Choose your lenses wisely, like these people at the recent Imaging Show, where I spoke about lenses through the three days:

Your camera is just a box. The lens makes it into a great tool. So, be prepared to spend on your lens; and look at properties like:

• Aperture – the lower the f-number, the better
• Sealing against dust and moisture
• Distortion: the lower the better, of course
• Sharpness (both wide open and at, say, f/8)
• Mechanical construction
• Image Stabilization
• Chromatic aberration
• Resistance to flare
• Focus system speed and noise – and accuracy
• Consistency

These properties, and more, determine the quality, and cost, of your lens. And high cost is OK because the lens determines the shot – and a lens lasts decades, both in terms of usage and of value.

Now I am off to go shoot softball kid portraits!