Love them or hate them. But one thing you can’t do is ignore them. Prime lenses are some of the top favorites of photographers around the globe. What’s so great about them? In this video, Toby Gelston explains the five top reasons why you should invest in a prime lens:
What is a prime lens?
A prime lens has a fixed focal length; it doesn’t zoom. But many photographers favor them for their high quality.
What are the advantages of prime lenses?
1. Prime lenses are blessed with very wide apertures, ideal for isolating your subjects from the background and capturing beautiful bokeh.
Prime lenses have wide maximum apertures that create lovely bokeh.
2. Wide apertures are also ideal for maximizing the light getting into your camera. This makes prime lenses a good choice for low light photography.
Prime lenses are well-suited for low light photography.
3. Because of their smaller, simpler design, prime lenses have fewer moving parts, less distortion, and better quality images than many zoom lenses.
4. You get more value for your money. While you’re only able to zoom with your feet, the quality trade off is often worth it.
5. They are smaller and lighter compared to zoom lenses, which make them great for lugging around.
Prime lenses are much smaller than zoom lenses.
Do you have a prime lens? What do you like about it?
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Easier manual focusing due to the better visibility through the usually wider maximum aperture of a good prime, compared with most zooms.
Paul
Hello,
I use a 50mm f1.8 Nikon lens on a Nikon D90.
What I like abouth this lens is the wonderfull bokeh en sharpness.
I love my Olympus m. Zuiko primes. I have nearly every one they make (need 25 mm). I have never really used the kit 14-40 lens at all. I bought the 75-300 zoom, which is good for situations my primes can’t cover, but relatively huge.
I purchased a prime because I’m a grandfather, well a great grandfather and wanted quality close ups of my family. I get exactly what you pointed out in this article! Wish I would have had the lens years ago.
Loved your articles please keep pumping them out ! Your depth of field stuff also affirmed what I need to concentrate on in shooting scenery. How is that for success? You helped me twice!
Lyle
The reason I like primes is sharpness. Those puppies are as sharp as a tack. I usually get shaper pictures with primes than with a zoom. So, I sacrifice the flexibility of zoom for the sharpness of a prime. But if the sigma 18-35 1.8 is any indication of a trend, I may no longer have to. I’ll have both flexibility and sharpness all in one lens.