If you are a photographer looking to buy digital cameras, you may already be overwhelmed by the plethora of lens types out there.  What most people don’t know is that there are different lenses that cater to different photographer styles.  This means that one lens is not better than the other, but that it simple enhances a certain style of taking pictures.  You may already know what kind of style you like to take pictures, and if not that OK because we have put together a quick and easy guide to digital camera lenses.

folding lens

The first type of lens is a folding optical lens.  These types of lenses are the ones that fold sideways into the digital camera’s body.  These are sleek and compact and are very protected by the lenses built in cover.  These types of lenses are great for compact devices but do not allow the photographer to use lens converters.  Most digital cameras have digital features that mimic an actual lens converter.  These lenses are higher priced than external lens designs and produce a lower optical quality.

fixed zoomThe second type is a fixed zoom lens.  These types of lenses are not retractable, even if the camera is turned off.  These lenses can magnify objects up to 18 times and they also allow for lens converters to perform different kinds of picture shooting.  Fixed zoom lenses are the top choice of serious amateur photographers and are heavily used by business photographers.

fixed focal

The third type of lens is the fixed focal length lens.    The lens does not have an optical zoom and usually has a digital zoom option.  These types of lenses produce easy picture taking options and provide wide angles to shoot landscapes and group shots.  This type of lens does however produce the lowest quality of pictures out of our list of lenses.

retract-zoom-250The fourth type of lens is the retractable zoom lens.  These lenses also do not support lens converters but are still very suitable for people buying a camera with a budget.  These lenses allow for sleek and compact designs to give the camera a very light feeling.  Settings and switches are very limited on this type of lens

SLRThe fifth type of lens is an interchangeable lens.  Only digital SLR cameras offer this type of lens functionality.  These types of lenses are must haves for serious photographers as it gives a photographer ultimate control of their picture taking.  These types of lenses allow you to save money because you won’t have to buy different cameras for different types of photography.

Future posts will include info about digital cameras how do they work, and credit card size digital cameras.