Do you use a prime lens?

[karl101 10]

Hello,

 

Sometimes when I'm out and about in the touristy places, Matlock Bath for instance, there's the happy snappers with their point and shoots, then there's the others with the DSLR's, normally Canon and Nikon (these people are, by and large, white middle aged men) these appear to fall into two groups. The first who have bought a DSLR with the stock lens, which always makes me wonder why they didn't buy a good point and shoot, then there are the others who have bought a big throbbing telephoto lens, jutting out from the camera, almost as if to say "I'm middle aged and can't afford a sports car".

 

While I would admit to owning a DSLR, and being white, male and being almost middle aged, all my lenses are of a fixed focal length, or in the case of the Wide 12-24mm the telephoto component isn't important.

 

A prime lens has a fixed focus, no telephoto. I have three prime lenses, two for the Leica, a 35mm and 90mm and for the DSLR a recently purchased Sigma f1.4 50mm, sometimes I feel I am going against the trend, being an outsider, with a short stubby lens attached being silently mocked by the telephoto brigade with an upturn of the nose.

 

But I know better, I have a lens that sucks in the light, takes every photon and nurses it through the glass to place it on the sensor with clarity and precision. I have a lens aperture that can open wide at f1.4. The f-stop describes the speed of the lens, like when your eye pupil gets larger in the dark, the lower the number the more light is taken through the lens. Expensive telephoto lenses can only go down to f2.8, reasonably priced ones start at f4.

 

With the wider aperture comes the Depth Of Field, DOF, the wider the aperture the more shallow becomes the DOF. This is the creative side of a prime lens, with the lens close to a subject. For example, focusing someone's nose, then with a low f-stop there is the possibility of having the nose in sharp focus, but the eyes a little fuzzy in the bokeh. At some point your photo, hopefully, becomes something that could be considered art.

 

But I can see you telephoto fan-boyz snorting, "I can photo my subject from that distant hill over there". Obviously I have to get closer to my subject, but something your telephoto would struggle to do is separate the subject from the background, the brokeh, making the background fuzzy. Yes I know you can do this with the big long f2.8 canon EF-lenses, but look at the price, and people don't like a long lens protruding into their faces.

 

So, to conclude, there are two points, if you desire a DSLR why are you buying one? the DSLR is about the lens, if you don't want to buy into that, which could be expensive, consider a top of the range Point and Shoot. If you have a DSLR with a telephoto lens, then get a prime lens, stop being shy and bashful and close in on your subject...

 

With the Prime Lens

I can make railings look interesting:

 

Make Courgettes Look Edible (Madame Zuccini):

 

Deploy Killer Cute on Puppies:

 

K.

 

Further Reading:

telephoto: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephoto_lens

prime lens: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_lens

f-stops: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F_stops

bokeh: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokeh

DOF: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depth_of_field

 

PS. I can afford a sports car, but choose cameras. :-)

Edited October 19, 2011 by karl101

[andy_LT 10]

well i use prime lens, Nikon 35mm 1.8 and love it got super wide Tokina 11-16mm 2.8 and love that one too. all zoom lenses are ok (during day)

[DaFoot 10]

Love my 50mm f1.7 - prefer it over all my telephoto zooms

[Ryedo40 10]

I use a sigma 120-400mm telephoto lens but mainly for wildlife. If some of my subjects weren't so shy, I'd be happy to close in with a prime (if I had one).

[jezzyjj 10]

A prime lens has a fixed focus, no telephoto.

Not quite. A prime lens is a fixed focal length lens, not fixed focus and can be any focal length including telephoto.

 

I have three prime lenses, two for the Leica, a 35mm and 90mm and for the DSLR a recently purchased Sigma f1.4 50mm, sometimes I feel I am going against the trend, being an outsider, with a short stubby lens attached being silently mocked by the telephoto brigade with an upturn of the nose.

Lots of people who shoot video like to use primes as they tend to be better quality and some of the old manual focus lenses are not only hard to come by but are expensive now too.

 

Expensive telephoto lenses can only go down to f2.8, reasonably priced ones start at f4.

You can get f1.8 200mm and f2 135mm lenses.

 

As it happens I bought a Olympus Zuiko 24mm f2.8 today and am very impressed by the quality, not only much better than the Canon equivalent but about as sharp as the Canon 24mm f1.4. And most importantly a fraction of the size of the f1.4, almost a pancake lens in fact when mounted on my 5Ds. Ideal for I want to travel light with just one lens. Though my Olympus 50mm f1.4 is barely any bigger and I also have an old Tamron 135mm f2.5 which when used at portrait length is sharper than the Nikon 135mm f2 my friend just bought and about a third of the size too.

[ndegwa 10]

well my primes are:

50mm f/1.4

85mm f/1.8

135mm f/2

 

I have also had:

50mm f/1.8

150mm f/2.8

100 f/2.8

 

the last 2 being macros but still useful as portrait lenses or short telephotos. I love primes and rather the flexability in aperture than zoom, i have whats called reebok zoom. I do nhave zooms, 24-70 /2.8 17-40 f/4. The 17-40 really jsut stops my bag being blown away by the wind as cannot rememberwhen i last used it! rather tempted in saving a little and part exchaing it for a 24mm f/1.4 or a 35mm f/1.4 but decided on the focal length as they are very 2 different lenses to use.

[johno 10]

I have a few prime lens and am middle aged and also own two nikons and a motorbike a sports car. Plus I have a massive 600 mm prime but I don't go to Matlock

[Alien52 10]

Mental note to self "must never go to Matlock with telephoto lens". If you think that your photo of the fence is interesting then I am off to Specsavers.By the way my prime is an Optimus.

[livestrong 10]

If you think that your photo of the fence is interesting then I am off to Specsavers.

 

Agreed.

 

There is so much which is factually wrong with kark101's first post it is actually quite funny especially when they reckon they are someone "who knows better".

 

Thanks for the chuckle.

Edited October 21, 2011 by livestrong
typo

[jezzyjj 10]

Agreed.

 

There is so much which is factually wrong with kark101's first post it is actually quite funny especially when they reckon they are someone "who knows better".

 

Thank for the chuckle.

Indeed.

 

I just want to make a courgette pie out of the second photo.

[ndegwa 10]

ive actually just read the entire post, i love the word 'brokeh' is that broken bokeh!

 

a few things to consider! the telephoto weilding guys, maybe they like the compressed feel to their images, should look up compressed landscape photography for a start, or maybe they are getting used to their beasts. subject isolation is not only down to the f stop, the distances involved play a big factor. so yes they can still theoretically acheive the bokeh you get from your lenses.

 

kit lenses, not the best in the world but hey im sure you had one on your first dslr? unless of course you had the money to start of with a full kit of lenses. i didnt, but i got the images i wanted and hence was happy with just having the kit lens.

Edited October 21, 2011 by ndegwa

[livestrong 10]

Just read it again before bed and it made me smile... please tell me it was tongue in cheek humour with deliberate mistakes and not a genuine rant.