Lens spec faq

[Haydenhuang]

Im really new to dslr and im wondering if anyone can explain to me the detailed lens spec that people in the buy/sell trade alway use? I know f1.8 (lowf) means the aperture can open real wide enabling a brighter picture and making foreground and background image look focused and f25 (high f) means darker image and more focused to an object and the mm range liek 25-200mm is the zoom effect with 25mm as the least to 200mm the max range it could reach or am i wrong? the rest of the lens spec i dont understand

 

[lennyl]

Check the sticky here. It answers some of your questions. Not sure which part of a lens spec you don't understand - perhaps an example?

For a good book on camera hardware try David Busch's Mastering Digital SLR Photography. It's worth reading once if you're not familiar with SLR / DSLR. But it's not really worth buying. Unfortunately the library doesn't seem to have a copy.

 

[Haydenhuang]

wat is IR? and AFD and AL and USM amd HSM and f/4-5.6G IF-ED?=(

 

[lennyl]

wat is IR? and AFD and AL and USM amd HSM and f/4-5.6G IF-ED?=(

Some of them are manufacturer specific. Since you're a Nikon user, here's a link to a page with acronyms (some are not specific to Nikon).

USM = Canon's ultrasonic motor. Since Canon probably trademarked USM, Nikon called theirs SWM, Sigma HSM, etc.

VR = vibration reduction (optical stabilization by Nikon). Canon calls theirs IS (image stabilization).