Canon® EOS Digital Photography Photo Workshop

3.5. TIPS FOR SHOPPING FOR LENSES

I have one steadfast piece of advice I give to all prospective lens buyers: Evaluate the lens with your intended use in mind. It's very common in today's online-driven economy for photographers to spend hours reading photography Web site reviews, blogs, and chat groups that extol the virtues of one particular lens and deem another unworthy, but they never actually get to try the lens out before they shoot it! That isn't to say that the Internet isn't a good source to look for information on a particular lens: It is potentially one of the best. It's just that among all the charts, graphs, and backfocus testing, you can lose sight of your real goal: determining whether or not a particular lens can do the job you have in mind.

However you plan to acquire a particular lens, and particularly if it's an expensive piece of glass, if possible it's a good idea to find a local camera store where you can rent one for the day or weekend and try it out. Some stores will even let you apply some or the entire rental price to a purchase. If you plan to buy the lens from that store, they will most likely let you bring in your camera and memory card and take some test shots.

If you are considering two lenses, take some shots with both, trying as much as possible to mimic your intended use. If you want the lens to shoot architectural interiors, then take some shots of the inside of the store. If you plan to shoot sports, then go outside if possible and get some ...