What does prime mean anyway? When I was younger, we used to say, "woohoo! Now that's prime!" We were usually pointing, grinning, snickering and even sometimes drooling when we said it. I imagined, back then, that it was a reference to the USDA beef inspector's mark - Prime Grade A, though we weren't looking at sirloins at the time. It could've also just been a bunch of goofy teenagers lost in their own made up world of words. Certainly more likely.In any case, as all my readers know, I've been progressing at a special education-ary pace through all the photography 101 lessons in my journey to take at least adequate pictures. And next on the route - prime vs. zoom lenses.
My first DSLR was a Nikon D80 with a Nikkor 18-55mm VR zoom. Long forgotten are my Mamiya C330 days. Then I bought a Sigma 50-150mm f/2.8 zoom for better low-light performance followed by a Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 for the same reason. For a time, each of these lived on my camera more than the others. In the end, I came all the way back around to the Nikkor kit lens with the VR because it was sharp and contrasty and easy to carry around. Then, whenever I wanted to impress someone, I'd pull out the "big guns". Don't pretend you don't do it. And when you reeeally want to impress someone, you put the hood on and your big flash unit. whoa!
The option to quickly change focal length was handy but I'd say, for the lazy shooter like me, it resulted in bad habits and missed shots more than resulting in better shots.
But even more subtle than that issue, zooms prevented me from developing an "inner eye" for a given perspective length. Huh!? I mean ... now that I shoot an 85mm prime on my Canon 5D mk II, I've developed an ability to "see" like my camera sees without my camera. I know what a scene will render like just by looking at it. The pro's who are reading this (I like to pretend. Humor me.) are saying ... well duh, 85mm is nearly normal perspective. It doesn't take much "eye" for that. True enough. Maybe it's just the frame boundaries. But nonetheless. I find I can imagine the shot better now. That results in me taking fewer shots and keeping a lot more of them.
The other thing I've realized, now that I saved my pennies and bought an expensive prime, is that IT'S WORTH IT! This 85mm f/1.2 is ... well ... perfection in glass. I can't believe I wasted all my money on those sub-prime zooms. Yes, it forces me to move more. So what!? That's no big deal. Really.
Take my advice - save your money and buy the most expensive 50mm f/1.2 lens you can buy or the 85mm like me. Thank me later.
Peace and happy shooting,
Glen
