In the last blog entry, we discussed, your choices for a mid-range every-day carry around lens. Once you have decided on your mid-range lens for your digital single lens reflex camera, your next choice is two-fold: Do you want to see wider? or do you want to pull in distant subjects. You may, of course, want to do both and get two more lenses.

As most digital single lens reflex cameras are not ful frame, your mid-range zoom is unlikely to be wider than 18 mm (with the exception of the new 16-85 mm Nikon lens). On a digital camera, a 18 mm lens translates into an effective 27 mm lens. For dramatic landscapes and wide angle perspectives, 27 mm is not wide enough. Nikon makes a wide angle zoom, the AF-S DX Zoom NIKKOR 12-24mm f4G (an effective 18-36 mm lens). As well, Sigma and Tamron also make similiar type zooms lenss. Sigma, in fact, has one that is even wider at 10-20 mm (an effective 15-30 mm).

Beyond the mid-range, you may also choose a telephoto zoom to extend the range of your lens to capture people, sports, birds, etc. You may also want a telephoto zoom to help you selectively focus on distant subjects and create interesting landscapes. Unless you have a super-zoom such as the 18-200 Nikon (an effective 27-300mm lens), most of your mid-range zooms will not provide much of a telephoto range.

To help extend your range, there are numerous alternatives with varying budget implications. In the Nikon range of lenses, your choices include:

• the AF-S Zoom NIKKOR 70-300mm f/4-5.6. This is a film/full frame lens that also works on digital cameras. The lens features a broad zoom range extending to 450 mm on a digital camera and has VR (vibration reduction) and S (silent wave motor) for fast focusing. At the long end of the zoom range, the lens has an aperture of 5.6.
• AF Zoom VR NIKKOR 80-400mm f4.5-5.6. This is also a film/full frame lens that works on digital cameras and extens the range to an effective 600 mm on a digital camera. The lens has VR but does not have a built in motor so its focusing may not be as fast as the 70-300 mm lens. This is an excellent lens to capture distant subjects or experiment with bird photography.
• AF-S Zoom NIKKOR VR 70-200mm f/2.8. This is a film/full frame lens. On a digital camera, the long end of the telphoto is an effective 300 mm. However, compared to the other choices, this lens has a fixed aperture of f2.8 and is built to professional standards and provides optimum image quality. The price, though, is also higher.

For other camera manufacturers, the choices are also quite similiar (except for Olympus/Panasonic where the cameras have a 2x crop factor).

As you plan your summer holidays, you may want to consider adding one more lens to your camera kit. I expect that a telephoto zoom will see more use than a wide angle zoom. A telephoto zoom enables you to focus in and selectively focus on your subject, thereby creating an interesting composition. A wide angle zoom, on the other hand, you will capture a wide field of view and requires careful composition and positioning, otherwise your composition can become cluttered. In the end, both a wide angle and telephoto zoom can provide real interesting new photographic opportunities for you.