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Originally Posted by Wunderbar
Definitely good knowledge in this thread for me. Turns out the camera I'm getting comes with a Vivitar f3.4 28-70mm zoom lens. What the hell does that mean? I don't think that's the stock lens obviously, so is that good or bad? :\
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f3.4 refers to the aperture of the lens - also known as the lens speed. The lower the number the better because the faster the lens, the more light can get to the film/sensor. It means you can take pictures in lower light areas without needing a flash. (this is a very basic explanation)
The 28-70mm refers to the focal length of the lens. If it's got two numbers like yours does, it's a zoom lens. the lower the low number, the wider the shots you can take. The higher the high number, the closer you can zoom in. You have a "starter" lens there - it takes pictures in the typical range of, say, a point and shoot. The longer zoom lenses are around 200-300mm, while telephoto lenses are 600-1200.
That lens, I don't think you'll like very much once you start learning about photography. It's pretty slow, especially for such a low focal length lens, which means you'll be relying on the flash a lot unless you're outside. And flashes are annoying because they tend to wash out colors and flatten out objects, in addition to giving your subjects the dreaded redeye.
I'm guessing you'll supplement that lens down the road with a 70-200 or 70-300mm zoom lens, and you might end up replacing your 28-70 lens with something faster, but for a starter camera, you'll be fine with what you've got.