Lessons
Class Introduction
05:06 2Lens Basics
10:55 3Focal Length
04:43 4Normal Lenses
10:14 5Wide Angle Lenses
09:24 6Telephoto Lenses
11:43 7Lens Comparisons
08:33 8Aperture
11:26Equivalent Aperture
04:07 10Depth of Field
05:25 11Maximum Sharpness
02:58 12Hyperfocal Distance
09:33 13Mount System & Lens Grade
04:03 14Lens Design
11:36 15Compatibility
17:29 16Lens Technology
05:21 17Focusing & Stabilization
06:39 18Image Quality
04:46 19Standard & Super Zoom
04:52 20Wide & Telephoto & Super Telephoto Zoom
07:48 21Prime Lenses
06:06 22Short, Medium & Super Telephoto Lenses
05:35 23The Macro Lens
07:14 24The Fisheye Lens
10:24 25The Tilt & Shift Lens
10:59 26Filters
06:34 27Lens Hoods
04:02 28Tripod Mount
02:42 29Extension Tubes
03:26 30Teleconverters
03:11 31Making a Lens Choice
04:15 32The Portrait Lens
08:44 33The Action Lens
11:23 34The Landscape Lens
06:51 35Lens Maintenance
09:40Lesson Info
Class Introduction
Good morning. For a long time to put together a full class on lenses because once you get an interchangeable lens camera, kind of the whole point of it is to change lens so that you can have different capabilities. And so this is meant very much as a companion class to those camera classes which focus more on the camera's capabilities and the menu system. To me though, it's the lenses. All these lenses, we brought in a ton of lenses. We have almost a hundred different lenses here from a bunch of the different manufacturers. All the popular brands are here, and they all have their own unique capabilities. And that's what's great about a camera lens. As you get into photography, one of the things you're gonna hear talked about is something called photographers who get GAS. Now GAS actually stands for Gear Acquisition Syndrome. They start buying cameras and lenses and tripods and all these sort of accessories. And I have to admit, I have a little bit of GAS when it comes to lenses. I love...
lenses, and it's not that I love inanimate objects. These are tools and they each have their own capability and they each allow you to look at the world with a new set of possibilities. When you get a macro lens, suddenly you're gonna start looking at everything that's small, in detail, and what does that look like when I photograph it up close? When you look with long lenses, you start looking at where can I get to get this lined up with a subject and the background? Or where has a really good viewpoint? So every lens just opens up a new world of possibilities. But, choosing which lens is right for you can be a little bit tough, so that's what this class is for. Now I'm gonna cover some basics and some more advanced stuff in this class. And so I don't know how much you know, so we're gonna start off with the basics. We're gonna learn all that we need to know to make a smart buying decision. So, I do cover a little bit of this material in a few of my other classes, but it's gonna be all condensed here. So that when you wanna make your smart lens choice, you can just come back to this class, review that information, and we're gonna go from there. So let's talk about what we're gonna be doing in this class. I have it broken up into a couple of different sections. We're gonna start off, obviously, with the lens basics, the most important things about lenses you need to know. And the biggest thing is the focal length of the lens. What do you see from side to side, and what's that used for, and how can you make the best use of it? That's what we're gonna spend a lot of time for in the first section. We're also talk about the aperture and how that affects depth of field, and the types of photos that you're gonna shoot. Section number two might be my favorite because we get into the technology of these different lenses. We have stabilization features. We have a number of other different things to look for in the lenses. And if you have looked to purchase lenses, you have no doubt seen a long list of letters: E-D-I-F, I-S, O-I-S. All these letters mean that there's some piece of technology in your lens and I'm gonna give you the key to what all of those mean in all of these major brands that we're gonna be talking about. And then we're gonna go through a lens review, and this is where we're gonna be looking at the most popular lineup of lenses. We're talking about Canon, full frame, crop frame, Nikon, full frame, crop frame, Sony Mirrorless, full frame, crop frame, Fuji, Panasonic and Olympus cameras. So I'm gonna be giving you some very specific recommendations for different lenses, for different purposes as we go through this. And then in the third section, we're gonna talk about some specialty lenses. Macro lenses, tilt shift lenses, and fisheye lenses. And then we're gonna be talking about some of those accessories, like teleconverters, and lens extension tubes, hoods, filters, and I'm gonna be giving you lots of tips and advice on how I use them and how I recommend using all these different accessories and when they're most valuable. And then I'll talk a little bit about building a system. How do you go about choosing which lens is your next lens to buy? Now along with purchase of the class, you do get what I think may be the best handout pdf I've put together in any of the classes. And this is really nice, cuz it's got a lot of the visual slides that you see in the class. And so you can kinda follow along, and there's good little tips in here and things that you can learn from when you're not around your screen, actually watching the class. Probably most helpful for some people, as I get through it, it's a long one, there's color, it's 16 pages. But back towards the back end of it, I have a page for each brand of camera, and the different lenses that I recommend for different types of things. So now, one of the things I've done is I've split it into two columns, and I have one on the left, I have what I call "Basic Lenses" and then I have "Premium Lenses." So if you want a lens that's a really good value, that does a good job for the least amount of money, got one choice for that. And then another one, if you said, "Hey, I wanna get the best lens that does the best job for this one thing," I'll have that listed in there. And once again, Canon, Nikon, Sony, Fuji, Olympus, and Panasonic are the brands that we're gonna be talking about here in this class.
Class Materials
Bonus Materials with Purchase
Ratings and Reviews
E.L. Bl/Du
John is one of the best instructors Ive watched. he's clear, concise, and gets right to the point. His display's and diagrams are so great, he makes very complicated subjects easy to understand, and fun. He holds your attention and interest b/c everything he says is valuable. This really helped me understand the vast complicated world of lenses. I would highly recommend this class to anyone who doesnt know what hyperfocal distance is.
Boris Dimitrov
Excellent class packed with incredibly useful knowledge. John is an amazing lecturer. He has also developed really great materials to help explain all the concepts and technologies that are explored in the class. Looking forward to my next class with him!
a Creativelive Student
Great class. So informative. John Greengo is such a fantastic tutor and explains everything in such and easy-to-understand way. I would highly recommend this class. Prior to doing this class, I was so confused about which lenses are best for various photography. Now I understand lenses completely. Thanks John!