Using lenses

Brian Liepe: For those of you transitioning from traditional camcorders like this one, these DSLRs have one really big advantage that I think you'll like, and that's the ability to use different lenses or interchangeable lenses. Boom! Chad Perkins: Being able to switch lenses is a huge game changer, especially if you are a filmmaker, it just gives you so much more control over how you tell your story. Brian Liepe: So the quality of your image is largely determined by the quality of your lens.

Now if you have a traditional camcorder and you're limited or you feel limited by the amount you can zoom, or its sharpness in some areas, or its fastest aperture, you got to go out and by a new camera. With these DSLRs, you can just go out and get a nice new lens. Chad Perkins: Now of course the downside of all of this is that these lenses can get really pricey. I have several lenses including this monster here that cost more than my entire camera just by itself.

But as we go throughout this chapter and as we learn more about these lenses and what they can do, you'll see why these things justify those big price tags. Brian Liepe: Lenses come in a vast variety of focal length. The focal length is just the measurement of magnification expressed in millimeters. So the higher the number of millimeters, the more magnified the image is. There are two types of lenses; there is the prime lens and the zoom lens. With the zoom lens you can vary the focal length. In the prime lens the focal length is fixed.

You're probably wondering, why would you ever put a prime lens on a camera? You can't change the focal length. Well there are a few advantages and to name some: they're sharper, they're faster, which means you can open up the aperture more, they represent colors and contours better and there is lens vignetting.