Zoom or Prime Lenses

If you are taking photographs using a camera with interchangeable lenses than you will be making various decisions about what lens to use. Why not take a look at my previous photography post on Focal Length of Lenses.

This post will quickly discuss why you might choose a zoom lens or a prime lens for you photography.

- What is a Prime Lens?

• Prime Lenses have only one focal length.
• They come in many many different focal lengths (i.e. 20mm, 50mm, 100mm and so on.)
• You cannot zoom in and out.
• Usually cheaper in relation to quality.

- What is a Zoom Lens?

• A Zoom Lens has a range of focal lengths.
• This means that as you turn the zoom ring it moves through 20mm-100mm (for example).
• This is zooming.
• Zoom Lenses are convenient.
• Its like having many lenses all in one.
• They are a wide angle and telephoto at the same time.

The focal length specification of a prime lens will describe itself as 50mm (one number). A zoom lens will describe it’s focal length as 20mm-100mm (two numbers). In other words, the zoom lens is like many prime lenses in one.

So why would you bother with a prime lens? It sounds restricting.

Zoom lenses are said to be improving in quality but are still regarded as not as good a primes.

Prime Lenses are considered to assist in better quality, sharper and cleaner photographs.

One is designed for a sole purpose and one is multi-tasking.

At university we were all required to use prime lenses and not zoom lenses. There are many reasons for this other than quality. It also makes you think much harder about what you are doing.

Thinking Harder:

Prime Lenses make you think harder. Rather than being able to control your environment by bringing it closer to you or farther away whenever you desire, you are forced to concentrate you energy on a common mode. You have to think harder to plan how you will photography the subject given the circumstances. You choose a certain prime with a certain focal length for a certain purpose and then stick to it.

It also takes  a lot of pressure off you – you do not need to photography everything in sight in 20 different focal lengths. As you cannot zoom in, you don’t!

Thinking more about the process will also get you more in touch with photography as a medium as you learn not to take the photograph for granted. Your input is increased and you final shot is achieved through higher levels of creativity and understanding of how the camera works in relation to your viewpoint, the world and the science of the lens.

There a benefits to zoom lenses of course. Freedom to take one lens with you means you needn’t worry about photographing all sorts of moments and subjects.

Thanks for Reading,

Dan

Focal Length : Quick Lowdown on Lenses

Focal Length (mm) is about how wide or narrow the field of view is and how close the subject appears through the lens.

The shorter the focal length, the wider the angle of view (wide angle). The longer the focal length, the narrower the angle of view (telephoto). That also corresponds with how “zoomed in” the image appears to you. A wide angle appears to be “zoomed out”, and the a telephoto appears “zoomed in”. Simple.

Wide lenses are low in millimeters, i.e. 20(mm). Narrow lenses are high in millimeters, i.e. 200(mm). The range is enormous. 50mm is considered standard and similar to the way the human eye sees.

Physically, Wide angle lenses are short and telephoto lenses are long.  i.e. photographers you see at the side of a football match have massive lens as there are getting close shots of the action from far away. A wide angle lens is very short.

Wide angle lens allow you to stand close to the subject and still maintain a wide view. Telephoto lens bring things closer to you.

Macro Lenses:

Macro Lenses are for close ups. They have a long barrel and can focus on subjects that are extremely close to the lens. They are designed to focus on a small area and capture the object the same size as it appears in real life (ratio 1:1). Macro Lenses are designed for the above so are not so good to use for other photography.

If you are on a budget, you can get lenses that claim to be good at macro photography too! Comparable to most things in life, equipment that is multifunctional is not as good as something specific to one purpose. But thats up to you to decide. Here is an example of a lens with macro capabilities which is also a wide angle lens.

You can also set your compact digital cameras to a macro setting. Turn the dial to the picture of a “flower”. Use it for close ups. Wahey!

Macro lens range from 50mm-200mm. Apply the same theories as explained earlier.

Prime & Zoom Lens:

Just a quick note – Prime lenses are one fixed focal length (i.e. 50mm, 80mm or 100mm for example) which means you cannot zoom in and out. Zoom lenses can adjust to many focal lengths, as it can zoom in and out.

Prices of Lenses:

Range from £70 – £10,000+

I have bought a wide angle lens that cost £200 and I use for everyday photography. When I was a student I never paid more than £380 for a lens.

Telephoto lenses that are the very expensive ones.

“Prime lenses” are better quality. You have to pay much more to get better quality out of “zoom lenses”. There will be a post on Prime and Zooms another time!

When you have considered the above you can apply the rule that in general, the more you pay the better the lens. But in the end, you can make great photos with cheap lens too if you are clever and creative.

Lens are tools, like paint brushes. You choose what kind of brush stroke to use, before you apply the paint. You have a rough idea of what you are aiming for and the intent of the brush stroke. Its part of the process for designing the photograph – the perspective. It also has practical uses, so you choose based on physical variables too. Such as, will you be far away from your subject? If you use a zoom lens, you centainly won’t need to think that much… is that a good thing or a bad thing?

Thanks for reading,

Dan Larsson