Zoom and Prime wide angle lens

[baan]

Hi! I'm interested in purchasing a wide angel lens but torn btwn the the two, zoom and prime. Can somebody tell me what they recommend, please?...Thank You!

[Fusion07]

Hi! I'm interested in purchasing a wide angel lens but torn btwn the the two, zoom and prime. Can somebody tell me what they recommend, please?...Thank You!

Pro class zooms are pretty damned good nowaydays, depending on what you are intending to shoot. Many zooms (L Quality can almost match a decent prime but no surpass it IMO) Take a look here and make some comparisons.

http://www.photozone.de/

[jerryph]

I have both, but prefer primes myself. Primes will always give me better results, and are often much faster. I do not see many 24-70 F/1.4 zooms around. :D

If budget is a concern, zooms are the right choice. If ultimate quality is is your goal... primes rule. ;)

[Fusion07]

Surely there is always going to be a balance between cost and quality. Undoubtable primes are faster and on the whole will give sharper images. Primes are the way to go if you have the time to use them,and the money top buy them. Zooms on the other hand give more flexability and unless you pixel peep generally you will not see a great differance for general photo taking. JMO..:):)

[jerryph]

Surely there is always going to be a balance between cost and quality.
Yes there is, it is your budget that determines the balance. :)


...Zooms on the other hand give more flexability and unless you pixel peep generally you will not see a great differance for general photo taking. JMO..:):)

I am constantly surprised at the difference between my 135mm prime shots vs the approximate 135mm shots from my 70-200. The same can be said of my Nikkor 24-70 (arguably one of the top zooms in the world) vs the Sigma 50mm F/1.4 prime.

Primes make you work more (zoom with your feet... lol), and yes, mostly they are faster glass, but the quality and look of the shots is different. I will go so far as to say contrast is better, the shot is visibly sharper even when not pixel peeping, the background rendition of the bokeh is way smoother and more pronounced and in general all measureable distortions are lower vs the same focal length of a zoom.

If you do not mind the extra cost (and nowadays looking at the price of the latest high quality zooms and high quality primes, its not all that far apart now from the point of view of what you get), if your style is conducive to moving around more, and you enjoy shallow depth of field or the advantages of shooting in low light, you will gladly give up flexibility for the advantages primes offer.

That said, I shot another wedding last night, and it was nice having the choice to choose prime or zoom at any given moment of the evening. :)

[Fusion07]

Yes there is, it is your budget that determines the balance. :)



I am constantly surprised at the difference between my 135mm prime shots vs the approximate 135mm shots from my 70-200. The same can be said of my Nikkor 24-70 (arguably one of the top zooms in the world) vs the Sigma 50mm F/1.4 prime.

Primes make you work more (zoom with your feet... lol), and yes, mostly they are faster glass, but the quality and look of the shots is different. I will go so far as to say contrast is better, the shot is visibly sharper even when not pixel peeping, the background rendition of the bokeh is way smoother and more pronounced and in general all measureable distortions are lower vs the same focal length of a zoom.

If you do not mind the extra cost (and nowadays looking at the price of the latest high quality zooms and high quality primes, its not all that far apart now from the point of view of what you get), if your style is conducive to moving around more, and you enjoy shallow depth of field or the advantages of shooting in low light, you will gladly give up flexibility for the advantages primes offer.

That said, I shot another wedding last night, and it was nice having the choice to choose prime or zoom at any given moment of the evening. :)

I agree, primes are Ace if your way of working and the type of work you do will allow the luxury. I use my primes whenever I can but I generally find for my type of photography zooms tend to work better for me. That said I will often have one camera with a mid-range zoom and the other with a prime (normally 50mm f1.8 or 85mm f1.8). :).