Prime vs. Zoom Lenses - Which should you buy?

hey guys what's up welcome back to the channel and welcome back to my uh not so organized studio this is actually a spare room in our villa here in bali and i'm still trying to work out how to organize it how to set it up we just have a lot of stuff we're using it as storage so that's why there's a bed right there flipped up against the wall so it's not the cleanest space but it works it's a creative space and i don't need it to be perfectly pristine if it does everything i needed to do which i think for the most part it does but today we're going to be talking about prime lenses versus zoom lenses the age old debate which one you should buy which one is better and why that is we actually just got back from a trip down to uluwat to the southern point in bali and down there i was shooting a ton of film on this little bad boy right here the canon ae1 program and this has a 50 millimeter f 1.4 prime lens on it and um shooting with it this weekend really helped me remember how much i actually love shooting with prime lenses in the past i used to shoot almost exclusively with prime lenses i had a 35 a 55 and an 85 and that was all i needed i got everything i needed out of those three lenses but recently i've been shooting almost exclusively with zoom lenses i haven't even really used my primes that much and shooting with this camera just made me remember the beauty of a prime lens and what it's actually capable of over the years i've accumulated quite a few lenses for my photography business and in this video i want to talk about the differences between prime lenses and zoom lenses and ultimately which one i think you guys should buy so let's grab those lenses check them out and uh have a little conversation about lenses okay oh this is a this is a bad idea not trying to move all my lenses in one go okay these are all of my lenses these are all of my sony lenses i have some more prime lenses back there for film cameras but we're not going to talk about those we're just going to be talking about my main camera system the sony system these are my primes and these are my zooms we have a 35 55 and 85 prime uh and a 16 to 35 24 to 70 and 70 to 200 zoomy boys over here but let's dive into this comparison guys what is the main difference between prime lenses and zoom lenses and i think it's pretty simple zoomy boys can zoom and prom lenses cannot zoom they have a fixed focal length so for those of you that are completely new to photography focal length is essentially the angle of view of a lens so the smaller the number the wider angle of view so the more you'll see in your scene and the larger the number the tighter angle of view so the more zoomed in that image will appear prime lenses have a fixed focal length zoom lenses have a variable focal length so they can zoom in or out depending on what that lens is so like this lens is 24 to 70 it can go all the way from 24 all the way to 70 millimeters which is a nice solid range so at first glance it might seem like why would you ever buy a prime lens if you could just buy a zoom lens and have that flexibility to be able to zoom in or out and capture a bunch of different types of photos and i would agree with you versatility is very very important for photography but prime lenses have their own benefits as well and at the top of that list the main benefit that you get from a prime lens is that they often have a wider maximum aperture what does that mean sean well the aperture of a lens is the little hole inside of your lens that can open or close to restrict the amount of light entering the camera the maximum aperture of a lens is how wide that lens can open up and having a wider maximum aperture is beneficial for two reasons it's much better for capturing photos in low light and also you get more background separation behind your main subject so if you like those photos with really cool autofocus areas or what we might call bokeh having a wider maximum aperture is beneficial for that prime lenses can have a maximum aperture of f 1.8 f 1.4 even f 1.2 on the really expensive professional lenses mine are 1.4 and 1.8 whereas zoom lenses only really have a maximum aperture of f 2.8 even in the most expensive lenses on the market now this is slowly starting to change some of the camera manufacturers now like canon are releasing zoom lenses with a maximum aperture of f2 which is pretty unheard of in photography and it's a great jump in terms of photography tech however not a lot of camera companies are there yet plus those lenses are super super expensive but having that wider maximum aperture really is beneficial for shooting in low light environments and if you like that background separation like if you're shooting portraits for example and you really want to blur the background you're going to get a much more blurry background with something like a prime lens than you would with a zoom lens and i really do prefer shooting things like portraits with the prime lens now another benefit that prime lenses have over zoom lenses and this is kind of hotly debated but it is sharpness prime lenses generally are a little bit sharper than zoom lenses and this is especially true on the cheaper side of lenses if you have a cheap 18 to 55 millimeter kit lens those lenses just really aren't very sharp whereas you can pick up a 50 millimeter 1.8 prime lens for very cheap and it's going to be way sharper than that kit lens that comes with your camera once you start getting to more expensive professional lenses the divide between sharpness kind of collapses a little bit i mean these lenses are professional level zoom lenses and they're very very sharp yes these prime lenses might be a little bit sharper but it's kind of negligible um and especially nowadays zoom lenses high level zoom lenses are becoming very very sharp so this isn't always a huge argument but it is something to consider especially when you're considering some of the cheaper lenses on the market now the last benefit of prime lenses and this is very much subjective this might not be a benefit for you it might be a benefit for some people but that is just a simpler shooting experience when you're shooting with a prime lens you know exactly what focal length you're shooting with and you are confined to that focal length so instead of looking at being confined to a single focal length as a bad thing you could look at it as like well i know i understand this focal length perfectly i only shoot with a 35 millimeter lens i know exactly the type of photos i'm going to capture when i shoot with this lens i know what this lens is capable of um and i understand the 35 millimeter focal length perfectly whereas if you're shooting with a zoom lens you're shooting at a bunch of different focal lengths and you're not going to have that consistency in your portfolio and it's going to be harder to really understand a single focal length like you would if you were shooting with a prime lens i like that i like being a little bit confined and having a simpler shooting experience i think that's why i like shooting with film so much whenever i shoot film i'm always shooting with prime lenses and i like being confined to that focal length and having to kind of think outside the box a little bit and come up with new and interesting compositions and if you guys have seen any of my courses you know how much a proponent i am of zooming with your feet constantly moving around your subject trying to capture different photos i think that's the best way to capture great compositions and speaking of my courses you guys can watch all 16 of my photography courses free for 14 days on skillshare if you use the link in the description i have 16 courses there everything from my photography essentials course which has over 15 000 students i highly recommend checking that out as well as my editing course finding your unique editing style that has over i think 20 000 students now so click the link in the description you guys can check out those courses and watch those free for 14 days but okay so those are the main benefits of a prime lens the main one is you get a wider maximum aperture which is great for low light and great for background separation the lenses also might be sharper depending on a lens to lens basis and also you having a simpler shooting experience and it's forcing you to kind of think outside the box and come up with different compositions which may or may not be a positive for you okay so let's talk about zoomy boys now why would you choose a zoom lens over a prime lens and at the top of that list is versatility and you might be thinking okay versatility is just one minor factor on the scale of importance and that is so untrue depending on what you shoot versatility can be far and away the most important factor for gear choice and that's simply because there's certain types of photography where things are constantly changing there's a lot going on and if you don't have a zoom lens you're going to miss photos for example documentary photography or wedding photography or sports photography where things are constantly shifting things are happening up close to you and things are happening far away as well if you have a 35 millimeter prime on and you're capturing a scene in front of you and then something crazy happens a little bit further away you either better sprint over there to capture those photos or if you had a zoom lens you could just zoom in and capture it that way so people that are shooting in dynamic environments where things are changing and you really do require that versatility it's way more important to actually capture the photo than to capture in a specific way and that is why zoom lenses are so so popular for certain types of photography now versatility aside with zoom lenses you just have a much bigger range when these three lenses here i have everything from 16 millimeters to 200 millimeters that's a crazy range i can capture so many different types of photos with these three lenses but with these three lenses i only have 35 55 and 85 and nothing in between either only those three focal lengths nothing in between and nothing beyond that and with prime lenses good luck finding an affordable and compact prime lens above 100 millimeters or 140 millimeters they just don't make affordable or practical telephoto prime lenses so in terms of the 70 to 200 you just cannot find a prime lens that has the functionality and the size of the 7 200 millimeter lens another reason why you might want a zoom lens over a prime lens is not all types of photographers need to have a super wide maximum aperture landscape photographers for example a lot of landscape photographers like to stop down their aperture to get more depth of field in their scene to get more sharpness from the foreground all the way to the background so as a landscape photographer very rarely are you going to be shooting at f 1.4 unless you really want to get that shallow depth of field or if you're shooting in a low-light environment you're shooting astro photography for example that could be beneficial but most of the time having that range is way more important than having that maximum aperture because you're going to be stopping down your lens to f 5.6 or f 8 anyways and lastly zoom lenses are ultimately cheaper if you do require that range one-to-one zoom lenses are more expensive but once again you would need to buy multiple prime lenses just to match the same range as a zoom lens for example if you bought a 24 to 70 f 2.8 this lens is so incredibly versatile and if you had a one lens kit this could be it and you can capture so many different types of things whereas if you wanted this same versatility with prime lenses you would need two to three prime lenses uh you have to switch between them and it just wouldn't be super practical so those are the main positives and negatives of prime lenses and zoom lenses now let's talk about which one is right for you and which one you should buy and you might be thinking to yourself sean what the hell you just confused the hell out of me and i apologize if i did that but wait we're not done yet and i do have some opinions on which lenses you should buy and just a disclaimer these are my opinions and other photographers might tell you other things but with my experience working with up and coming photographers and all the students i've worked with over the years these are my recommendations on which lenses you guys should be buying and ultimately it's gonna depend on one where you are in your photography journey and two what you plan on shooting in the future so let's do a little bit of a case study here say you're a new photographer and you're just kind of diving into the hobby and you're really keen to explore shooting a lot of different things maybe you're going to be traveling and you want to shoot portraits and you want to shoot cars and you want to shoot landscapes and you want to shoot flowers you just want to capture as much as you can and kind of explore the craft then i would 100 recommend a zoom lens and i would say ditch the 18 to 55 millimeter zoom lens that comes on most beginner cameras because that lens really does suck and i would try to pick up something like a 24 to 105 f4 or a 24 to 70 f 2.8 or an 18 to 105 f4 that range is is really really important and if you can get a good zoom lens with a maximum aperture of f4 i mean you can shoot so many things with a lens like that when i did my first solo traveling trip to china which was an insane trip i did two months solo backpacking through china all i had was my sony a6300 with an 18 to 105 millimeter f4 lens and that lens was beautiful i was able to capture so many different types of photos i captured wide shots of the great wall of china and i could zoom in really close and capture portraits of people on the street it really was the perfect lens for a trip like that uh and i only had one lens and it was perfect um so the zoom lenses that versatility cannot be understated and plus if you're new to photography you might not understand focal length that much and you might not know what type of focal length you like to shoot at so having a zoom lens and shooting at all the different focal lengths will give you a better idea of what focal lengths you'd like to shoot at so then if you do want to go buy a prime lens you'll know oh i'm definitely buying a 35 millimeter problem that's because i love the way 35 millimeter renders my images or i'm getting an 85 because i really like that tight focal length i like to focus in on my subject and really blur the background behind them so that is the main reason why i recommend a zoom lens for beginner photographers however i also recommend every beginner photographer buy a 50 millimeter f 1.8 lens and the reason for that is because these are very very affordable lenses regardless of your camera manufacturer you can pick one up for like 150 bucks the images are sharp and you get to really play around with that f 1.8 aperture you can shoot at night you can shoot portraits and have a really blurry background it's just a great lens to have in every kit and i think every photographer really should have one because they're so affordable and they're such awesome lenses okay so the beginner photographer side say you're somebody that's an intermediate photographer or you're an advanced photographer maybe you're earning money from your craft you've had zoom lenses in the past and now you want to experiment with primes a little bit then i would say definitely pick up some primes especially if you're shooting something like portraits or food or products something where you really don't require the versatility of a prime lens and you want to capture maybe slightly sharper images or you really want that wider maximum aperture or you just really want to start to understand certain focal lengths better i would say definitely pick up a prime lens because they're amazing amazing lenses they were my first love and i will always love prime lenses for that maximum aperture for that background blur and that sharpness as well now ultimately both of these types of lenses have their place in everyone's kit like i said i use both for my trips for travel i only take my zoom lenses because it's way more important for me that i capture a shot than to capture in a specific way if i'm traveling and i'm flying around i don't want to carry all the weight of prime lenses i'm going to carry my zoom lenses and that's it but if i'm shooting here at home shooting a portrait session or um a lifestyle session out on the beach or something i'm definitely gonna shoot with a prime lens because i love the wider maximum aperture i love being confined to a focal length and i also i understand these lenses i know what my images are gonna look like at each focal length i've been using these lenses for years um and i will continue to do so because i really do love prime lenses now if somebody gave me an ultimatum and they were like sean you have to choose either prime lenses or zoom lenses for the rest of your life and you can never shoot with the other one ever again i would definitely go for prime lenses and the reason for that is because these three lenses right here were some of the first lenses i ever bought when i started investing in my sony system and i absolutely love them i mean they're amazing lenses i've had them since day one and um i'll never sell them some of my favorite photos ever were captured on these lenses and like i said that maximum aperture is something that i love in my photography um and i like being confined to those focal lengths so for me prime lenses but i want to hear from you guys if you had to choose one or the other for the rest of your life what would you choose zooms or primes let me know in the comments down below and let me know what lenses you guys are looking at buying are you are you thinking about buying a zoom coming up soon here i think about a prime you're not sure which prime lens to buy leave a comment down below we'll talk about that maybe i can help you guys out in deciding on which lens to buy but that is the end of this video guys i really hope you enjoyed it and if you're new here please consider subscribing and once again if you guys want to learn more about photography check out my courses on skillshare it's honestly a steal you get access to all 16 of my courses plus like tens of thousands of other amazing courses as well for like 15 a month after your 14 day free trial it's a no-brainer if you want to improve yourself not just in terms of photography but pretty much anything you could think of in terms of creativity or business or productivity anything like that but once again thank you guys so much for watching i'll see you again next week and i hope you have an awesome day

Channel: Sean Dalton

Views: 28,042

Keywords: zoom lens, prime vs zoom, zoom lens vs prime lens, prime vs zoom lenses, prime lenses, prime lens, primes vs zooms, zoom vs prime lenses, prime lenses vs zoom lenses, best photography lens, best lens sony a7iii, best lens sony a6000, best lens sony a6400, zoom vs prime lens, zoom vs prime for travel, sony zoom vs prime, zoom lenses for sony e mount, kit lens vs prime lens, photography tutorial, best lens for beginner photographers, best photography tips, zoom vs prime

Id: w1a5UM7oWsU

Length: 16min 47sec (1007 seconds)

Published: Wed May 19 2021