Zooming with a Fixed Length lens

[djacobox372]

I often find that having a lens that is two stops slower is even more "limiting." You can always make up for zoom by moving or cropping, but you can't make up for losing two stops of speed and DOF control.

 

[SCraig]

You do realize that there exists primes in the 300mm and 500mm range?

I am aware of that, but thank you for reminding me. I even have one in my 35mm bag of toys.

 

[usayit]

Try getting a bird to stand still so you can get close enough to take a closeup with a 50mm lens. I like my 150-500 zoom (and my 70-300 zoom and my 17-70 zoom).

..

 

[Crollo]

If you really wanted to get an up close and personal shot of a bird you'd use a 400mm f/5.6 or longer. The birds won't be afraid of you running up to them with a 50mm lens on your camera that way.

You're completely missing his point and actually proving it very thoroughly. The 'move to zoom' is obviously idiotic in this application so you're changing your focal length instead of moving closer... The concept of a zoom.

Restricting yourself to ONE perspective and simply working all your photographs off that perspective is just plain moronic. Instead you should consider which perspective is best for your shot [compressed, or stretched] and THEN base your position off that. A 35mm lens perspective will NOT look at all good on a image suitable for a 85mm telephoto perspective.

 

[o hey tyler]

If you really wanted to get an up close and personal shot of a bird you'd use a 400mm f/5.6 or longer. The birds won't be afraid of you running up to them with a 50mm lens on your camera that way.

You're completely missing his point and actually proving it very thoroughly. The 'move to zoom' is obviously idiotic in this application so you're changing your focal length instead of moving closer... The concept of a zoom.

Restricting yourself to ONE perspective and simply working all your photographs off that perspective is just plain moronic. Instead you should consider which perspective is best for your shot [compressed, or stretched] and THEN base your position off that. A 35mm lens perspective will NOT look at all good on a image suitable for a 85mm telephoto perspective.

So you're saying that wildlife shooters that use long telephoto primes are selling themselves short because they don't have the ability to zoom with that particular lens?

That's hilarious. :lmao: Good one Crollo. Keep shooting film, and bragging about it like it's some big accomplishment.

 

[Crollo]

So you're saying that people trying to take pictures of a bird with a 50mm aren't selling themselves short because they don't have the ability to zoom with that particular lens?

That's hilarious.

 

[Crollo]

You do realize that there exists primes in the 300mm and 500mm range?

Yes but you are still changing your focal length therefore zooming, you're just not adjusting the focal length using a zoom ring.

Not to say there's anything wrong with primes, it's just that using a 50mm prime for a 300mm application by moving instead of changing focal length [by swapping primes or using a zoom], is a bit illogical...

 

[c.cloudwalker]

Prime vs Zoom... there is no universal right answer. Me... I prefer primes but I've spent a fair share on zooms as well.

And I prefer primes because, even today, I think they are sharper, usually faster for a lower cost and lighter.


Some further thoughts regarding previous posts:
* Just because we are talking primes, doesn't mean just a 35mm or 50mm
* Just because we are talking primes, doesn't mean that you are only carrying a single lens.

Both of those are very true. Prime shooters usually have an array of lenses covering a wide range of focal lengths. The lenses in my 35mm film kit covers from 24 to 250mm. 24, 28, 35, 50, 85, 135, 200 and 250. True, there are some gaps, but those are not very worrisome.

* Just because we are talking primes, doesn't mean that you must carry 4-5 lenses to fill in every possible focal length gap to equate a focal range of a zoom.
* Its not necessarily an This or That question. My smallest package for a walk around was 24-105L + 50mm f/1.4.
* Both have their usefulness.

Some people have to have every possible focal length covered because they don't know what they are going to shoot when they go out. But if you're going after specific images, you usually only carry a few of the lenses

Best post here. To each his own, really.

The one thing I've noticed however with a lot of zoom photogs is that the fact of not zooming by feet keeps them from looking at a scene from different angles, heights, etc. They tend to stand in one place and zoom, and forget to move to get a possibly better picture.

 

[EchoingWhisper]

It's actually a good idea to get a 24mm, 85mm 1.4 and a 1.7 teleconverter or 2.0 teleconverter.