR/IS
-18-250
-17-300 (I think Sigma or Tamron have this one)

If you want a multi-purpose lenses, get the 35mm. It’s been on my d700 for a long time. I use it for almost everything that doesn’t require a specialized lens.

Why do you need to have prime lenses?

Most of the lenses I recommend are primes. Several reasons for that:
- Primes are designed to work at one focal length, and do well at it.
- Primes are generally really fast (wide aperture)
- Primes are generally sharper than zooms
- Primes are lighter than zooms

Once you go prime, you will never go back.

Where should you get your lenses?

I recommend you to buy it online. Always online. Its just cheaper.

Do a Google search, Ebay search, price comparison websites, etc. Avoid buying cameras or lenses from a local physical store. The difference in price could be very significant.

Bonus advice

Before you buy anything, read reviews from multiple sources first. You never know if the lens you are about to buy is not a good one, or easily upgradable with little money.

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1. What camera should you buy? The complete guide to digital camera purchasing
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