Our discussion forums are a great resource for people looking to learn about photography, and it's therefore not surprising that certain topics are raised time after time. In many cases they are answered quickly and correctly, but certain topics are still subject to a great deal of confusion. One of these is the deceptively simple question of what the word 'standard' means in relation to lenses. It appears that there are certain misconceptions associated with this topic which reappear time after time, so in a bid to put the record straight, here's my attempt at an (almost) definitive answer.

There's something that's been troubling me a bit recently, and I want to get it off my chest. It's an irritation about the photographic equipment available today, and its fitness for the purpose for which it's most likely to be used. It has germinated over the course of testing an array of 50mm prime lenses, developed further with the recent arrival at the dpreview offices of an array of new fast primes, and finally crystallized with the relative lack of interesting new products and ideas at PMA. And it's this; most manufacturers seem be be thinking very conservatively, treating digital as though nothing's changed from the days of 35mm film, and simply aren't making the right lenses for photographers today.