Lens Design

Camera Lenses

There are two basic categories of camera lenses:

Prime lenses

Primes have a fixed lens focal length, making them faster and sharper. While prime lenses are less flexible due to the fixed focal length, they are also fast and lightweight and have been designed for a fixed length so are of higher optical performance at that depth, making them easier to work with and of a higher quality for any fixed length.

Zoom lenses

Zooms use a series of lenses to allow different focal lengths from a single lens, making them more flexible but not as fast and slightly effecting optical quality at any fixed length. They contain more glass, which aids in their flexibility, but they also tend to be bigger and heavier than prime lenses.

Within both prime and zoom types of lenses, there are a variety of lenses, all with different focal lengths.

To learn more about the history of lens design click HERE

Summary

Images here have been taken with a range of vintage (embracing imperfection) and modern (embracing technological perfections) lenses on mirrorless cameras.

We all know that the three primary variables in image making are aperture, shutter speed, and ISO.

But there is also:

The photographic tools used
The available subject matter
Creativity

Part of creativity is to have a very open mind about these variables. In recent years emphasis has been placed upon the tools and pixel counting at the expense of creativity. Yes I have much of the latest photography technology but often creativity is assisted by the restrictions of the media used, not its sophistication. The imperfections lead to creativity. This section is only provided as a general introduction to the lenses used for the images on this site.

Hover over the menu item for example "images" in the top corner and then scroll and click on the lens of personal interest. Enjoy.

For more information read sections on Optical Design, Glass, Chromatic Errors, Perspective, Flare and Vignetting.

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Steve Cushing Impresionist Fine Art Photography

Embracing imperfection, recording emotions, one impression at a time…