There are more ways to get to 50mm than to use a prime fixed focal length lens. Here is a 50mm picture taken with a 24-105 mm zoom lens. Maybe this is cheating as the zoom lens does not give all the best features of the 50mm prime, or any prime for that matter. Actually, it is very rare for me to use my 24-105 lens at 50mm.
Analysis of my zoom lenses
Over the past few years I have had a greater appreciation for prime lenses. I used to use my zoom lenses a lot because it seemed like a great solution. I could just bring one lens and cover a wide range. In other words why bring 5 prime lenses when one zoom would do the job. And then one day I sat down and looked at my favorite zoom lens – the Canon 24-105 f/4 L.
Adobe Lightroom has a metadata filter in the library module. I used it to look at 3 years worth of data from this lens. I used Excel on the number of pictures I took at each focal length in the zoom range and a plot of the dat is below.
My zoom is actually just two prime lenses
Almost 60% of all the pictures I took were either at the end of the zoom range! Either I wanted the frame to be wide or I wanted it to be telephoto and not much in between. So I analyzed my other zooms and saw pretty much the same pattern. My 16-35 was mostly shot at either 16mm or 35mm!
What’s wrong with one zoom = 2 Primes?
The biggest problem is a zoom has a lot of compromises compared to a prime. Smaller aperture (less light gathering), heavier, not as sharp and more moving parts to break.
So, should I sell all my zooms and just carry primes? Stay tuned!
