How To Choose A Lens, Primes vs Zooms
Everyone starts their foray into photography in generally one of two ways. We either use a friend or family members gear till we inevitably purchase our own or we dip our toes in the water and purchase a basic camera with a "kit" lens and call it a day. But when we outgrow our kit lens and feel the itch to buy some new Gear how does one decide between a prime lens and a zoom? What are the advantages of using primes over a zoom? Can't you just buy 1 lens that covers the entire focal range? It can be very intimidating even to a seasoned professional and this article aims to help you navigate the heavy forces at play when upgrading your glass.
To first understand what these two types of lenses are we need to first define just what the hell a zoom and prime lens are anyway. A zoom is any lens that covers more than once single focal length. Zoom lenses can be broken down into 4 categories; ultra wide, wide, telephoto and super telephoto. Examples of these would be an 11-16mm for ultra wide, wide is around 20-50mm, telephoto is around 50-100mm and anything past that would be considered super telephoto. These are not standardized but thinking about them in this way will get you where you need to be. A prime lens is any lens that only covers 1 focal length, prime meaning only 1 number or focal length. Examples are fairly obvious with 50mm, 85mm, 200mm etc. There are exotic lenses that sometimes people will refer to as fisheye or perspective control but no matter what physical effects they control all lenses are either prime or zoom.
Now that we know what kind of lenses we are talking about it's important to understand why a photographer would use one over the other. The most basic reason is personal preference as there really is no clear winner as both have their shortcomings. I have been a mixed shooter my entire life using both primes and zooms as I see fit and in general, I find I use prime lenses for video and zooms for photography. When it comes to any kind of action photography where there is a lot of uncontrollable movement I will always grab one of my professional zooms. They are flexible when you cannot physically move closer or if your subject is moving away from you. When I need to shoot in low light situations or I'm looking to add some unique practical effects I will always grab my prime lenses. Bokeh, flare, and depth of field generally are easier to control with a prime lens and give me sharper results than a zoom can provide.
As much as I rely on my professional zooms and their fast 2.8 apertures they come with a lot of drawbacks. I've shot with them for the last 8 years and my biggest complaint is how heavy they are. I completely understand why they are this heavy. To even be able to hold their sharpness, color and light transmission these lenses must have an insane amount of glass inside them. Couple that with the durability professionals demand and you have got a recipe for a bulky, heavy, beast of a lens. Primes have 1 job, be the best at their focal length and that's it. It's this balance of zooms offering flexibility vs the quality and speed a prime brings that is so hard for amateurs to understand.
It's been frequently expressed that manufacturers should make just 1 lens to cover every focal length and then we wouldn't need all these confusing options. And while I agree, having 1 lens would be simple, it completely spits in the face of what photography is. If everyone had 1 lens that did everything perfectly photography would be insanely boring and generic. Everyone is inspired by photography at some point in their life even if it's as simple as enjoying a photo for a few moments. But the reason you like these photos is because of the lens and choices made by the photographer. Would that photo be as good if it was shot on a kit lens? Or a prime? Probably not.
When it comes to choosing a zoom or a prime the first thing you should ask yourself is "what kind of photography do I like?" You can be a landscape photographer who only shoots primes and a newborn photographer who only shoots zooms, you just need to figure out you're style and what fits it best. I've been a zoom shooter all my life and I will always have them in my bag to pull out when the time calls. But the more I slow down and enjoy my work the more I find I am loving primes and their beautiful style they bring to my photography. Plus having all apertures above F/2 is amazing for my low light work!
