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The Great Debate: Prime Lenses Vs Zoom Lenses

Chris Gampat
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06/24/2010
3 Mins read

Last Updated on 06/24/2011 by Chris Gampat

Here we go: a giant can of worms is about to be opened up. The inbox has been flooded with questions asking about primes vs zoom lenses and there have been endless debates about it on threads I often visit. Now it’s getting to the point where questions are being asked in person. So to settle the fight once and for all here are some pointers.


Primes

For the less photo-inclined, primes are fixed-focal length lenses. They cannot zoom in and out. Instead they can only focus at different points. In order to zoom, you quite literally need to zoom with your feet: or move back and forth.

Why the heck would you get something like that, you say? They’re lighter, smaller, have much better image quality, and allow you to shoot in lower light easily without cranking up your ISO settings (what gives you more light-sensitivity but grainier images with less details in them.)

Multiple prime lenses can be lighter than one giant zoom lens. Sure, you’ll be switching out lenses more often but you’ll get better image quality. In the end, that’s what matters to most photographers.

Prime lenses are used by wedding photographers, sports photographers, and studio photographers primarily. Photojournalists tend to go for zooms more. Wedding photographers usually keep a mix of both primes and zooms on them for different purposes.

Prime lenses can be cheaper as well. The higher grade ones are extremely expensive though but are worth every single penny.

Zooms

Zooms, by definition are lenses that allow the user to zoom in and out by staying totally still in one location. They can focus in and out and zoom in and out.

Zooms tend to be heavier than primes and also don’t always have image quality up to par with their fixed-focal length brothers. Also keep in mind that you won’t be able to shoot in as low-light as you can with a prime. Because of this you’ll need to crank up your ISO settings.

Lower grade and cheaper zoom lenses are horrible, disposable and don’t offer professional image quality. For that, you’ll really need to spend some money to get sharper images and more features like image stabilization. Because a zoom lens is heavier it needs to be stabilized. This is easier to do with a prime because it is lighter.

Which Is Better?

This is one of those questions that really can’t be answered when it is this general. It really depends on your needs and wants for the job. Do you not want to move around that much? Go for a zoom then, but make it a quality zoom. Do you want to get the optimum sharpness possible? Then get a prime. Maybe you don’t want a heavy lens but want great image quality. A prime is for you then. Need to shoot a concert? Get a faster zoom.

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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.