Opinion

People often ask me, “What sort of lens should I buy as my second lens?” and my answer is always the same: “What sort of pictures would you like to take?”  I’m getting that question a lot right now because a zillion people got new cameras over the holidays. There are so many options I’ve decided to deliver the answer in two installments. But first, let’s take a close look at that kit lens that came with your camera.

Why would anyone in their right mind want to use old lenses on their shiny new high-performance DSLR or mirrorless camera? The simple answer is that some older lenses can capture images that have that elusive quality known as character. 

Imagine a camera you could plunk down in front of the Taj Mahal or anywhere else and snap photos that were indistinguishable from reality. A camera producing images that, when properly displayed, would be pictorially the same as being there.

Photokina, the photography “show of shows,” opens in Cologne, Germany on September 20. The size of this biennial event is monstrous—you have to experience it to believe it. In 2014, a total of 1,074 exhibitors from 51 countries hosted 183,297 attendees. We’re taking serious show here. In honor of Photokina, here’s a pop quiz to test your knowledge of photography. 

Even photographers who usually shoot in Manual Mode should take a closer look at Program AE Mode. Why? Because in the right hands, the two modes are more similar than they are different. 

Do your friends often tell you that your photographs are so good you should become a professional? Do you sometimes stare blankly at the pages of National Geographic and hear a voice inside your head that says, “I can do better than that!”? Do you post on Instagram more than 70 times a week? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, read on—and unleash the master picture-taker that’s lurking in your soul.

For my photography I prefer small, lightweight, responsive cameras to big, heavy, bulky DSLRs. While small cameras once lagged behind DSLRs in image quality and performance, today’s compact cameras are challenging their dominance with great cameras like the Sony A7S II, Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX100, Nikon P900 and the new, elegant retro Olympus Pen-F. These compact, bridge and hybrid cameras can even do things some big, bulky DSLRs can’t.