Do you prefer prime or zoom lenses?

[nikonbob]

Mickey

Have you had your rest yet? I would be interested to hear your rebuttal.

Bob

[lloydy]

Out of 85 lenses I have 20 zooms, most are average but some are very good. There's 3 Vivitar Series 1, 2 70-210's and a 24-48, they are very good, especially the wide zoom, all of them are Kiron, as is a really nice Soligor 70-210. I rarely use any of the 70-210's though as they are just too big and heavy.
The Tamron BBar zooms are good as well, but again I rarely use them.
The only zoom that gets regular use is the superb Pentax DA 50-135 f2, a current AF lens. It's also the only AF lens that gets regular use. It's actually the only AF lens that I have ever bought new because I wanted one, the few other AF's I've got are the kit lens for the Pentax and the NEX and a couple that came with the AF Minoltas and EOS cameras. The kit EOS zooms are junk, I struggled to give one away.

I have a bunch of primes from 24 to 400 in M42, PK, FD, MD, M39, OM, EOS, Sony and RolleI QBM, and with adapters I can use many of them on cameras as diverse as the Sony NEX, Pentax K10, and a whole bunch of old film SLR's.

I find that most old film zooms flare badly, and give a lot of CA on a digital camera, more than film. It's generally easy to disguise or remove in processing, but it's not such a problem with the primes, so they get picked first most times.

I guess I'm a prime man.

[Deleted]

The prime lens I use the most on my Nikon DSLRs is a manual focus 55mm f/3.5 Micro Nikkor that was converted to auto indexing by John White several years ago. It seems to perform just as well on the digital body as it did on film, The only other prime I use much is a 24mm f/2.8 AF Nikkor. I have a 50mm 1,8 Nikkor but I can't remember when I used it last -- (at least in regard to the DSLRs).

[mickeyobe]

Bob,

I just got back from a 2-1/4 hour wait in a cold, drafty tire dealer's as he installed my snow tires.

I'll talk as soon as my teeth stop chattering.

But for now, let it snow let it snow let it snow.

Mickey

[nikonbob]

Wayne

The Nikkor 55/2.8 micro works well too on digital, must be in the genes.

Mickey

Yea, you fellas down south have had a lot of snow lately, my condolences. There is barely any up here.

Bob

[mickeyobe]

REBUTTAL.

Jan 2, 2013 20:57:27 GMT -5 Berndt said:

I like zoom lenses on P&S cameras, but I prefer prime lenses on film cameras.

P & S CAMERAS DO HAVE REMARKABLE ZOOM CAPABILITIES BUT ANY THAT I HAVE SEEN, BECAUSE THEY ARE P & S, LIMIT THE CONTROLS OVER THE PICTURE THAT A NON P & S PROVIDES OVER EXPOSURE, DEPTH OF FIELD, SHUTTER SPEEDS AND ABILITY TO USE ACCESSORIES FOR PARTICULAR JOBS. ALMOST ALL OF TODAY'S P & S' LACK AN OPTICAL VIEWFINDER WHICH I FIND UNACCEPTABLE.

Some cameras also had an interesting design "inbetween" ( like an old Minolta AUTO Tele, I have ). You could switch between two prime lenses instead of having a real zoom lens ( 38 mm and 60 mm on this Minolta for example ). Actually an interesting concept, because I would say, people are mostly fine with 38 mm for land-/cityscapes and 60 mm for portraits/close ups on a full frame camera ... for daily life purposes or as a walk around camera.

I DON'T KNOW WHAT "MOST PEOPLE" WOULD PREFER BUT TO MY MIND 38 MM IS HARDLY A WIDE ANGLE AND 60 MM WOULD NOT PROVIDE A TELEPHOTO IMAGE FOR MUCH MORE THAN PORTAITURE. I WOULD CONSIDER NEITHER OF THEM TO BE USEFUL FOCAL LENGTHS TO ME.

Nobody really needs all the fine graduations inbetween and special purposes need special lenses anyway ... or as I said, a zoom on a P&S can come handy, covering everything from macros to super telephoto ... within certain quality limits of course ... but a large zoom lens on a bulky SLR/DSLR wouldn't be my choice

AH HAH! THIS IS WHERE WE DIFFER. I DO NEED THE FINE GRADATIONS AND USE THEM FREQUENTLY. A LARGE ZOOM ON A SLR/DSLR WITH AN EYE LEVEL VIEWFINDER GIVES ME GREATER STABILITY AND QUALITY.
I DO NOT FIND THEM TOO MUCH FOR AN OLD GEEZER TO SCHLEP AROUND. AS I SAID BEFORE, I CAN CARRY THREE ACCESSORY LENSES WHEN THE LOAD IS PROPERLY DISTRIBUTED. ONE ON THE CAMERA AROUND MY NECK OR OVER MY SHOULDER AND TWO IN MY CAMERA BAG WITH MY LUNCH. WITH A COMPLIANT CADDY I COULD MANAGE MUCH MORE.

BERNDT,
WITHOUT DIFFERING OPINIONS THIS WOULD BE A VERY BORING SITE, INDEED. SO YOUR PREFERENCES ARE AS VALID AS MINE.

Mickey

[Berndt]

WITHOUT DIFFERING OPINIONS THIS WOULD BE A VERY BORING SITE, INDEED. SO YOUR PREFERENCES ARE AS VALID AS MINE.

I do have absolutely no problems with different opinions ... and not only this site but also photography would be quite boring, if there would be the "ultimate equipment", everybody would choose or prefer, we wouldn't have much to collect either

Everybody has different habits and also I have to say, that some of mine changed ... or better, I had to make compromises to aging The times, when I was running around with a huge backpack with heavy gear inside are gone.

And there is another very interesting thing ( just a personal discovery though ). Reviewing all the pictures, I took with all kind of cameras ( and those have been many ) over the time, the pictures, I took with a simple TLR turned out best. No idea why, but it is so.