Post by Steve (FloppyDog) on Oct 4, 2009 8:02:05 GMT -5
I shoot with a 50mm f/1.4 and love the lens, but rarely open it up all the way. The dof at 1.4 is almost useless for many situations and is too tempting to use in low light, even when you know you should be shooting at at lease 5.6 or tighter. 
In fact, I only own one zoom (Sigma 70-200 2.8 which my wife has claimed so it's now in her bag), the rest of my lenses are all primes. With this said, you'd think a person who shoots exclusively in primes would recommend their use, but honestly they're a real pain in the butt.
Case in point: Last weekend, I'm set up shooting a mountain scene near Mt. Rainier, (D200, 20mm Nikkor, tripod). During setup a beautiful blue bird lands on a stump nearby. So, I figured these are my options;
1. Hope the bird likes photographers and is willing to hang around a while for portraits.
2. Waive my Harry Potter wand to freeze time while I change glass.
3. Face the fact the ol' CF card is going home without any birds images today.
I ended up going with option #3.
Don't get me wrong, primes (good, quality primes) are excellent lenses and worth every penny. They tend to be very fast, focus quickly and accurately, and the "sweet spot" is really the whole lens. They're true colors show when using them for very specific types of photographs.
Well, I still got a few landscapes out of the deal.
In fact, I only own one zoom (Sigma 70-200 2.8 which my wife has claimed so it's now in her bag), the rest of my lenses are all primes. With this said, you'd think a person who shoots exclusively in primes would recommend their use, but honestly they're a real pain in the butt.
Case in point: Last weekend, I'm set up shooting a mountain scene near Mt. Rainier, (D200, 20mm Nikkor, tripod). During setup a beautiful blue bird lands on a stump nearby. So, I figured these are my options;
1. Hope the bird likes photographers and is willing to hang around a while for portraits.
2. Waive my Harry Potter wand to freeze time while I change glass.
3. Face the fact the ol' CF card is going home without any birds images today.
I ended up going with option #3.
Don't get me wrong, primes (good, quality primes) are excellent lenses and worth every penny. They tend to be very fast, focus quickly and accurately, and the "sweet spot" is really the whole lens. They're true colors show when using them for very specific types of photographs.
Well, I still got a few landscapes out of the deal.
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