11. Working with Lenses

In April, 2011, Nikon celebrated the production of its 60 millionth lens. If Nikon has one advantage over many of the other vendors of digital SLRs (other than making great, affordable cameras), it’s the mind-bending assortment of high-quality lenses available to enhance the capabilities of cameras like the Nikon D5100. You can use thousands of current and older lenses introduced by Nikon and third-party vendors since 1959 (although lenses made before 1977 may need an inexpensive modification). These can 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.

Of course, your Nikon D5100 can’t use all 60 million of those Nikkor lenses that have been produced, nor all of the tens of millions of lenses offered for Nikon cameras by Tamron, Tokina, Sigma, and other third parties. If you want to choose your lenses wisely, this chapter explains how to select the best optics for the kinds of photography you want to do, and how to select lenses that are compatible.