Day 7: Unravelling the "mm" mystery in lenses

It was Karva Chauth a few days ago - a day when married women in parts of India fast all day long for the well-being of the chaps they married. The beneficiary of this non-eating generally rewards his better half with some sort of ornament or item of clothing.

I gave Anupama (that's the wife, my life, my friend, my...well, well...you get the idea) a 50mm camera lens for her Canon EOS 1000D DSLR camera. There was shock and scandal in the traditional circles - jewellery and clothing are supposed to be the giveables on these occasions, not camera lenses. But fortunately for me, Anu loves her photography and has been clicking away happily with the lens ever since.

However, in technological circles, I have been asked why I picked the 50mm lenses. And in slightly less technical ones, what the devil is this chakkar (mystery) about mm when it comes to lenses - we keep seeing these 18-55mm, 50-200mm figures on lenses.

Well, the answer to the first question is: because I know Anupama wanted a 50mm lens. The answer to the second one is...ah...a tad more complex.

As I understood it, the "mm" in the lens refers to the focal length of the lens. Which of course, begs the question as to what the devil is this focal length. Well, it is the distance between the lens itself and the sensor of the camera on which the image is formed (it used to be the film in the good old days). Now, without getting TOO complicated and talk of focusing on infinity and whatnot - here's a simple rule of thumb to be followed by DSLR beginners - the higher the focal length number, the greater the magnification of the lens. Simply said - you can zoom in more with a lens that has a bigger "mm" number parked on it. On the other hand, the lower the figure, the wider a perspective you can get.

So, keeping things simple - if you want to shoot a wide landscape, go for a lens with a relatively smaller mm figure on it, while if what you want to shoot is some distance away, go for the higher mm figure ones.

A very rough break-up of focal lengths would be in this manner:

• 10-35 mm: generally called wide, ultrawide and fisheye lenses. Great for architecture and landscapes
• 35-70mm: Generally considered normal. All right for general, impulse snaps without too much fuss.
• 50mm: This is widely accepted as being close to what the human eye sees. Great for portraits. 
• 75-135 mm: We are getting into telephoto lens territory here. The zoom-in element starts coming.
• 135-300mm and greater: Very telephoto territory. The stand from a distance and deliver zone.

 So there ye have it - the mm mystery in lenses as per Yours Truly. A trifle oversimplified and not entirely technically correct, I suspect, but kind of handy, if you are a DSLR beginner. Like I am. Will reveal more as the days pass, as the stripper said to the oily Sheikh, but as of now this is what I think I know of the mm chakkar.

Now, excuse me, I have to try and convince Anu to let me use that lens on MY EOS 600D.

Day 3: Just on auto mode...wow!

If one has never used a DSLR in one's life (and I have not), most pundits recommend that you use the camera just like an ordinary point and shooter to get familiar with it. In short, do not bother with all those buttons and what they do. Just click the "mode" button to auto (often marked in green with the letter A on it) and click away to see just what the camera can do. Basically, in this mode, the camera decides (like a good fella) what suits you best and takes the shot - it horrifies purists who demand control and would rather not depend on the judgement of a machine, but for 'orrible starters like me, it is a start and a good option for getting used to the camera and not getting too dispirited by terrible shots!

For, believe it or not, thanks to its innards - and they are VERY powerful innards, even in an entry-level DSLR, a DSLR can click much better pictures than a point and shooter. Let's put it in cricketing terms - a DSLR is like the complete batsman, who can bat equally comfortably, whether in Test cricket, one day cricket or even in T20 mode. Yes, it is bulkier than those uber sleek Cyber-shot cameras you see, but within that bulk resides enough matter to churn out jaw dropping pics.

Sounds hard to believe? Well, check out that picture of an eagle flying above the Oberoi Hotel in Delhi. Shot by Yours Truly. With a Canon EOS 600D. Nope, no adjusting. On auto focus. Did not even zoom. Click on it to see its larger version and you will even be able to make out the bird's beak and the outline of its feathers.

Yes, it is not perfect, but I have tried taking shots of birds with my previous point and shooters and nothing comes close to this in terms of clarity when you consider the distance from which the shot was taken and the fact that the bird was moving.

Makes you wonder why you need to mess around with all those buttons, eh? Well, more about them in the coming days. As of now, I am exploring in auto mode. And having more fun than I ever had with any camera.

Day 2: How to choose between a Canon and a Nikon!

When you start using a DSLR, the first thing you will face...is a lot of questions. Well, first off there was the little matter of why I needed to use a DSLR at all, which I dealt with on day one. The second question that inevitably comes in its wake is an outraged "why are you using a Canon? Why not a Nikon?"

The exact opposite question would have been asked, of course, if I had opted for a Nikon. And with equal outrage.


Yes, my wife influenced my DSLR purchase!

Well, my rationale is incredibly simple - because my wife has a Canon DSLR too (it was my wedding gift to her - the EOS 1000D). No, I am not just following the leader. As I had pointed out in my earlier blog entry, the biggest advantage of a DSLR camera is the fact that one gets a lot of control over what one shoots by tweaking settings and lenses. Well, the fact that my wife has a Canon camera means that I can borrow her lenses for mine as well - yes, the lenses which work on her camera will work on mine as well. And vice versa.

Magical. Wonderful. Especially because most lenses cost as much as a DSLR themselves!

So, forget the jargon and all the yakking about which brand gives better cameras, when opting for a DSLR, just try and grab the model for which you can get lenses most easily. If Anu had a Nikon, I reckon I would have been using one. But she has always been a Canon person - she says she loves the build and feel of Canon cameras and thinks the support works a lot better. A number of people have also been saying that it is easier to get third-party lenses for Canon cameras, as compared to Nikon. But ah, that might be just speculation. I will be finding out a lot more about that in the coming days, I guess.

Before ye buy (DSLR), check if ye can borrow (lenses)

In the meantime, the secret of how to choose between Nikon and Canon when it comes to DSLRs - heck, just see which one your friends/close relatives whose stuff you can borrow (and this part is crucial - if ye cannot borrow, no role models are they!) are using. That way, you will be able to borrow their lenses and even get some help when needed. Just make sure that the model of camera you are picking will be compatible with the lenses they use. I did. Don't get too hassled by the feel and interface and all that rot - you will get used to it once you start using it regularly. I did (again!).

Of course, if you have really deep pockets, then you can opt for whatever strikes your fancy. And you REALLY should be reading another blog.

Not rocket science, I know. But then I don't know any rocket science

Day 1: "A DSLR? What do you want a DSLR for?"

Photography lovers are a funny sort. When I was using a simple point and shoot camera, they took every opportunity to lecture me on the joys of "real photography," which according to them could be done only on a digital single reflex lens (DSLR) camera - those bulky cameras which every professional photographer carried and seemed to come with a dozen lenses apiece. However, no sooner had I turned up with a Canon EOS 600D DSLR camera than their tunes changed. Radically.

"A DSLR? What are you doing with a DSLR? You are the chap that clicks pictures with cellphones and point and shooters. What do you want a DSLR for?"

Well, the first entry in my DSLR blog seems the best place to explain this.

Not all roses...

Mind you, I can appreciate their outrage. For, all said and done, I really do not know that much about cameras, apart from clicking the button to take a snap. Photography for me has largely been about getting the subject in the viewfinder, waiting for auto focus to kick in, and then hitting the shutter. Thanks to the wonders of digital photography and storage, I can take dozens of snaps and hope that one will come out right - something that was impossible in the days of film, unless one had pockets deep as oceans.

But I digress. To return to the matter of using a DSLR camera, a few years ago, one could have said that the best reason for using them was the fact that they simply took better photographs, as they boasted better lenses and processors and the like. That cannot be said to be the case today. The emergence of the prosumer segment has seen the coming of cameras that have very good lenses, processors and even super zooms. You can take some terrific pictures with them as well, and without the need to fiddle with lenses.

So why should one use a DSLR? They are generally more bulky, have more buttons to mess around with and are therefore more difficult to use, and last but not least, cost a pretty penny (the EOS 600D costs around Rs 47,000 with the most basic lens - more than a desktop computer!)?

I wanna be in..CONTROL

The answer can be summed up in one word: control.

As one of my photographer friends explained to me, "In a point and shoot camera, it is more often than not the camera that takes the picture. In a DSLR, it is you who takes the picture. Because you can control just about every aspect of the photograph. With a point and shoot, you are mainly a photographer. With a DSLR, you are an artiste, as you control so much of the picture that you take."

All right, so that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but the stark fact is that the biggest charm of a DSLR camera are those very buttons and lenses that seem so intimidating to casual shutterbugs like me. You can change a lens as per your requirements. You can tweak buttons to take shots in different conditions. You can blur the background...the list is endless. 

Yes, DSLR cameras are also faster at auto focus, have lesser time lags between the hitting of the shutter button and the taking of the picture (so you end up taking pictures of what you saw rather than what the camera saw a few seconds AFTER you saw the same thing), and generally serve up better images than other cameras.

But what makes them special is the control they give to the person behind the lens. In very simple terms, it kind of separates the casual photographer from the serious one.

Which is exactly what I am trying to become. Hence the DSLR. Hence blog. Stay tuned to see what havoc I wreak.