Originally posted by Javaslinger
Ok, noobie question obviously...
My kit lens takes very nice pictures. They're sharp, clear, and attractive.....
Yet everyone keeps saying, save for good glass.. get the best glass you can afford, etc. etc....
I'm thinking there must be more to 'good' glass than just image quality? do they focus faster? I know some of them have a wider apeture range, but what does that really mean for me?
I'm just missing something to connect why I need to spend $500+ on a lens that there is a under $200 option for....
Thanks in advance and please be gentle....
Ken
It is not all about sharpness. Actually some of the most favoured lenses have a very nice unsharpness (for areas not in focus) called bokeh. With this and large enough aperture (narrow DOF) you can isolate the model/object from the background. 43/1.9 is an excellent example of this. In other cases it can be sharpness, some lenses like makros are often designed to be very sharp. The DA 35 Makro seams to be extremely sharp also on long distance. It is also about distortion, vignetting, CA, PF, flaring, colours, contrast, resolution etc... But usually no lens can be perfect in everything, if you make it sharper, the bokeh might get ugly. If you reduce distortion you might get CA. Least compromises you usually get in a prime lens, but zooms are alsmost as good in many cases today. Personally I do not like zooms, but many people do.
Ohhh, and one more thing. The glass (lens) used to be the most important thing in the film days. When the photo was taken, the only thing between the film and the object was the lens, the camera did not affect the picture at all. With digital cameras this has been different, and the choise of camera has been somewhat important, but all DSLRs are now so good so by spending your money on the glass you will get great pictures with any camera (under normal circumstances).