Ditching my zoom in favour of primes?

[Moor]

I currently have a canon 50D, 17-85mm kit lens (not the best zoom I admit), 50mm 1.8 and 35mm 2.0 and Im a little undecided if I should sell the zoom or not. My main photography are family pictures and a few landscape bits now and again and I'm finding for this I'm hardly ever using the zoom but I am having trouble letting go of the ability to zoom in and out at my leisure. I love primes and find my zoom rarely goes on due to the primes being so sharp and having a much narrower dof when I want it. If I was to ditch the zoom I would probably get rid of the 35mm to and get a sigma 30mm 1.4 or canon 28mm 1.8 as I don't need 2 primes so close together in focal length. This would leave me with just the 50mm 1.8 and whichever new prime I choose to go with, is this a little limiting? I guess because of the amount I use the zoom I have probably answered the question already but its good to have other perspectives so any advice/help is welcomed.

 

[BacktotheFuji]

The Sigma 30/1.4 is superb, but if you want to do landscapes without stitching, you are going to need something wider, I would imagine. A cheap option is a manual focus lens, which is easy to use for landscapes, where things don't move too much! I use a Nikon 20/4 on my Canons.

Edit: I've just remembered Canon do a 20mm prime...

 

[fixedimage]

Wouldn't have thought you'd find yourself too limited without the zoom. If it'd been one of those superzoom 18-200mm or whatever then obv you'd feel the loss of the long end but given the zoom you have I think you'd be fine. Have look at the exif on your images and see how often you actually use the long end of the zoom, my guess is that the most commonly used focal lengths will be the ones you'll be covering with primes anyway.

 

[Moor]

Some great points, I don't often use the full range of my zoom, not that its got a huge range anyway so the only thing I might struggle with is the wider end as mentioned. I tend not take a huge amount of landscapes so not sure I could warrant the costs of a wide prime, the cheaper manual focus option sounds interesting, any examples of this type of lens? I am leaning towards the 30mm as it's got great reviews, a 20mm might be a little too wide for everyday use.

 

[woof woof]

There is more to landscape than wide angle and I do wonder why it's often assumed that the two are necessarily joined at the hip.

Anyway, assuming that a wide angle is needed for landscape and what's meant by wide angle is something wider than 20mm one option could be to keep the 17-85mm or replace it with something in the 10-20mm range or perhaps something cheaper like a 19-35mm. These lenses are by accounts quite good and may be worth looking at as a way of keeping a wider than 30mm option and getting a bit of money back from the 17-85. Another option could be a 17-50mm kit zoom.

The Siggy 30mm f1.4 is good IMVHO and for a wider prime I can recommend the Sigma 20mm f1.8, a cracking lens IMVHO.

 

[BacktotheFuji]

There's plenty of manual focus options out there (if you can put up with the manual aspect of things). My favourite wide options are the 20mm Nikon, as mentioned already, the 24/2.8 Nikon Ais lens (a real cracker and can be had for £80-£150) and the Carl Zeiss Distagon 28/2.8 (bit pricier at around £160-£200 - plus the Sigma 30/1.4 would be more versatile). There are also Nikon 28mm and 35mm options, typically selling for around £50.00.

Olympus Zuiko lenses are very good, although getting pricey! There were 21mm, 24mm and 28mm varients. The 24mm version is typically selling for over £100.00.

The Tamron Adaptall-2 lenses are also very good, and the 24/2.5 has a decent reputation. I believe there was a Vivitar 24/2.5 too - a different lens, but also good. These sell for between £30-£50.

 

[mattyb]

It may be worth running your images from the 17-85 lens through ExposurePlot or another similar program, it'll show what focal lengths you tend to use most which might help to decide.

 

[Alastair]

The Sigma 30/1.4 is superb, but if you want to do landscapes without stitching, you are going to need something wider, I would imagine.

There is more to landscape than wide angle and I do wonder why it's often assumed that the two are necessarily joined at the hip.

+1 on woof woof

The 30mm f/1.4 is a brilliant everyday all-purpose lens on a crop sensor in my experience.

It is convenient to have something wider for some situations, although for me these are almost always interiors rather than landscapes. For wider landscapes the 30mm is good lens for stitching panoramas, even handheld. The ideal selection of lenses will be different for every photographer, it depends on your style. For me it's 10-20, 30 and 105 macro (the 85 f/1.4 is also worth a look, I've considered replacing the 105 with it). The 30mm covers 80% of shots I take, and frequently it's the only lens I'll use for weeks at a time, including holiday trips. YMMV.

Have a read through this discussion on Flickr.

 

[Moor]

Thanks very much for all the replies, some really helpful advice. I'm almost certain that I'm going to sell the 17-85mm and the 35mm and buy a sigma 30mm 1.4. I'm off to Dorset next week for a few days and that will be the decider to see how I get on taking a few landscape pics using just the primes to see if I miss that wider end of the zoom, if so I can always keep a look out for something wider second hand or one of those cheap manual focus lenses outlined by manualfocus g.

 

[Moor]

Well after a few days by the coast/countryside and taking a fair amount of landscapes I have found that for landscapes that 35mm just want wide enough so I think I will keep the zoom and sell the 35mm 2.0 and purchase the sigma 30mm 1.4. Seems that although the zoom isn't used as much day to day it's handy to have.

 

[The23rdman]

If it's IQ you're after ditch it for a Tamron 17-50 f2.8 non-VC. It'll be as sharp as your primes.

 

[tris101]

If it's IQ you're after ditch it for a Tamron 17-50 f2.8 non-VC. It'll be as sharp as your primes.

+1 it sounds like you are not using your zoom due to IQ and DOF, replacing kit lens with Tamron 17-50 f2.8 would be a good move.

 

[Moor]

The zoom is indeed not used for dof and iq, more for it's range. The tamron does seem a good replacement but my main photography is family shots and I think the sigma is probably a better option for that type of shots?