Are zooms just BETTER than primes?

[Music] hi guys welcome to the channel today i want to talk about a very interesting topic should we go for zoom lenses or big and expensive heavy prime lenses to get the best experience in the field and get the best images if you'd asked me even a few months ago i would have probably said going for big expensive prime lens is the ultimate goal but recently my view has changed a bit and it begs the question are zooms actually better than big prime lenses so that's what i want to look into today and hopefully find an answer for me and for you let's not get carried away just yet though because when it comes to the ultimate image quality a good expensive prime lens like this will outperform any zoom lens on the market pretty much even this really good 100 to 500 still lacks in terms of sharpness and fine detail when compared to one of these big prime lenses so there's still a key advantage there but obviously if it's this big and you pay that much and it weighs so much you would expect to have a gain out of that as well for years i strongly believe that zoom lenses are just too much of a compromise and that image quality compared to these big problems was just suffering too much to justify using them basically but when i started to use a few of the newer zoom lenses like the rf100 to 500 the sony 200 to 600 although that's been out for a bit longer i realized that these newer generation zoom lenses actually can deliver some pretty good image quality and now that they can actually deliver image quality that's not too far off from a big prime lens they have become a lot more attractive to me because now i can actually benefit from the flexibility without suffering too much in the image quality department it opened up a whole new world for me because i was now able to have this small little lens with me that i can easily handhold go into terrain that wasn't really accessible with the big prime lens before and get images that i couldn't really get with the big primary so having one of these zoom lenses has really opened up a whole new world to me and the same i felt when i was using the sony 200 to 600 millimeter lens on the a1 in the field it was a fantastic walk around lens that could still take a 1.4 extender very well so you had a fairly lightweight package that could deliver you fantastic autofocus and fantastic performance in the field that brings me to the advantages of the modern zoom lenses probably the biggest factor is price and the ability to handhold the lens very easily generally speaking these big prime lenses cost tens of thousands of dollars whereas the newer zoom lenses like the 100 to 500 cost a lot less the 100 to 500 in particular is very expensive still though but for instance the sony 200 to 600 comes at a very reasonable price tag and gives you some great image quality at a great price probably the biggest advantage of the zoom lenses is that you have them in a much smaller package at a much lighter weight so you can easily walk around with these lenses hand hold them and have fun all day and it's fantastic for bird and flight photography for instance as well whereas a big prime lens i've carried it to a lot of places taken on a lot of walks but it was never fun at all if you can drive somewhere set it up on a tripod very nice if you have to walk with this lens for extended periods of time it's not fun at all and i would much rather have a smaller lens with me because it's just a much better overall experience and obviously the biggest advantages of zoom lenses is just the flexibility i've been able to get images with the 100 to 500 on the r5 that i was not able to get previously if i had used this big 600 millimeter prime lens for instance to me the emergence of these fantastic new mirrorless cameras like the r3 r5 sony a1 and nikon z9 is really that they allow these zoom lenses to shine a lot more in the field because there's obviously a few drawbacks with zoom lenses as well one of the obvious ones is the aperture because they're much smaller usually they have like a 5.6 6.3 or like this one 7.1 aperture wide open so you need cameras that are able to still autofocus very well at these aperture levels and also cameras that can handle really high iso levels because you have to handle these lenses if you're hand holding these lenses in the field especially in darker conditions you really need to be able to use high enough iso so you can have sufficient shutter speeds for me when i shoot birds especially handheld with the zoom lens i really don't want to be below like a 500th of a second because i feel like i'm just risking too much shake too many blurry images so when i'm out and about especially when i was photographing those cockatoos in low light and that out i really needed to push the eyes or quite high to be able to hand hold and still get good images because obviously with a 7.1 aperture or f10 aperture wide open with an extender you will have to use high iso simply because the lens doesn't let much light in dark environments is really where these big prime lenses shine it's having a lens that's much bigger that lets a lot more light in and that i can shoot a lot more wide open if i need to really makes it much easier to get good images i still don't shoot wide open with these lenses because i don't like to have too narrow depth of field but for instance if i shoot with just 600 millimeters at f 6.3 i get good depth of field and nice image quality even in dark environments and it allows me to shoot with relatively high so and still get good image quality details and sharpness where the zoom lens just cannot compete is when it comes to nice and smooth out of focus backgrounds a lens like this essentially has a beautiful smooth background built in whereas with the 100 to 500 the background has to be really far behind your subject to get it nice and dissolved so if you're loving those smooth creamy out of focus background like you can see in a lot of my images they're much much easier to get with these big lenses and that's one area where i really prefer these big prime lenses because with anything even when the background is quite close it just gives me a really sort of smooth beautiful background whereas with the zoom lenses the background just shows a lot more detail it's just not as pleasant to look at another reason and maybe the main reason for me to own a prime lens is that they work amazingly well with teleconverters as you've seen in my last few videos the zoom lenses nowadays work quite well with teleconverters as well but it's a lot more of a compromise if i put a 1.4 extender on 100 to 500 millimeter lens i'm wide open at f10 700 millimeters i can't zoom the lens fully back and yeah i have to deal with shooting at f10 if i put the two times extender on image quality suffers a lot more and now i have to shoot at f 14 wide open whereas with this lens i put a 1.4 extender on it's at a 5.6 wide open with the two times extender it's at f8 wide open so it's a lot more manageable when it comes to the aperture and how much quality the lens can get out of an extender with teleconverters whenever you use one you basically sacrificing image quality and aperture and the better the lens you're using the better the results will be with the teleconverters as well so this is where this 600 millimeter prime lens really stands out for me because with the 1.4 extender and the two times extender it offers me amazing image quality so with these paragon falcons that i've been photographing for instance i'm often using the 600 millimeter lens with a two times extender because i stand far enough back so i'm not disturbing the birds at all but i'm still able to get enough rage to get some nice images i've been shooting there a little bit with 100 to 500 and the 1.4 extender for instance as well or even the two times extender but in these harsh conditions at the ocean i just don't get the same reach or image quality out of the 100 to 500 millimeter length compared to the 1200 millimeters that i get with the 600 millimeter lens if you need maximum reach because you simply can't get any closer to your subject the prime lens definitely outperforms the zoom lens because it has the better overall image quality so you can crop a little bit more and it handles the extenders the best so even when you use a two times teleconverter you're still able to get a really nice image what i think we will see in the future is that a lot of these lenses like 100 to 500 100 to 400 200 to 600 will actually replace a lot of the like f4 300 millimeter prime lenses some of the 400 millimeter prime lenses so i think in that area 100 to 500 offers better image quality or similar image quality to these prime lenses and much more flexibility so in that three four maybe even 500 millimeter range i think a fantastic zoom lens has become a better choice than a prime lens so this is why i actually really like this combo that you can see on my table here if i need the absolute maximum reach with the best image quality with the best extenders then this prime lens serves me very well so if i'm in a dark forest or when i'm at the cliff for instance where i know i need a lot of reach i'm gravitating towards the big expensive prime lens because this is where it still really shines however when i know i'm just walking around want to have some fun when i have a fun shoot i want to do some handheld video then i'm gravitating towards the 100 to 500 millimeter lens with the r5 because it still gives me good enough image quality and i just have so much more fun in the field with it i already talked a little bit about video and this is another area where the zoom lenses really shine and where the 100 to 500 especially it's the best zoom lens that i've tried for video the main reason is that you can fairly easily hand hold 100 to 500 for video so when i'm walking around i'm just seeing a cool bird i can just stand there get in a good position and get some handheld footage that is very nice to look at and with a bit of stabilization in the editing process you can actually get some really really nice footage because the lens is so small and i can carry it wherever i go i've actually been able to get a lot of videos just by chance just walking around seeing a cool bird ripping out the camera and getting some footage so i really enjoyed that aspect of it because it has allowed me to take a lot more video with the 600 millimeter prime lens it's very difficult to take video because it's so easily affected by camera shake and especially wind as soon as there's the slightest breeze the wind just goes into the lens so it shakes the camera around and taking video is basically impossible unless you have a really big expensive video tripod with a big video hat whereas with that little lens especially when hand holding i can even be in gale force wind and still get some good footage of some great birds so in that regard it's really good and obviously for video it's also fantastic that you can zoom in and out this is where the promise is just so much more limiting because i could actually take a video of like a wide scene with the birds just walking in front of me on a nice cliff for instance and then i can zoom right into the head of a bird and get a lot of great different varieties of shots that i can put in my videos so this is where the zoom lenses really shine for me i also filmed with 100 to 400 200 to 650 to 500 tamron they were all good but the image stabilization was just not on the same level as the 100 to 500 the 100 to 500 is the only zoom lens that i've used that i can use reliably handheld to do video and i know i get pretty stable footage even when using the extenders [Music] so now i just want to show you a couple more interesting examples of shots taken with different zoom lenses different prime lenses to just show you some of the differences so let's have a look the first example i find really fascinating it's four shots of rainbow lorikeets taken in my backyard with four different lens combinations and in the end all these images have pretty similar image quality don't they so can you tell me what's what one is the sony 200 to 600 one is the 100 to 501 is the f4 600 and one is the f4 600 with a two times extender attached so looking at these i think you can see that while the prime lens has slight advantages the zoom lenses have come a long way when it comes to image quality it's usually quite dark in my backyard i have to use high iso so the shot that impressed me the most actually is the 600 millimeter with the two times extender how well it can keep up with the rest of the shots that's the shot on the bottom right the shot above on the top right is the 600 millimeter prime lens which has the best image quality overall with the best fine details then on the left right next to it is the sony a1 with the 200 to 600 millimeter and then bottom left we have the 100 to 500 millimeter lens that is slightly less sharp i think than the 200 to 600 and the 600 millimeter parameters but still offering fantastic image quality overall what do you think were you able to guess what's what i thought this is quite an interesting example and here you can also just see all four shots right next to one another it's quite interesting how well the 600 millimeter lens is able to keep up with the two times extender attached in these low light situations isn't it so this is one of those reasons why i really love this lens because it can just deliver amazing image quality in every situation imaginable basically another example i want to show you is these east and yellow robins on the left we see a shot with the 100 to 500 millimeter lens and on the right we see a shot with the 600 millimeter prime lens and you can see here the difference in the background especially the 600 millimeter lens is able to dissolve the background a lot more make it a lot more smoother and nicer to look at compared to the 100 to 500 millimeter lens on the left hand side and here we can also see an edited version of those file on the right with those two robins looking pretty good doesn't it and even in these dark conditions the 600 millimeter lens was able to give me a really good foundation i used my process to get a good color profile and then i went through my normal editing workflow that i teach you in my master class where you can learn step by step how to master image editing and get the absolute most out of your bird images and if that's of interest to you make sure to check those out down there in the description a lot of you have always asked me my last videos about a shot of the 105 and with the 1.4 extender so i'll just throw one in yellowtail black cockatoo in the dark forest if we zoom into that i think we can see that it delivers still very good image quality and a really good overall result so what's better a prime lens or zoom lens and i have to give you my favorite answer it depends or if possible having one of each gives you the best of both worlds i think for most people a fantastic zoom like a sony 200 to 600 the canon 100 to 500 covers basically all their needs and will give them the nicest overall lens it's easy to carry around has a decent price point you can still use it with the extenders even though image quality then becomes a little bit more iffy and you having to deal with those f10 f9 f14 wide open apertures but overall i think the majority of people will just have a lot of fun with these zoom lenses and get really good results prime lenses are really specialized and in those areas that's where they really shine they don't have the flexibility of a zoom lens but they give you ultimate reach when you need it they give you ultimate image quality with extenders and when it's dark in these dark environments high iso they totally outperform zoom lenses as well so in the end it comes down to how you want to use your camera if you're walking around a lot the zoom lens will be a much better choice if you're mainly photographing from heights and you can kind of know or set the distance between you and the bird and you know the birds will fit into your prime lens then a prime lens is really your best choice because it gives you the best backgrounds best image quality really good autofocus performance so it really depends how you want to use your lens and that's why i really love having both when i want to walk around stalk some birds do a lot of video 100 to 500 r5 amazing combo if i'm in the dark environment in a bird height if i do a setup i want best image quality i want that nice background then i pick the 600 millimeter lens what's your choice prime or zoom lens do you have both are you looking to upgrade from a zoom lens to prime lens let me know in the comments because i think it's quite an interesting topic so hope with this video i was able to shed some more light onto zoom versus prime and why i think for most people a zoom lens might be the more reasonable choice but also why i prefer both and i just like to decide on a given day which lens i use depending on the use case so like always please make sure to subscribe to the channel give me a thumbs up for the video and leave me a comment it really helps my channel and i really appreciate to hear from all of you and also make sure to check out my masterclass and my brand new process down there in the description i will see you in my next video very soon bye guys

Channel: Jan Wegener

Views: 10,780

Keywords: bird photography, jan wegener, birds, wildlife photography, Canon 600mm, bird photography equipment, bird photography gear, birding gear, eos R5, Canon EOS R5, animal eye AF, animal eye autofocus, R5, EOS R6, canon mirrorless, RF lens, Canon RF 100-500, 100-500, zoom lens, RF 100-500, low light, high iso, handheld, 100-500 in low light, teleconverter, extender, cropping vs teleconverter, crop vs extender, Sony 200-600, Sony A1, zoom vs prime, zoom lens vs prime lens

Id: fFP_hNXVTHA

Length: 19min 14sec (1154 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 29 2021