December 14th - A Prime Lens

Majority of people in today’s photography usually use a zoom lens and quite rightly so the versatility and the quality you can get from zoom lenses in today’s market is pretty impressive. But to get a real quality zoom lens which will give you a lot of light for your money i.e. f2.8 throughout the focal range, is a pretty expensive affair.  An alternative to this, if you require that wider aperture, is a prime lens. A prime lens is a lens with a fixed focal length for example the 50mm will always be 50mm and can’t be changed. So if you wanted to shoot at 35mm, 50mm and 100mm you would have to buy 3 lenses. Now you’re asking why you would want to spend money on 3 lenses when one zoom lens would suffice? But in the modern age of photography prime lenses still have a place and are a must for any kit bag, especially for the photographer who occasionally shoots in low light.  

When zoom lenses first arrived on the scene the optical quality rarely matched that of the prime lens.   In today's market the higher end zoom lenses generally produce similar quality as the prime but carry a very hefty price tag with them. At the lower end of the zoom lens market the prime lens will win every time.

The main advantages of prime lenses in modern day photography are price, weight and speed; you get a lot of light for your money with a prime lens! An inexpensive prime lens can generally provide as good or even better quality as a high-end expensive zoom lens. For example one of the best prime lenses that Canon produce is the Canon 50mm F1.4 which you can now get for £271; that’s unbelievable value for a lens which can produce pin sharp images in low light with milky blurred backgrounds! Nikon also do a 50mm lens which you can buy for just over £300 which is the Nikon 50mm F1.4. With every manufacture you will find a prime lens in their arsenal of lenses for a low price, that is why they are still a very attractive proposition in this day’s market!