10. Working with Lenses

In February, 2011, Canon announced that it had produced its 60 millionth EF-series lens, a mere 24 years after the company’s current autofocus mount was introduced (back in the film era). Considering that it took 11 years for Canon to sell its first 10 million copies of its EF lens line, but only one year to peddle its most recent 10 million lenses, it’s easy to see that the digital photography revolution can take credit for the most recent explosion.

With more than five dozen lenses in its current lineup, Canon is catering to the wide-ranging needs of a broad user base, from novice photo enthusiasts to advanced amateur and professional photographers. It’s this mind-bending assortment of high-quality lenses available to enhance the capabilities of cameras like the Canon EOS T3i that make the product line so appealing. Thousands of current and older lenses introduced by Canon and third-party vendors since 1987 can be used to give you a wider view, bring distant subjects closer, let you focus closer, shoot under lower-light conditions, or provide a more detailed, sharper image for critical work. Other than the sensor itself, the lens you choose for your dSLR is the most important component in determining image quality and perspective of your images.