Why use a prime lens when zoom lenses are so versatile? Is there a compelling reason to use one?
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- Опубликовано: 13 сен 2024
- As the quality of zoom lenses improved over the years, the use of prime lenses had been steadily dropping. These days I'm sure that some photographers have never owned a prime lens. Is there a reason why we should use prime lenses? Manufacturers have been churning out great prime lenses, so is it time to get on board and buy one?
#fujifilm #nikon #canon #sony #leica #voigtlander #sigma #tokina #tamronlens #pentax
#learnphotography #photographybasics #beginnerphotography #betterphotography #photographybypetercharles #primelens
another great video
I do primes primarily because of size and weight. I like my kit to be as small as possible. Which is why I only have two very small zooms: The Fuji 15-45 and the Sigma 10-18.
Back in the early 1970s, I bought my first zoom lens a -- Nikkor 43-86mm f/3.5 AI. Its image quality was so poor that it was one of the only lenses I got rid of for poor performance.
Decades later, after a friend gave me two zoom lenses, I realized that zoom lenses had drastically improved. I now own and use six auto focus zoom lenses that cover a range from 14mm to 200mm.
I remember the reputation of that 43-86mm lens. Even the camera store owner warned me of it.
You did a great job of explaining the pros and cons of each lens type. Additionally, many lower priced zooms do not have a constant aperture, which can impede your work. I'm a people shooter, both in studio and location; models, gr. seniors, events, etc., so I tend to use zooms and primes, depending on what gig I'm going to shoot. Your images that you posted were very good. I like how you posed and composed a lot. One critique, and it has nothing to do with your content or photography--put your video camera lower, because, at least to me, it's distracting that you are looking over me. Kind of like a teacher looking at the place where the wall meets the ceiling when they're lecturing. Other than that, you did good.
This was an older video from last year, reloaded from my other channel. Back then I had a screen mounted on the camera to check framing etc. I had a bad tendency to look at that screen instead of the camera. The screen is now gone, the studio re-rigged, so all of my current stuff has me looking directly at a lower mounted camera.
I am still using primes. My small local shop had to order them all from Nikon. I kept my 70/200 2.8 G which I almost never use. However it is a great lens.
@2:56 Other reasons I prefer primes to zooms:
1. No zoom lenses available for my Leica M6 rangefinder. Variable focal length lenses are not zoom lenses.
2. No perspective control zoom lenses are available.
3. Not many zooms are available for my medium format cameras.
4. No zoom lenses are available for my large format cameras.
5. No zoom lenses are available for my fixed prime lens cameras.
I am a pure Prime guy (24, 35, 50, 85, 105 macro and 135)
I just can't stand the look of 2.8 or smaller aperture zooms, unless it's beyond 300mm... The thing with primes (especially at 1.2 or 1,4) is that you can almost get Away with freezing the subject under unfavorable lighting conditions.. Both primes and 2.8 zooms have their varying restrictions but I will grab a prime over a zoom 9 times out of ten
My Nikon F5 loves my 50-300 ED AI-S from Japan.
I primarily shoot primes, but I have a travel zoom handy (24-120mm equivalent focal length, f/4) for when I travel with someone. Because I don't want to make people wait for my clumsy hands to change lenses every two scenes :v
100% agree with you about the power of constraints/limitations.
I feel very fortunate that throughout my journey as a storyteller I've pretty much always had some hard limits in play. Most of my photography is done in abandoned sites - and I've had to push the limits of pretty much every constraint you can imagine. Equipment, angles, light, time, and environmental hazards just to get started.
I'm not a daredevil or anything but on occasion I've found that the shot I want requires one hand for my camera and the other bouncing the light from my flashlight off a wall - and hoping I've braced my legs and torso enough to keep the shot steady. And not slip and break a limb 😄
Overcoming challenges and exploring limits strengthens us in ways that we mightn't foresee.
Anyway, good video - have a sub as thanks 😊
In my 16 years of digital photography I have used both primes and zoom lenses, I photographed many different subjects but the one time I have used both was while photographing events, their are times when you need the ability to isolate subjects and also need the fast aperture then depending on the event their are times when you can't move around because you become a distraction and say when you're photographing an outdoor wedding ceremony you need to pick your time to move so you don't miss an important shot. The years that I photographed events, I had a full time job and for several years I photographed events while retired so I photographed events by myself and so I had to carry a wide variety of glass depending on the type of event I was photographing.
Nice words Peter. Just coming back to primes after becoming a lazy photographer with zooms.
I know what you’re getting at, but playing devil’s advocate for a minute…I’m a special case, but I was severely crippled in a wreck with a drunk driver, so zooms are a necessity to me. It would be extremely exhausting and painful to constantly be walking around to get the framing just right. (I know, this doesn’t apply to most)
Zooms also allow me to play with perspectives instantly without having to reach in my bag and try 15 different lenses to get the perspective of the subject just right. Changing lenses increases the chances of introducing dust to your sensor by 1,000,000%
Speaking of bags, I have learned while carying my equipment from job to job, I’d much rather have a much, much smaller lighter bag of gear than a very slightly smaller lens on my camera. Let’s face it, modern zoom lenses for modern mirrorless cameras have become very close to the size and weight of primes. IQ as well. The microscopic optical differences would only be noticed by extreme pixel peeping.
I get your point, I’m just saying that there are many cases where primes aren’t useable and the advantages sound very much like the Vinyl vs. Digital music arguments. 😉
This isn't a contest about primes vs. zooms, rather it's about deliberately using limitations in our gear to kickstart our creativity.
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