When You Love Prime Lenses, but Choose Zooms

Zoom lenses have come a long way in the last decade, but primes still hold the advantage in maximum aperture, portability, and often, image quality. All this is why a lot of photographers steadfastly stick with bags of prime lenses instead of just a zoom or two. So, why would a prime enthusiast use zoom lenses? This great video essay features an experienced photographer discussing the issue. 

Coming to you from James Popsys, this interesting video essay discusses why he prefers prime lenses but still chooses to use zooms. Primes can be quite nice, as they tend to be smaller and offer (often significantly) wider apertures and sharper photos, but of course, they lack the versatility of multiple focal lengths. And with the progress that zoom lenses have made, the gap has been closed quite a bit, making it a bit easier to opt for their convenience. On the other hand, there is the old "zoom with your feet" saying meant to discourage photographers from falling into lazy compositional habits, but with certain genres, such as landscape photography, it is sometimes a major challenge or even impossible to work this way. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Popsys.

Alex Cooke's picture

Alex Cooke is a Cleveland-based portrait, events, and landscape photographer. He holds an M.S. in Applied Mathematics and a doctorate in Music Composition. He is also an avid equestrian.

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