Hi everybody, Wanta start a discussion about zooms vs. primes? :-)
I was out meandering around yesterday looking for autumn fall color shots and the thought occurred to me that my prime lenses have seen too little use lately. I usually have a zoom attached as the default lens... why? Convenience maybe, or maybe I'm afraid I'll miss a shot because I had a 28mm lens on-body when I needed a 200mm. When I do use a prime lens, I immediately take it off and put the zoom back on, in part, because the zoom is FAT and is harder to get in/out the lens pocket of the camera bag. I was blinded by a flash of insight and did some self-examination. Yes, I AM A PITIFUL EXAMPLE OF THE SPECIES, A ROTTEN HUSBAND AND BAD FATHER! Those things aside, I started thinking about how I have been shooting with a zoom and realized how hindering to creativity it seems to be for me. Even though the 28-200 does wide angle, when was the last time I consciously thought about using it that way. Or composed with it purposely at 28mm? I can't remember. What's happening is when I see a scene I consider shooting, I adjust the focal length [FL] :-) until I'm happy with what I see in the viewfinder and snap the picture. I feel likes it's turning me into a point and shooter. I haven't been using the wide-angle capability to it's full advantage, for instance, I could be using the short-focussing distance and greater DOF to my advantage composition-wise. I should be looking for those shots, and I DID when I purposely put a 28mm prime on, BEFORE I had a zoom. Same with longer lenses. With the zoom, I'm just using it to get closer, instead of thinking about how a long lens compresses things and then using it as a composition tool. And with the relatively small maximum apertures of the zooms, I think I've been missing shots a faster lens would allow, especially if I did not have a tripod. So... I've decided to take my zooms out of the camera bag for an indefinite period of time, at least a month, maybe forever unless it's a family vacation. I will only use a M 28mm, FA 43mm, FA 100mm macro, and M 200mm. I hope to see a difference in the results, both in quality and composition. Tom C. - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
