Digital Camera Lenses

Whether you’re interested in purchasing a simple point-and-shoot camera or a professional digital SLR, choosing a digital camera with a high quality lens will make a tremendous difference in the quality of your photographs. A good lens will produce sharp photos with fine detail. An inferior lens will result in images with vignetting, flaring, or pincushion distortion.

If you’re interested in purchasing a point-and-shoot camera, look for a model with an optical zoom lens. Optical zoom moves the lens to magnify the subject, while digital zoom simply magnifies existing pixels to create a close-up image. Most digital cameras feature a digital zoom, but only high quality cameras offer an optical zoom lens of 3x or more. The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ10S and Lumix DMC-FZ10K are the first consumer digital cameras to feature a 12x optical zoom.

Digital SLR cameras such as the Canon Digital allow photographers more artistic freedom because of their ability to accept a detachable lens. You can purchase wide angle, telephoto, and other specialty lenses to create a number of different effects with your digital camera. A telephoto lens can increase focal lengths by up to 300 percent, while a wide angle lens can reduce focal lengths by up to 30 percent.

When purchasing your digital camera, it’s also a good idea to consider what type of photography you are most interested in as you are evaluating your choices. Nature or sports photographers will want to select a digital camera lens with strong telephoto power. Landscape or architectural photographers will most likely prefer a wide angle lens.