The Prime Lenses vs Zooms Debate: Which is the Superior Choice?

this morning we're going to head out to uh a couple of waterfalls near a town called lady Smith uh I was here uh I guess about a year ago now with my friend Colin uh trying to get uh icicles on the waterfalls uh it's a bit of a Jaun it's a couple of kilometers uh but in the meantime while we're hiking why don't we have a little chat Brian uh so Brian is a bit odd he still used his PR [Laughter] so let's talk a bit bit about lenses Brian uh I I used to use primes uh mainly because back in the day zooms were not that great uh they were now and then you'd come across a half decent Zoom they were very very heavy um so I used mostly primes but of course over the years especially with the the modern lenses the zooms are getting really great uh but also at the same time some of the primes they getting to the point now where they don't weigh anything and the quality is exceptional um so why why do you still like what's your reasoning for still using primes well like you just said the primes they're a lot smaller now and lighter and the sharp um but I like Prime for finding the compositions over the zoom but don't you find that you have to do a lot more like back and forth and you've got to you've got to swap lenses more which is obvious but you can get a rough idea using your phone as well do you think do you think you get a bit lazy if you use zoom lenses yeah I I feel that your photography is a bit more static whereas a prime make you move Prime makes you move about oh that's a good point I guess I guess so I guess what Brian's saying is you know we if we we're using a zoom you tend to just stay in one area and don't move from that area and just zoom in and out until you get something as where if you have a prime you're saying that if you see someone using a zoom you'll notice that they're just in the same spot right zooming in and out whereas you see someone working with a prime you've got a find get in different positions I just think you come up with with uh better ideas but but couldn't you just uh take a picture with a wide angles Prime on a on a 100 megapixel camera and then just crop it well lots of it you do but no but the the crop thing it's a good point people can crop more now but but even if you crop you're still not going to you're not going to get the angle right that you you truly wanted you know yeah can you hold that for a sec my arm start have to hold my arm up just shows you how weak I am I'm holding an osbone my arm's getting burnt out hey don't touch my head like that so how many prime lenses do you have I've got or how many do you carry in your bag at one time I've got three with us today but I've got five five so that no I have I have carried uh Brian's bag and it it is very heavy so uh that's the big lens and all right the other camera and tripods for vlogging I think I think Brian's bag actually weighs more than mine and I'm carrying a gfx but I only have the three three zoom lenses now granted the the 45 5 to 100 is a heavy lens and I have considered uh actually purchasing the 35 to I think it's a 70 which is a very small lens kind of a I guess you'd call it the kit lens um but I have used it and it's a good lens just for traveling and if you want to really cut down on that weight so it' be the 20 to 35 the 35 to 70 and then the 1 to 200 so what focal length do you have then we got the 1 to 400 with us today yeah 14 mm yeah 24 mm and a 35 okay and then the others I've got 85 and a 50 but they're for me street photography so you don't you don't feel like you miss those mid-range no not really no Zoom with your feet right yeah right so there you go folks Zoom Doom versus primes which do you [Music] prefer all righty we made it this is uh Christy Falls uh it's a beautiful little waterfall I think uh I I have photographed it well twice now once uh in the summer and once with Colin uh in the winter it's a beautiful the waterfall but I I must Adit I've always had a bit of trouble with it because it's just a waterfall I've never been able to find anything too interesting around the uh the perimeter that's not to say that there isn't something here but uh I haven't been able to be creative creative enough to to find it yet now there is a another waterfall behind me I think I'm going to spend more time on that one it has a lot of logs and debris around it so I think I might be able to find something to go with it Brian's just gone up the back here there are a couple of large trees so maybe I could see if I could find something uh up there and look down I'm not sure the only thing that I can see is perhaps uh a close-up shot of the the actual water uh maybe a Pano or just a close-up area kind of like what I did in the winter all righty found a really good angle on this waterfall Brian had come down here and uh he came to the bottom of this this lower waterfall here and he said it wasn't that great but I thought I'd come and have a look anyway he's not wearing Ry boots and I decided to uh Wade across the uh the stream here cuz I got a a boot full of water but uh it's a great angle because not only can I get this lower waterfall but I can also get the upper one as well the only problem is I mean it looks spectacular but it's just a photograph of a waterfall I'm having trouble finding something to put with it to make it unique um it just looks kind of like a snapshot uh I am trying to view uh zoom into to the Cent portion there quite like that uh the other problem I'm finding is that there's a lot of debris a lot of sticks and trees in the way so I might have to clone some of those out we'll see how it goes um yeah I I don't know I mean it's it's just absolutely beautiful but just a picture of a waterfall now if I go down lower there's some interesting logs at the bottom there problem is soon as they start to get lower then we lose the upper waterfall but behind me here is also quite lovely as well let me just uh bring this down a little bit uh this section down here uh that's really quite nice as well anyway I'll see if I can get some shots here and I'll post them uh if I don't have much luck here then I'll head over to the the first [Music] waterfall [Music] okay so I think part of the problem was I was getting so excited about including the waterfall in the background that I wanted to get as high as possible and just try and get a a shut of the whole waterfall but as I mentioned I don't think it really works because it's just a photog of a waterfall excuse me so I've come down a bit lower and now I'm looking back and and I'm I'm putting a little bit more thought into the scene the excitement has kind of gone down a bit and uh I think I found a much better composition just below me here I'll just show you here there's a a couple of logs strewn right across the foreground here and I think I'm going to use those in the in the foreground I think the reason why I like a bit of a foreground is because it it really adds context to the to the to the scene or to the location if you just have a waterfall it could be anywhere and of course it could be anywhere with these logs here but there's not many places in the world where you're going to find big old trees like this lying in the front of a in front of a waterfall um I think it adds some depth and also also some extra interest that we were lacking up higher so I've included the the uh the logs in the foreground this nice waterfall here and you can still see a Slither of the upper waterfall which is actually much bigger than this the problem I'm having with the light is that I'm shooting directly into the Sun and if I clude any of the sky it's just too jarring so uh I'm just going to uh eliminate as much of the sky as possible so this is the dominant waterfall here with the foreground also a polarizer in this case is really important there is a lot of sheen on the logs and the rocks and we have some movement in the the foreground foliage as well in the Cedar so what I'll have to do there is take a couple of shots at a fastest shutter speed higher ISO and I'll paint those in afterward cuz I think for me right now the best shutter speed is around a second I kind of like that really smooth transition with the waterfall well let's see how it goes going to be horizontal I think I I don't know I really like the look of it behind the camera so let's see how it looks in uh in the final image well this was a bit of a disappointment uh the composition Works quite well with the foreground but uh I really feel that I should have perhaps listened to my gut feeling or intuition and uh given more room or more space at the top of the frame where the waterfall is it just feels like it's really cramped in there also you may have noticed in this raw file that uh I got a great exposure on the waterfall but because of the slow shutter speed the foliage on the right side is moving around considerably so what I did in this case is I took another exposure faster shutter speed higher ISO to stop the movement in that foliage now luckily for me I did uh decide to take a number of other images where I included much more of the sky and of course they turned out quite a bit better but uh if you would like to see more images where things haven't quite worked out the way I had planned let me know in the comments down below and uh in future videos I'll try and do that because I think that probably in the long run it's probably more beneficial uh to my audience to show my fails rather than continued successes let me know down below [Music] as usual having a hard time I guess if it was easy everybody be doing it uh one of the problems with this waterfall is that uh it's extremely messy and there were a lot of branches behind this main stump or this main trunk here with all the salow and the ferns on it so I weighed it in there and managed to get rid of all the branches so I don't have to clone them out afterwards and it looks way better so what I'm doing here I love the uh the Cascade below the the log here and then of course then we have the log with all the growth on it the salow and then the waterf pretty simple shot a good of vertical 4x3 uh again I'll have to do multiple exposures uh because there is a lot of movement there's a little seed of sapling there that's moving around a lot so my shutter speed for the water pool is around 1 second and and then I've up the iso to 3200 and uh I've opened up the F stop to around 5.6 and they gives me a shutter speed of around 200 of a second so I'm able to stop the motion in that vegetation and I'll just sandwich that in afterwards it's a beautiful little scene uh probably have to warm it up quite a bit but uh looks like the sun is trying to come out so I think that might be it for today uh Brian wants to get in here and and retake a shot since I cleaned it out so uh I'll put the image up right now and you can tell me what you think of [Music] it [Music] all righty so how did you go Brian yeah enjoyed it up there be nice to have more time but we'll push for time today yeah um okay I wanted to ask you a question about your lenses just to kind of finish this video off uh if you were just starting out and well let's go with the primes first if you if you were just getting into photography what would you recommend like what would what would be the first focal length that you would purchase I guess it depends on the the subject matter doesn't it let's just say for landscape photography prime lens is uh 24 mil I like 24 mil yeah so that's what you'd start with yeah cuz you can you can get some nice nice wide shots and you can also get close to your foregrounds and um exaggerate your foregrounds and so you've got an option you can get really close with it but you can also go for the wide Vistas as well okay and then what would be your second choice for a prime lens like next up from there Prime uh I like 35 mil all kind of like the wide angle end of things yeah okay so yeah for the zoom lens I started with uh 70 to 200 okay uh which is you know great for l so would you recommend that for someone just starting out or would you recommend say like a see if I if I was just starting out and you only had one choice of say zoom lens I personally I think I'd probably go with the 24 to 120 in that that kind of range it covers it covers you bit es doesn't it that sort of yeah I mean when I was with my Nikon lens I just had the kit lens and I used the 24 to 120 um that was probably my most used lens yeah so I think I would probably recommend that but you would recommend something a little bit wider is that right well it's it's I suppose it's cuz I've shot with Sony for a long time now um I just once I got the 24 mm Prime yeah uh I was just finding different compositions to what I would with the zoom so that's why I stick with the primes I think if I was starting out I would yeah I would have a zoom cuz yeah yeah that's what I had I had the 70 so would you go for the 24 to 120 in that range or would you go for something a bit wider okay yeah that's a good range took a long time to get that one happen didn't it yeah that's a good range all right well let us know down below what you guys is uh I'm sure everybody has their preferences and their choices so let me down let me know down below what uh your recommendations would be for someone just starting out in photography um anyway thank you every so much for watching and uh be sure to check out uh Brian's Channel if you haven't done so already and uh until next time Cherry bye see you later [Music] guys [Music] [Music]

Channel: Adam Gibbs

Views: 19,144

Keywords: prime lens, camera lens, best prime lens, sony prime lens, prime lenses vs zoom lenses, prime lens vs zoom lens, photography, prime lens vs kit lens, lenses, zoom lenses vs prime lenses, are prime lenses better, zoom lens vs prime lens, prime lenses, adam gibbs photography, photography tips, landscape photography tips, landscape photography

Id: 2orynfBkDi0

Length: 18min 59sec (1139 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 28 2024