Who shoots only with prime lenses?

[thepaulreid]

For my Pentax K5 I have a 28mm SMC-M and a 50mm SMC-M. These are great lenses, although I use the 28mm more for portraits. I also have the 18-55mm kit lens! This is shocking compared to the primes, if you zoom in to crop the image quality is awful! But good for wide-angle.

 

[Helen B]

Ignoring the cameras I use that only have primes available, I do tend to use primes a lot more than zooms. I've been using Nikons for 40 years, and during that time I have owned and sold the old 35-70 f/3.3-4.5 Nikkor and the Angenieux 28-70 f/2.6. Currently I have the 17-35 f/2.8 and a Nikon-converted Leica 35-70 f/4. That's all. Apart from the little Leica 35-70 which I carry when travelling with the D3 I hardly ever use zooms. I quite like the old Leica Tri-Elmar 28-35-50 f/4, which isn't a true zoom.

For Nikon primes I have the three PC-E lenses (24, 45 and 85 - invaluable for their purpose), 16 mm fisheye, 20 mm, three 28 mm including the Schneider PC Super Angulon, the old 35 mm f/1.4, a bunch of 50s, the 60 mm AF-D Micro, three 85s (PC-E, the f/1.4 AF-D; old Nikkor-H f/1.8; new f/1.8G on order) two 105s (the old AI-S f/2.5 and the DC f/2) and the 200 mm f/4 AF-D Micro. I sold my Angenieux 180 mm f/2.3 because I hardly ever used it and the value had risen threefold since I bought it.

I tend to use primes for most of my personal work because I see each series of pictures as having a particular perspective, so primes make me happy. Having different qualities of lenses available is also good - that's why I have the old classic 85 and 105 lenses - they are cheap and have their own pleasing character. The overriding thing might be that for the vast majority of the photography I've done, primes were the only option so I've always been used to them.

 

[o hey tyler]

I have 3 prime lenses, and one zoom lens. 35 f/2, 50 f/1.4, 85 f/1.4

I rarely use the zoom unless I need to be wider than 35mm.

 

[analog.universe]

I don't shoot strictly primes, but I do prefer them. My only zoom is my 11-16, which I probably wouldn't own if someone made an 11 or 12mm prime.

For primes I have 24/1.4, 35/1.4, 50/2.0, 85/1.8, and 135/2.8.

Every time I consider a zoom, after shopping I end up just wanting a prime instead... Been thinking about a 70-200 for a while, but honestly, I will probably get a Sigma 180/2.8 macro instead, time will tell...

 

[Overread]

I appear to have a sickness - the only macros I own are primes.


Er wait I mean the only primes I own are macro lenses
It's not so much that I don't want or like primes, but that many of the most affordable ones are in ranges that I just don't use all that much to justify owning them (nice lenses that they are). So I end up with zooms - 8-16mm, 70-200mm f2.8, 120-300mm f2.8. The primes I use tend to end up being macro lenses because I use them for macro - 35mm, 70mm, 150mm, 65mm. All macros, but also working well as regular primes (excluding the 65mm which is a special case macro only lens).

The primes I really want are in the £5k+price range -- the 300mm f2.8 - 500mm f4 - 800mm.

 

[Dao]

I have few primes.

14mm f/2.8 (non fisheye) , 50mm f/1.4 , 85mm f/1.8 and 100mm f/2.8 (macro)

But the standard zoom mounted on the camera most of the time.

 

[molested_cow]

I don't just ONLY primes, but I do use them most of the time, probably because my zoom lens suck.

My most frequently used lens are 50mm and 20mm. Sometimes I don't even know why I carry the other two zooms with me.