ULTIMATE Beginner's Guide To CAMERA LENSES!

so you want to learn about camera lenses at least i'm assuming so because you clicked on this video if not this is kind of awkward i'm not going to tell you to leave but uh you know what stay we can hang out for a little bit it's going to be a good time hey what's up everyone my name is joshuanyarsky and today we're going to be going over everything you could ever want to know about camera lenses at least if you're a beginner whether you want to get into portrait photography landscapes maybe start a youtube channel get into filmmaking whatever it is we're going to be going over everything you want to know about lenses so you can do that to the best of your ability whatever your creative itch is i'm here to help you scratch it that sounds really weird this is definitely going to be a long video there's no way around it so go brew a cup of coffee take a cold shower do whatever you got to do because class is in session we're talking about lenses what is a 50 millimeter f 1.8 lens how does it differ from something like a 55 to 250 millimeter f 5.6 lens don't worry we're going to be covering that let's start off with deciphering these crazy names so let's start with the 50 millimeter f 1.8 the 50 millimeter part refers to the focal length of the lens now the term 50 millimeters comes from the distance between where the light converges to the actual camera sensor you don't really need to know any of that all you need to know is 50 millimeters is the measurement we use to determine how zoomed in a lens is so if we look at 10 millimeters for instance that's super wide it's good for vlogging maybe taking landscapes architecture shots it gets a ton in frame 50 millimeters is a little bit more in the middle good for everyday use but you're not gonna be shooting sports or wildlife with it a hundred millimeters is a lot farther we're getting into telephoto range here you know maybe you could take some pictures of basketball players or stuff a little bit farther away and if you go all the way out to like 250 millimeters you're zoomed in you're capturing birds maybe soccer or football players from a long ways away 250 millimeters is very much a telephoto lens length now for the second part of the lenses names what the heck does f 1.8 mean so f 1.8 refers to the lowest aperture number that a certain lens can go to that still might be confusing so let's break it down so aperture refers to how much light is being let in by the lens a low aperture number like f 1.8 is letting in tons of light is going to give you a super shallow depth of field now a shallow depth of field is awesome for getting a cinematic look with a super blurry background and the subject tac sharp that's what having a fast low aperture number means so let me say it one more time the lower the aperture number the closer to zero the less things in focus the more light being let in and the blurrier the background okay so now let's look at some example pictures so here's a shot at 50 millimeters f 1.8 see how blurry that background is now let's take an identical photo at f10 and you'll notice a lot more things are in focus that depth of field the amount of things in focus is greater so we've got the 50 millimeter f 1.8 with a 50 millimeter focal length and an f 1.8 minimum aperture then we've got the 55 to 250 millimeter which can actually go from 55 millimeters to 250 millimeters and everything in between with an f 5.6 aperture hold up okay so it turns out when i was editing this video i made a mistake i was going over a lot of stuff please forgive me so throughout the video i say the 55 to 250 millimeter has a minimum aperture of f 5.6 i totally forgot but this is a good learning opportunity this is a variable aperture lens so at 55 millimeters the minimum aperture is f4 but at 250 millimeters the minimum aperture is 5.6 most of the lenses i personally use nowadays do not do this this is called a variable aperture lens but i'm glad we went over it you can learn from your teachers mistakes okay back to the video you'll notice the big difference here is the 50 millimeter can't zoom in or out you're stuck at that focal length with this lens meanwhile the 55 to 250 millimeter you can zoom in you can zoom out you've got a lot of different distances you can cover the 50 millimeter is only 50 millimeters it's called a prime lens as a general rule prime lenses are going to be faster so again they've got that lower aperture that shallower depth of field and they're better in low light and they're also typically a little bit sharper on the other hand zoom lenses are going to be slower they're not going to be as good in low light and they're going to be a little bit less sharp now take this as a general rule because a 1 000 zoom lens can certainly be sharper than a 100 prime lens but with a general same price range within the same brand this is a very good general rule to follow so prime lenses are typically gonna result in the very best image but they're a lot less versatile you might have to have two three or four prime lenses to cover all the focal lengths you want versus a zoom lens that can just cover all of that without changing lenses it's really important to understand this these are the two absolute biggest things to look at when looking at different lenses but there's also a ton of other things to take a look at so let's blaze through them so next we're talking about manual lenses versus autofocus lenses so for your basic dslr or mirrorless camera then most of you are probably going to get you're going to use autofocus lenses for most of your work the big difference between these types of lenses is an autofocus lens is going to focus automatically when you press down the shutter button it's going to pull focus forward backward it's going to lock onto your subject it's going to work automatically this is what you're probably familiar with if you've ever used a point-and-shoot or when you take pictures of your phone you're not pulling focus you're pretty much just pressing a button and the camera is doing the work for you on the other hand manual lenses cannot do this there are no electronics there's no motor these lenses are not gonna focus you're gonna have to turn the focus ring forward and backward in and out to pull focus to your subject you have to do it all by yourself manually now the advantage to a manual focus lens is it's gonna be cheaper and especially if you're a filmmaker sometimes you want absolute control over where you're pulling focus to if you've ever watched a movie and seen them rack focus from one character's face to the other super smooth and cinematic like that's what manual focus lenses are great for but for the most part if you're just starting out you're probably gonna want an auto focus lens something that you can just press the button it'll pull focus it's going to nail it 99 of the time and you're gonna get a beautiful looking image manual focus lenses can be a ton of fun and a lot of the time they are more practical if you really get into filmmaking but if you're a photographer or you're starting out or you're just doing youtube videos whatever it is autofocus lenses are going to be your best friend making sure you're still awake i need like a yardstick like whap wake up class is still going on all right do a few stretches with me some of these some of those get a little twist get the back going and we're going to resume our session so on the topic of autofocus lenses next we're going to get into different motor types so there are a ton of different motors out there we're not going to go over them all but some are faster than others so something like a 70 to 200 that you'd use for action photography can pull focus super fast it's got super strong motors others are super quiet and smooth and they can pull focus slowly and quietly and some are super cheap and obnoxious sounding for most photographers the lens motor isn't gonna make a huge difference but if you're shooting video and you like to record with audio straight out of camera or maybe a mic on top there are some lenses that are so loud that if you record video you're going to hear the lens motor pulling focus in your footage so it's just something to be aware of next we've got to cover camera mounts this is something people mess up a lot people message me all the time they're like is this lens gonna fit with my camera let's get into it now i'm a canon shooter so i'm going to be talking about canon mounts but there are different mounts for all kinds of cameras just make sure you're buying the right lens for your particular camera so for canon you've got four main lens mounts you've got ef efs efm and rf ef is going to be for their full-frame dslrs efs is going to be for their crop sensor entry-level dslrs efm is going to be for their small mirrorless cameras and rf is gonna be for their full-frame mirrorless cameras the cool thing about ef lenses is they've been around for ages i think ever since cavemen or banging rocks together there's been ef glass and they can be adapted to almost any camera for example something like the 50 millimeter f 1.8 is an ef mount lens i could put this on a full frame canon dslr i could put it on a crop sensor entry level dslr i could adapt it to their small mirrorless cameras and you could even use it on their full-frame mirrorless cameras efs lenses on the other hand are for canon's crop sensor entry-level cameras stuff like the 90d 80d 70 t8i t7i t6i sl3 sl2 sl1 lots of cameras like that these lenses are great and oftentimes they're a lot cheaper than the ef lenses but if you upgrade to a full frame canon camera you can't take these lenses with you they will not work on full frame dslrs and then you've got mirrorless lenses which i'm 99 sure you can't convert backwards not that i think you'd ever want to mirrorless is the way the future it's all their newest highest end lenses you wouldn't want to take them back to an older camera all you really need to know is not all lenses are going to work with all cameras so just do a little research a little google search ask someone at a store just look it up online to make sure your lens is actually going to fit on your particular camera once you've bought a lens or two this will be super intuitive and you won't even have to think about it okay and another thing to look for in lenses and this is one of the things i personally weigh very heavily when looking at lenses is image stabilization otherwise known as is if you're a video shooter like me is is money or at least it's gonna make you some that's for sure what this is is it's stabilization within the lens that is gonna make every shot you take smoother so here's an example of me just hand holding a shot without image stabilization and here's the same shot with image stabilization on as you can see that's a significant difference and it matters even more as you get into longer focal lengths even if you're not a video shooter this is going to help you with photos so much as well if you're shooting in low light having a lens with image stabilization is going to help you get sharper images in low light because you can lower that shutter speed take a longer exposure and keep your iso down again on canon this is called is on sigma lenses i think it's os which is optical stabilization they're trying to make it confusing for you it's pretty much the same thing some lenses are stabilized others are not okay we're almost there i see you you know eye in the clock when's this class gonna be over we're almost there we're just gonna talk about a few cosmetic differences so another thing to look at super quickly is lens diameter if you ever end up buying filters for your lenses you'll need to know that each lens has a different lens diameter which means it's going to need a different diameter filter for example the 50 millimeter f 1.8 has a 49 millimeter diameter it needs a filter of 49 millimeters meanwhile the sigma 17 to 50 has a lens diameter of 77 millimeters it needs a 77 millimeter filter rather than buy a bunch of different filters for all your lenses the trick is you buy one for your biggest lens diameter so for me that's 77 millimeters and then you can buy these things called step up rings it looks kind of funny but it'll save you money allowing you to use that giant filter on any lens with an equal or less than diameter then we've got lens size plus weight the best way to showcase this is with two 24 millimeter lenses the 24 millimeter f 2.8 and the 24 millimeter f 1.4 here's the 24 millimeter f 2.8 it's small and tiny people call it the pancake lens on the other hand here's the 24 millimeter f 1.4 it's big it's hefty it's got a giant piece of glass much different form factor now there's nothing wrong with the pancake lens that size is super convenient easy to take with you but if you see a red ring on a canon lens that means it's an l series lens which is part of their pro lineup which means it has superb build quality oh and it's also going to have incredible image quality lenses are built like a tank they can adapt to pretty much any camera and they're weather sealed so it's going to actually have a rubber ring right here to prevent water moisture dust from getting into your camera if you're going to be going on adventures shooting in the rain in crazy conditions it might be worth forking over the big bucks for an l series lens they're built like tanks or you might not need that you might love the small tiny little form factor the 24 millimeter f 2.8 just know that there's a difference between them and a pretty big one and i think that just about covers it if you need to definitely go back and re-watch some of the previous things you know make sure you have a good understanding before you go out and buy some lenses and of course if you're still confused or you have any questions or comments or you just aren't sure if a lens is right for you definitely hit me up in the comment section down below i think my subscribers would vouch for me i'm pretty dang active i tried to get to just about everyone anyways that's it for me there's the bell it's time to go class is over have fun stay creative and i'll see you all in the next one

Channel: Josh Winiarski

Views: 52,227

Keywords: Beginner's Guide To Camera Lenses!, beginner camera lenses, buying your first camera lens, what camera lens to buy, how to choose a camera lens, camera lens, what to look for in a camera lens, camera lenses for beginners, filmmaking, how to, photography, josh winiarski, nosmallcreator, budget camera lens, first camera lens, tutorial, lens tutorial, lens guide, camera lenses explained, how to choose a lens for video, lens focal length comparison

Id: c74B2OHIJKc

Length: 14min 28sec (868 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 07 2020