Where to get info on Camera lenses

I have a buddy that is asking where to go to educate himself on camera lenses. I looked around here and grabbed a few links from one of the posts but he said he had been to those and they talk a little above his head. Any suggestions for a beginner trying to learn?

Some basic stuff for your buddy:

Smaller the mm the wider the angle: 18mm will give a good landscape shot. Below 18mm and we are getting quite wide.

Greater the mm the nearer the lens takes you to the subject: I say 200mm - some say 300mm is as high as you should consider without a stand - you will still need a steady hand.

A lens that zooms from 18mm to 200mm is a not uncommon. Starting price in the UK is about £550.00 - lots cheaper in the USA.

Next thing is the ‘f’ number - often referred to as the f stop. With this: The lower the number - the more light it lets in. A..... 1.4 lens will work in very poor light.

The lower the f stop the more you pay. Add zoom and low f number together and you pay lots.

I use 2 Nikon D300’s to photograph boxing and MMA (that’s the camera’s) on one camera I have a 50mm f1.8, on the other I have a 24 mm f1.8.

Neither of these lenses have zoom - they are known as prime lenses. The images are pin sharp. I never use flash at such venues and even in the darkest venues I can get great shots with the ISO set at 800. ISO is a setting on the camera - the higher the number the greater the light. Some cameras add noise into the image if the ISO is set too high. It varies from camera to camera.

Low f stop lenses are often referred to as fast lenses.

Zoom lenses are never as sharp as prime lenses.

As a rule of thumb: The better the lens the more you pay - and the best tip is to join a camera club and people there will possibly let you try their lenses on your camera.

If it is a Nikon camera, it will also have a setting for White balance: The lower the number the less red in the image:

As a rule of thumb:

Set white balance to:
Indoors: about 2500 to 3000k
Outdoors about 4000 to 5000k

Then play with all the settings and take thousands of shots....

The place I used when I got serious about my photography hobby is POTN. They have a good range of tutorials on technique, bodies, lenses, lighting, etc. Very good to cut your teeth on.

As a bonus, there are specific sections for each major brand to help you pick the best equipment at the right price for your budget. They're typically readable to the average person with interest enough to stick it out, but to be truly informed IMHO you should try hard to pick up and learn the lingo as these 'languages' apply very specifically to your equipment's capabilities.

I recommend they start with a good informational base like this because it's likely to have defending sides represented and everyone has a common goal - excellence in photography.

As for me, my go-to lens arsenal includes the
Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS, the Canon Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6(kit lens), and the Canon EF 50mm f1.8 f1.4 f1.2 (cost me $50 bucks - hard to NOT want this one).

Now that looks like a lot of mumbo jumbo, but it's not too tough to decipher. I started to type out my explanation for you, but then I came across this site and it does it much better than I could.

You must feel the lens and understand how you are most comfortable with it That's my main advise. You must experiment and feel which is the right lens then follow through it...

An example? I love wide angle...soon I'll be buying a new one, as I have moved to digital reflex and my old one is not anymore wo width

Thanks for the info. My friend said he learned quite a bit from the links yall posted. And Im kinda pushing him to come and sign up here

Definetely I will have a look as I have Canon 450, thanks for sharing!