What makes lenses expensive

This happens much more rarely in professional lenses as long as they are taken care of. Benefit of Professional Lenses 5: Sharpness. Kind of self-explanatory, but pro lenses are almost always sharper. However, this won't make a bit of difference if you don't use proper technique.

Benefit of Professional Lenses 6: Internal Focus. On cheaper lenses, the physical length of the lens extends as you zoom in. On many professional lenses, the lens focuses without changing the length of the lens. The only reason this matters is when using filters. This creates problems when using certain types of filters. Benefit of Professional Lenses 7: Contrast.

Professional lenses often produce significantly more saturated colors than cheaper lenses. Benefit of Professional Lenses 8: Chromatic Aberration. Professional lenses produce less-noticeable fringing around edges.

This really isn't a big deal unless you're printing or displaying photos large. Benefit of Professional Lenses 9: Color. The difference in color reproduction is slight, but professional lenses do a bit better. Thanks for the post, answered well! Now that I think about it, I may not need other than the mm…. Good information. Even those of us who consider ourselves experienced photographers sometimes get away from why we are spending all of this money. This puts the lens question in perspective.

It is a phrase that was started by Michael Reichman of the Luminous Landscape website:. Good easy to understand article. However I somewhat disagree that a pro lens will not make any significant improvement on the photo of the amateur.

I have lent my mm II 2. I have kit lenses 6 years old and have zero mold. They understand the limitations of these lenses and work around those limitations to ensure that the quality of images is presentable.

Ironically, some of these old lenses have found renewed interest for the very reason why they were overlooked in the first place — their imperfections. Modern photographers are using these lenses for achieving ghosting, flares, and defocus effects, issues that made many photographers choose better alternatives in the first place.

Camera lenses are what create the ultimate magic, not the camera body. The job of the camera body is just to capture light and convert the analog signals into digital form. The real magic happens inside the lens. So much so that camera manufacturers spend millions developing lens technologies. This can be substantiated from the fact that lens technologies often last for decades whereas camera technologies change every few years.

Additionally, lenses can be exorbitantly expensive. More expensive than cameras. So much so that many of you will be want to know which camera system has the cheapest lenses to offer just so that you can keep your costs down in the long run.

No specific brand has the cheapest lenses. Unless of course, you buy a compact camera or maybe a Bridge camera, both of which come with a built-in lens. But if it is a DSLR that you are looking to buy, or maybe a mirrorless camera, you have to invest in some lenses. Most camera systems offer you two to three different segments of lenses to choose from. The first one is the premium category. This segment comprises the absolute best lens that you could lay your hands on.

The mid-range lenses give you the best of two worlds, price and performance. No wonder it is one of the most popular super-telephoto lenses among Nikon users, especially among those who have a budget DX camera the Nikon equivalent of an APS-C sensor. The third segment is the entry-level or budget segment. These lenses reflect huge cost-cutting in terms of build quality and elements use. These have a direct impact on the optical performance of the lens. Does that mean that you cannot buy lenses for cheap?

Well, not everyone is born with a golden spoon in his or her mouth and not everyone has a fairy godmother prepared to hand over oodles of cash. Most of us have to save to buy the things we want to buy. So, the million-dollar question is, is there a way to get cheap camera lenses? The answer is yes.

Even if you cannot buy them brand new, you can always buy them used, and there are plenty of places where you can buy them used.

The first place one would look for used gear is online. Look for the online used gear stores. Amazon and eBay are two places where you can start.

Adorama also has a used gear store. There is a whole range of products that are available at a very reasonable price. You will have to do some research to find out exactly what you need and then compare the price at different online stores to get the best deal. Despite the convenience, this will always remain my second preference for buying used gear.

The reason being you are never sure of the exact working condition of the gear. What if the mirror inside is jammed or not in the best shape? What if there was water damage and the camera has not been serviced and certified afterward? There are a million different things that can be wrong with used gear. So, it is always best to go for trusted sellers and platforms that offer a return and money-back guarantee.

The second option is to go to physical stores. This one is my favorite as you can see the actual condition of the gear and test it out before making payment. If you are an experienced individual, you will probably be able to make out if there are any serious issues.

But even then, a money-back policy cannot harm. The third option is to buy them directly from their first owner. Professional photographers often renew their collection. The differences are often quite big. In photography, bokeh is the aesthetic quality of the blur produced in out-of-focus parts of an image.

The thing is, slow, variable aperture lenses are also quite bad at this. In addition, slow aperture translates to larger depth of field, which means that consumer lenses are limited in their subject isolation capabilities. Whereas, professional lenses are designed specifically to render backgrounds in a smooth, straightforward way that is aesthetically pleasing to look at, and their large maximum aperture allows for much more effective subject isolation. Consumer-grade lenses often come with slow autofocus motors.

Professional lenses are typically equipped with very fast autofocus motors that can snap subjects into focus almost immediately. In telephoto lenses, autofocus settings can be easily optimized for long range shooting, which further reduces focus acquisition time. Consumer and enthusiast lenses often change in proportion in case of zooming in or focusing in. Not only that, because of changing in size, they are prone to malfunction or break in future. Moreover, some optical elements can shift over time.

To simply put, consumer grade lenses are more fragile than professional lenses. Because repairing will often cost more. As already mentioned, this type of lenses having fragile plastic parts will break easily or dislocate if hit with force. So, you always have to be extra careful while manoeuvring them. They are built to last. Because, components that are used for both inside and outside of the barrel are usually metal. They protect the lenses from any sort of accident within their limits.

Another big difference is in weather sealing. Weather sealed lenses are considered as excellent insurance policy for photographing in inclement weather.

These seals are often made with rubber and they are placed in spots where the shooting situation can become compromised in tough weather. Fixed-length professional lenses with tough construction are mostly sealed, so they continue to perform in those tough situations. Almost every single one of them has staggering price tag. They are scarce and manufactured for a very limited market.

This might naturally invoke you into thinking that, what it is about this category of lenses that makes them so exceptional when compared to everything else. Having said that, modern lenses are honestly devoid of life. They are automated. So, how can you create art with robots? Art is more organic and unprecedented. Now, the modern lenses are like robotic offspring. Taken from a conveyor line, where thousands of other lenses are being made exactly the same way with little intervention.

But back in the days, older lenses were hand-crafted, one by one. So, each lens was unique in its own way. That was the beauty of it. So, what did that do to the notion of hand-crafted, imperfect, but unique in their way? In this industry too, machines replaced human.

Quantity replaced quality. But rest assured, the exotic lens companies are still out there unlike the Gessler Brothers from the story mentioned above. Consumers who cannot stand variance or uniqueness. Such monotonous mentality and expectations of the consumers have stripped the products of character and life. It is that same feeling you get when you walk into a furniture store and see dozens of plastic chairs stacked on top of each other, all looking exactly the same.

They know we, the consumers always want the better product at a cheaper price. By the time we get the product in our hand, the companies bring a slightly more upgraded version. We start saving for that upgraded version. This cycle never ends. This short term experience of ours always leaves us wanting for more. Enter the scene companies like Zeiss, Leica and Schneider. Instead, they make lenses that last. Lenses that have character and radicalism.

Products with quality that transcendent time, which will inspire a person today and continue to inspire for more years to come. For example, Carl Zeiss has been in optics and imaging for more than years. They charge for the amount of care and huge number of hours that are spent behind each lenses individually.

They were also like Leica and Zeiss for a long period of time with their legendary high-end professional lenses. I can bet that Nikon lens users still reminiscence about the all-metal legendary AIS lenses. Those built to last lenses were of so high calibre that, they still have huge demand in the market.

Nikon, however… started to cut corners and move away from metal to lighter plastic parts. Initially, that was a welcome move for the consumer lenses. Because the all-metal AF-D lenses were very heavy. But pretty soon the plastic parts were beginning to find their way in the high-end lenses as well. Gradually, both Nikon and Canon started to make profit from selling cheap consumer grade lenses.

As a result, there has been a transition in their marketing policy. They went from producing high quality optics to high-demand, plastic mass produced lenses.

But if plastic lenses are exposed to very cold or hot temperatures then they are easily prone to getting damaged.