Photo tips: 3 types of lenses every photographer should own

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You’ve got the photography bug and you’re ready to move on from the standard kit lens. The question is, which other lenses should you buy? We’ve narrowed it down to three* that can handle the most common photographic demands and take your photography to the next level.

Macro shot taken with E 30mm F3.5 Macro lens

1. The portrait lens - ‘fast’ or ‘bright’ large aperture lens, E 50mm F1.8 OSS

The portrait lens imitates the human eye’s ability to focus in on a subject, rather than treating everything in a shot with the same importance.

With this lens, the large aperture gives you a greater ability to defocus the background of your shot. The stylish ‘bokeh’ effect (blurring out-of-focus areas) can make a shot look more professional.

Another reason to invest in a different lens is how well it copes with low light. Here, the large aperture lets in more light, while OSS (Optical SteadyShot) image stabilisation minimises unwanted blur from camera shake.

2. The tele zoom lens - E 55-210mm F4.5-6.3 OSS 

Shooting sport, wildlife and travel calls for a longer focal length. With a zoom lens, you can create close images of subjects that are further away.

There are several types of zoom lens, ranging from wide-angle zoom to high magnification. A high magnification zoom lens (e.g. a focal length of 18-200mm) can switch between close-up, mid-range and distant. You’d never need to swap lenses, but if that’s outside your budget, here’s a great alternative.

This tele zoom lens has a long maximum focal length of 210mm. You can shoot distant scenes and create more background blur with nearer subjects. You can also capture ‘semi-macro’ shots, closer-up than with your kit lens. Most kit lenses are 16-50mm; at 55mm this lens starts where they finish.

3. The macro lens - E 30mm F3.5 Macro

Want to take more extreme close-ups? Then it’s time to enter the world of macro photography.

This lens won’t take up much room in your kit bag, but it more than earns its place. Because of its shallow depth of field, little is in focus, so you can be selective about which small detail you emphasise. (Check out the bee in this video at 02:06 -  https://youtu.be/WCWfiNXNqVg?t=126 .)

You get an extreme background blur with this lens, which would be great for product photos or creative food or jewellery shots. A small object that gets lost in a kit lens photo becomes the star with a macro lens.

Whether you fall in love with portraiture, telephoto or macro photography, our advice is to find your photographic obsession and choose a lens to suit. Find Sony lenses at https://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/lenses

*Notes:

These Sony lenses are compatible with Sony E-mount cameras and are designed for APS-C sensors. For full frame lenses, please visit https://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/lenses

Equivalent A-mount versions are available, as DT50mm F1.8 SAM (large aperture fast lens), DT 55-300mm F4.5-5.6 SAM (tele zoom) and DT 30mm F2.8 Macro SAM (macro). These can be used with E-mount camera bodies via an adaptor.