Digital SLR Photography All-in-One For Dummies, 4th Edition

Chapter 1

Appreciating Standard Zoom Lenses

IN THIS CHAPTER

Taking stock of zoom lenses

Shooting wide angles

Enjoying mid-range, normal focal lengths

Zooming in for telephoto shots and close-ups

Standard zoom lenses are very popular lenses — and for good reason… They are incredibly versatile. You can shoot anything from wide-angle landscapes to telephoto portraits simply by twisting the zoom ring. As I show you in this chapter, there's not a lot you can't do with these zoom lenses!

Relatively inexpensive standard zoom lenses are often bundled with popular consumer-level camera bodies and sold as kits. As a result, these lenses are often called kit lenses. Standard zoom lenses are not just for cost-conscious photographers, though. Even professional photographers use zoom lenses, except theirs cost $1,000 to $2,500 instead of $250.

Embodying Versatility

Standard zoom lenses, also known as a multipurpose zoom, zoom, normal zoom, or general-purpose zoom, are designed to be versatile enough to be useful in a wide variety of circumstances. The name sort of gives that away.

Other types ...