Page 104 - Friedman Archives

104 Quick Guide for the Impatient User

Macro – This means “it can focus closely”. Macro lenses are ideal for
taking pictures of insects and other small objects which fill the frame.
Reflex (Also called “mirror” lens) - This means the lens is designed
primarily using curved optical mirrors rather than lenses. This is similar to
the design of large observatory telescope lenses. Reflex mirrors are
incredibly lightweight and small compared to their pure-optical brethren.
And it should be noted that Sony / Minolta offers (well, used to offer) the
ONLY autofocusing Reflex lens in the world – the 500mm f/8. (And since
Sony offers in-body stabilization, you could say it was also the world’s
only image-stabilized autofocusing Reflex lens in the world.) Because this
is a fixed aperture f/8, the Sony specs say that it should work OK for stills
but the aperture is too small for video and 12 pictures-per-second mode.
My tests show that it DOES work for video (although the focusing isn’t the
smoothest thing in the world) but doesn’t seem to work on the high-speed
shooting mode.
RS (Restyled – Minolta only) – This means that Minolta took an
established optical design and “updated” the housing, incorporating new
features like “D” (distance) encoding and/or faster focusing mechanism.

3.12.4 FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT LENSES
Q: Gee, that’s an awful lot of nomenclature! Was someone drunk when
they came up with this stuff?
A: Hey, that’s nothing – you should see Nikon’s lineup, which includes an
18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 G ED-IF AF-S VR DX lens .
Q: “What lens shall I get?”

A: Let me tell you a story. Many years ago I had a friend who was
dissatisfied with the photographs from his point-and-shoot. Because he had
lots of disposable income, he went and bought one of the most expensive
cameras available, with lots of lenses and flashes. Later on he complained
to me that the pictures with his high-end camera were no better than what
he was getting before. “Maybe I should have invested in the super-
expensive lenses!” I heard him say.

Contents of this book Copyright © 2014 Gary L. Friedman. All rights reserved.