What is the basic job of an 18-15mm lense? (Planning on buying my first DSLR)?
I'm planning on buying my first DSLR, a "Nikon D5100 16.2MP Digital SLR Camera with 18-55mm Lens & Extra 55-200mm Lens"
My knowledge of lenses is not that developed, I guess. Haha.
What is the purpose of the lenses and what can it do?
I have a friend who knows someone that currently owns a 18-55mm lense and can take clear, macro shots. However as I was doing my research, 18-15mm isn't necessarily "suitable" for macro shots. I hope I'm making some sort of sense. I prefer taking macro shots of objects with text and whatnot.
We'll assume you meant to type "18-55mm" as Nikon doesn't make an 18-15mm lens. The 18-55mm is a great walk about lens, as it offers a moderate wide view at 18 and a short telephoto view at 55mm. It doesn't offer macro (why are all these new photographers obsessed with fisheyes and macro?), but is capable of excellent close-up results.
Here's a review.
http://www.kenrockwell.com/...5mm-vr.htm
Look on this review of the non-VR version to see how close you can get. The watch and flower photos are pretty impressive.
http://www.kenrockwell.com/...-55-ii.htm
To see what different focal lengths look like on your 18-55mm and your 55-200mm, go to this Nikon Lens simulator. Wait for it to load (takes a moment), then grab the slider at the bottom of the picure. As you slide it along, you'll see the focal lengths change, as well as the view.
Hope this helps.
I'm not a fan of double lens kits. Usually the saving from buying one of these over the same lens setup separately is negligible, and you might end up paying for a lens that you don't really need.
Basically, you get one standard zoom (18-55mm) and one telephoto lens that starts at the most zoomed out setting where the standard zoom ends at its most zoomed in setting (the 55-200mm). Getting such a lens with "more zoom" seems to be a no-brainer choice to many beginners, but it really isn't. There are many different types of photography that each ask for a distinct type of lens, and that's just one of them - it might be the wrong one for you. Instead, it would be a good idea to get a standard single lens kit first, and to use that kit lens extensively for half a year at least. Then, and after reading a book or two on photography, you can make an educated decision about what kind of lens you *really* need.
- Telephoto lenses are good for shooting things that are far away, such as sports or wildlife. These lenses also are ok for portraits. Note that while telephoto lenses are good for shooting far away things that appear small due to the distance, they are not good at magnifying things that are close but really small. That's what macro lenses are for.
- Ultra wide angle lenses are the opposite of telephoto lenses. They zoom very, very far out and are good for architectural and landscape shots.
- Prime lenses with a wide maximum aperture of f/1.8 or even f/1.4 are good for low light situations and shallow depth of field (blurred backgrounds). Note that primes don't zoom at all, they use a single focal length. On the other hand, they usually offer superior image quality to zooms of the same price range, and that maximum aperture advantage is huge too. The most common focal length for a prime lens is 50mm, which is excellent for portraits on your camera. Another popular one is 35mm, which is too wide for portraits but suitable for much street- or group photography.
- Macro lenses are good for, well, macro photography. Those with a focal length range of about 60mm (or not far from that) also are very good for portraits. They are not as good for shallow depth of field or low light as the aforementioned wide aperture prime lenses though, but macro lenses typically are prime lenses too; they don't zoom but use a single focal length.
For shooting living insects, a longer focal length is recommended though, such as 100mm, in order not to scare away the skitterish bugs.