EdinburghGary
Reply not Report
- Messages
- 19,065
- Name
- Gary
- Edit My Images
- Yes
What exactly is a prime lens? I see it mentioned from time to time, but never quite understand what is "prime" about the lens...
I thought it referred to an autobot general who waged war on the decepticons, and in toy form was loads cooler than the exact same white version, ultra magnus, who, if you've followed me so far, just turned out to be a bit of a mincer who buckled under the pressure of leadership.
Sorry to go off topic
FFL sometimes isn't enough though, nor is Prime for that matter, amongst FFL lenses we also have 'Cats', 'Fisheyes' and 'Macros'
Oh, and to add further interest (confusion?) my prime lens is a mid-range zoom
DD
I think using the word prime in this case just complicates things for those with little knowledge on the subject. Personaly when someone talks about a prime lens I immediately understand they are talking about a FFL lens. There is no need to differantiate primes into fiseyes and macros because you can have both kinds of lenses into zooms aswell. Tokina came up with a fisheye zoom, the 10-17 (I think) and there are LOTS of zoom lenses with macro capabilities (only not true macros 1:1).
Primes are just what they are, fixed focal length lenses, even if they are tilt/shift lenses, macros, fisheyes, super telephotos, mid-range, lensbabies etc. If they can't zoom in or out, they are primes.
Primes, as in FFL, only have better quality if they are damn good ones. A £200 200mm isn't going to be as good (in IQ) as a £1,000 70-200mm, so a direct comparison is only valid where cost is taken into account too
DD
I think this is normally true but my nifty fifty only cost £50 yet it is as sharp if not sharper than my 70-200 2.8 IS L costing £950.....
But you are comparing 2 different focal lengths!
Maybe not quite that difference, but the 200 f/2.8L prime is less than half the price of the 70-200 f/2.8L IS zoom but I know which gives the better pictures!
My thoughts exactly
But yes, 50mm lenses must be relatively 'easy' to make well as all major brands have cracking good ones I'm lead to believe and (aside from the super wide aperture ones) all are pretty cheap
DD