The Lens

7 Buying lenses

And now the difficult choices—what to buy, and from whom?

7.1 Camera brand or third party?

Selfridges department store in Birmingham, England. 24mm full frame. f/8, 2.5 sec. ISO 100.

One of the key reasons camera makers like to design their own custom lens mounts, rather than collaborate on the creation of a cross-brand standard, is frankly to ensure sales of their own products at the expense of their competitors. For this reason companies encourage people to stick with only their brand of lenses and thus stay within the maker’s ...