Photography depends on these two major things. One of which is the body of camera, secondly the perfect lens. So now most of us probably know about DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) body, but we need to know what is lens, how it works, what are the type/kind of lenses and which type of lens would be suitable for specific type of photography.

What is lens? How they work? How many types of lenses are there?


Lens is a front-mounting rounded device for camera. You can also call it camera’s eye. There are multiple functions available on a lens to adjust the settings according to user and atmosphere. And an essential thing, without lens the camera will be unable to capture the scenario clearly. But without memory card inserted, camera doesn’t capture a single image. Lenses carry their focal length in Millimetres.

Types of lenses
Zoom Lenses: These lenses are also called Kit lenses. They have a medium range of zoom like 18-55mm, 18-35mm, 18-50mm etc. That means the lens can zoom to 18mm to 55mm, 35mm, 50mm respectively. There are numerous zoom lenses in the market with different brand names, they have different focal length from starting to end as well as they have discrete F-Number starting from f/1.8 to f/5.6.
Prime Lenses: Fixed focal length carriers are commonly called Prime Lenses. They don’t have zoom ring so they can’t zoom at all. For example if you have a lens with 50mm f/1.8, then the lens will only capture the scenario within 50mm distance and it’s aperture or F-Number can’t be vary. Multiple Prime Lenses have fixed aperture like f/1.8, f/2.0, f/2.8 etc. Usually Prime Lenses are very expensive cause firstly they have fixed focal length, secondly they have a minimum number of aperture which gives a smooth blurry background while shooting images as well as they have a sharp and clear crystal image result.
Wide Angle Lenses: As the name describes itself, Wide Angle Lenses have attribute to capture the image widely almost at 100 degree angle. Usually these lenses are used to capture beautiful nature, landscapes, mountains, clouds, star trails in night etc. As these lenses have high aperture (low F-Number), they produce very sharp image and great bokeh effect that pacify the eyes.
Fisheye Lenses: These lenses are also called “Ultra Wide Angle”. They have more capacity to put the whole scenario into one image. They cover almost 100 to 180 degree of angle. Besides consisting of very high price tags, they also have a very short focal length. Remember, short focal length means captures wide area and long focal length captures narrow area. Fisheye lenses have the quality of convex glass lens that spreads the light into wide angle. Same is the case with Fisheye Lenses; they are convexed from front side to give the image wide effect. Focal length of these lenses usually starts from 8mm to 35mm with high depth of field.
Telephoto Lenses: Capturing a burst of shots in a row in cricket stadium while a player hits the ball, seems quite cool. Here is the telephoto lenses specialty that can create memories from too far distance. In outlook, these are very big as compared to prime lenses. These lenses don’t have the “Locked” tag as prime lenses have fixed focal length. Their focal length can be adjusted according to photographers’ need but prime lenses. These lenses have at least focal length of 70mm to 1500mm. 100-400mm, 70-300mm, 400-600mm and 600-1500mm are very common telephoto lenses that used for wildlife photography, sports photography, capturing Moon or stars and for extra long distance etc.
Macro Lenses: These lenses are specially designed to capture images in close view. Both the subject and camera have a maximum distance of less than one foot to capture stunning shot. By these lenses, a photographer can shoot food products, insects, leaves, dropping water etc.