Most Popular Lenses

Here are some of the most popular lenses around:


This is one of Canon's least expensive lenses, which is why it is so popular. It's wide open, fast, f/1.8 aperture is handy for utilizing the selective focus technique because of the very shallow depth-of-field (DOF) the lens can produce. The wide aperture is also useful when you don't have a lot of light available. Sharpest focus is obtained by using intermediate apertures, f/4 to about f/11.

Care must be taken with shallow DOF though because the DOF can get very thin, and you have to remember that the plane of focus is always parallel to the plane of the image sensor. If you want both of someone's eyes in focus in a portrait,

How Do I Use My Digital SLR's Auto Focus? Part-2

Most digital SLR's will offer some auto focus mode options, like single focus, continuous focus, and that trusty old stand-by - manual focus.

They also offer some focus area modes that use just the one focus point you have selected or some other focus area mode that help keep things in focus in your photos.

Auto Focus Modes

Single Servo Focus
The most commonly used focus mode is Single focus. (Nikon - AF-S, Canon - One Shot AF)
Use single focus when you are making photographs of subjects that aren't moving.
When the shutter is pressed halfway the camera focuses, turns on an in-focus indicator in the viewfinder, and then locks the focus until the shutter is released, or until the shutter button is returned to it's normal position.
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