Kit, pro-sumer and professional glass – what’s the difference?

Nikkor/Nikon 18-55mm kit lens (image courtesy of ndreview.com http://www.ndreview.com/)

I was chatting with a buddy of mine this morning and he asked me to explain to him (in terms he would understand) the difference between a kit lens, a pro-sumer lens and a professional lens – and so I did. Apparently, he liked my explanation so he asked me if I could enter my explanation as a blog entry here in my so-so blog. Having not written an article for a couple of weeks now, his suggestion is not a bad idea.

Unless you buy a DSLR body only, the package usually comes with a kit lens. For Canon cameras, the standard kit lens for their entry level DSLRS is usually the 18-55mm glass. The kit lens has been maligned so many times by so many people that uninformed newbies tend to think that a kit lens is trash – some of them wind up buying a DSLR body then wait for several months to save-up for a pro-sumer or professional lens. All that time, lots of excellent photographic opportunities have passed them by. Kit lens, while not “in the leage” as professional lenses, are not really that bad. They produce very good images and lets the shooter fire of the shutter right out of the box. It’s like the tyre that comes with your car. While not like an aftermarket performance tyre, it lets you get from point A to point B.

Canon EF 18-55mm kit (image courtesy of Canon USA)

The glass of the kit lens is not as good as what you’d find on a professional lens and but the components of  the plastic body are pretty much the same, except for the “rear end” of the lens: kit lenses uses plastic composite while a pro-sumer lens has a metal rear end. Same with the tyre we’re using as a point for analogy: off-the-showroom tyres are not really performance tyres that you’d want to race in or corner at 75kph with as the tyres are not constructed for that type of abuse. The images that a kit lens gives might not be as sharp as that of a pro-sumer or a professional lens but it’s not to shabby either. Perfect for people who just are weekend shooters who don’t care much about the “gadgetry” that goes with the lens and just care about capturing the moment that they want: similar to a family guy who has a sedan – all he cares about is getting his family to and from their point of destination, regardless of the type of tyres he has on his ride.

Canon 70-300mm IS USM (image courtesy of http://www.reviewdigitalcamera.com/)

However, some people want a little “opmh!” on their tyres: they want tyres that have bigger with that have better grip so that they can corner a little bit faster. Same with pro-sumer lenses. The glass that comes with a pro-sumer lens is better that what you’d find on a kit lens but not like what you can find in professional lenses e.g. Canon’s L lens series. Glass on camera lenses come in elements. Some lenses have 5 elements (meaning five glasses inside) while others have fifteen. Pro-sumer lenses produces sharper pictures and usually have wider apertures compared to kit lenses. Normally, kit lens starts at 3.5 but pro-sumer lens usually starts at 2.8 but there are pro-sumer lenses that start at 3.5 as well. For the sake of our discussion, let’s stick to 2.8. A lens with an f/2.8 opening lets in more light compared to a lens with a f/3.5 opening and since the optics are better on pro-sumer lenses, the resulting image is usually sharper and crisper. Same with tyres. The “kit tyres” that come with most cars is 165/R13 or 185/R14.

Aftermarket performance tyres usually start at 195/R15 going as far as 225/R18. The rubber compound used on these tyres are usually much better compared to the “kit tyre”. As any car owner would know (I’m assuming here), aftermarket performance tyres usually do better as they give the car more grip and can improve the performance of the car. The IS (Image Stabilization) line of Canon (non L lens) offers pretty good selection of pro-sumer lenses for Canon Users.These lenses offer “more bang” compared to kit lenses. However, “more bang” is subjective: a photographer who knows is basics (composition, light, exposure) can arguably take better photos with a kit lens compared to a hotshot, new DSLR owner with a swanky IS lens but doesn’t know what he’s doing.

Professional lenses are the slick tyres of the DSLR world. They are expensive for one reason: they perform well. Lenses like oh so fabulous (but uber expensive) Carl Zeiss lenses and the Canon L lenses are de facto choices of professionals (that use the Canon system) as the image these lens can produce are so crisp and so sharp, you can cut butter with it. Okay, I’m exageratting here but I think you get my point. If you get the chance to go a sporting event or to a glamour photo shoot by a famous photographer, you’ll notice that most of the people behind the camera use professional lenses as they give the image quality the pros need and the clients want. Much like racing (slick) tyres: these tyres give the kind of grip that professional racers need in their quest for the chequered flag.

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS USM (image courtesy of http://www.digitalwonderland.de/)

As with pro tyres, pro lenses are expensive. Compared to kit lenses, the quality of glass used on pro lenses are more refined and “exquisite”. It’s like comparing the glass used on French crystal champagne glasses compared to the kind of glass you get with a champagne glass that sells for $ 9.95 for a set of 4. Usually, pro lenses have more elements compared to kit lenses – and they should as most kit lenses. Yeah, yeah – you can drink champagne on any of the two but a true connoisseur would “know the difference” and would prefer French crystal. The construction of professional lenses uses better materials compared to kit lenses. Usually but there are some systems (like Canon or Nikon) that use the same plastic composite for all their lenses but the quality of the glass used are different.

The bottom line for me is this: it’s not the bow and arrow that counts most of the time but the skill of the archer behind the arrow but any experienced archer would tell you that an composite bow arguably offers more “omph!” compared to your basic English long bow. Then again, an experienced archer behind an old long bow can probably place more tight and accurate groupings compared to an inexperienced archer that has an expensive, dandy long bow.

No matter what kind of lens you have, learn the basics and use these to build up your skill. Master a style and make your trademark using that style. Master your camera and its capabilities. If you’re able to do this, then it won’t matter much if you use a kit lens or a pro lens as your photos would come out spot on almost every time.

Happy shooting!