One of the key advantages to making the jump from a point-and-shoot digital camera to a digital single-lens reflex, or DSLR, camera is the availability of lenses. With a Nikon DSLR, you can choose the best lens for each shooting situation or try to find one lens that covers all the bases. With all cameras, lens technology is often brand-specific, and Nikon's lenses have their own classifications, categories and distinctions to help you choose the best one.
Nikon and Nikkor
The first thing that might confuse you when buying lenses for your Nikon DSLR camera is that Nikon's lenses aren't always labeled "Nikon." The company makes its lenses under the Nikkor brand, though all Nikkor lenses are made by Nikon and for Nikon cameras. Depending on the age of the lens and the type of lens, a Nikkor lens has both "Nikon" and "Nikkor" stamped on it somewhere.
Lens Technologies
In 1977, Nikon released its series of automatic indexing, or AI, lenses. These lenses automatically adjust the aperture blades when mounted to a camera, even to new DSLR cameras. In 1986, Nikon sold its first autofocus, or AF, lenses, which form the basis for the entire Nikkor arsenal of 2011. In the 1990s, updated AF lenses hit the market, adding distance information (AF-D), internal focus motors (AF-I) or silent wave focus motors (AF-S, a faster autofocus system than the AF-I-type lenses).
Types of Lenses
In addition to the complex lens names given to Nikkor products, Nikon sorts its lenses by purpose. The names given to the types of lenses aren't different than those you'd find for a Canon or Pentax camera. Nikon sells Nikkor lenses with wide-angle, zoom, telephoto, fixed width, macro and fisheye focal ranges. Lenses are always measured in millimeters, with higher numbers indicating how far you can zoom.
Further Specifications
Each Nikkor lens has various distinguishing technologies that are included in its name or listed as abbreviations in the Nikon catalog. Take, for example, the AF-S DX NIKKOR
10-24mm f/3.5-4.5G ED lens. This is an autofocus lens with a focal range of 10 to 24mm (a wide angle) and maximum aperture values between 3.5 and 4.5 (which change depending on zoom). The "G" stands for "gelded," which means the lens doesn't have an aperture ring, and the "ED" stands for "extra-low dispersion," which reduces chromatic (color) aberrations when zooming. In addition to these additional letters, you may also see "VR" for "vibration reduction," which stabilizes your image to compensate for hand-held shooting in low light, and "IF," which stands for "internal focusing" and indicates that the lens only uses its middle lens element to focus, which speeds up autofocus.
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