Poll: Primes or Zooms - Lets have a poll

What do you prefer?

  • Primes.

    Votes: 31 56.4%

  • Zooms.

    Votes: 11 20.0%

  • Pancakes.

    Votes: 13 23.6%
  • Total voters
    55
neoboy said:
I prefer a combinations of both depending on the circumstances and job at hand. I am a rather skint student though my main lens at the moment is a zoom but as a compromise I've been investing into some M42 glass which is actually really damn good once you get used to manual focus.
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Well,you've got a fine zoom now haven't you? :)
 
Heh, hi there! Admittedly was a bit of an impulse buy and different to what I originally wanted but a cracking bargain, I'll be fully road testing it over the weekend.
 
I've been through several Canon L zooms, and felt that their IQ and versatility got me a lot of "good" shots. For all that, I'm going through the process of moving to purely primes. I might not get quite as many "good" shots, but IMO I now get a higher % of what I consider to be "great" shots (at least within the context of my own photographic ability, which I'm certainly not going to claim is that brill).
 
A good mixture I fin is best, and some focal ranges are served very well be zoom lenses.
E.g. the Nikon 14-24 2.8 is sharper than basically any prime in that range from Zeiss/Leica/canon/nikon (except at 24mm).
Other zoom lens ranges are just very useful , e.g. 70-200 is great range to have on a lens.

But I tend to find I use most of my zooms at 2 or 3 focal lengths only, always the extremes, and occasionally something close to the middle, e.g. 50mm equivalent.
SO I want to go all prime, but there is a big cost factor.

A 24-70 2.8 is a lot cheaper than a 24mm 1.4, 35mm 1.4 , 50mm 1.4 and 85mm 1.4 prime. The
50mm is really needed but then it is the only one that is affordable! I would also maybe skip he 35mm but I do sometimes like that length for street scenes and it doubles up as a normal prime on DX
Ideally I would have the set of 1.4 primes, and a 24-120 f/4 for convenience,, coupled with the 14-24 2.8 and 70-200 2.8.
 
Raymond Lin said:
Primes.

The 35/1.4 is what stays on my camera most of the time. 85mm on the other.

(only work if you have 2 bodies)

I do like my 24-70, but the 35/1.4 produces photos like its been sprinkled with fairy dust...magic
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This. People don't understand when I say I think the 24-70 is a boring lens. But it's pretty clear when you shoot with the 35mm 1.4.
 
If I did not have to worry about time or expense then it would be primes, but I do so I prefer zooms. Thats said I would love to try out the 24 1.4, its supposed to be incredible.
 
for what i shoot (99% sports) it has to be zooms.

specifically the 120-300 f2.8 and 70-200 f2.8 sigs.

although i do have a sig 50 f1.4 for walkabouts.
 
D.P. said:
A 24-70 2.8 is a lot cheaper than a 24mm 1.4, 35mm 1.4 , 50mm 1.4 and 85mm 1.4 prime.
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The 24-70 is quite a lot cheaper than each of the 24/1.4, 35/1.4 and 85/1.4 individually (what you meant I think) - given that it's likely one of the very best zooms ever made that's saying something. The primes are massively expensive and the slowly alternatives are all very old.

But yes, I want the 35/1.4 very much, despite it being flawed and stupidly expensive even compared to, say, the Canon 35 L
 
Well now there is a poll, I've voted for.... pancakes. Which type of lens I prefer depends entirely on the requirements I have for a particular task. For some tasks I prefer a prime, for others a zoom. :)
 
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