A beginner’s guide to camera lenses

If the camera is like the brain of photography, then the lens is the eye. It’s your window into the scene – you see what the lens sees. By changing your lens, you can dramatically change your photo. There's hundreds of camera lenses available, making picking out one or two a potentially daunting affair. As such, we've put together a short piece that looks at a few common lens types, and how they differ.

Editor's Note: Lachlan is one of the very talented camera-operators on CyberShack TV. Given his wealth of experience with shooting both photos and videos on DSLRs, we thought he'd be the right person to put together a short primer on camera lenses. Enjoy!

If the camera is like the brain of photography, then the lens is the eye. It’s your window into the scene – you see what the lens sees. By changing your lens, you can dramatically change your photo. There's hundreds of camera lenses available, making picking out one or two a potentially daunting affair. As such, we've put together a short piece that looks at a few common lens types, and how they differ.

Portrait lenses, typically around 50mm, are great starter lenses as they have a similar field of view to the human eye, allowing you to capture a nice, natural perspective.