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Why All You Need Are Three Small Prime Lenses (Video)

Chris Gampat
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07/21/2020
3 Mins read
Three-small-lenses

Last Updated on 07/21/2020 by Mark Beckenbach

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Pro Camera Reviews is a new web show by the Reviews Team of the Phoblographer. Join Gear Editor Brett Day, Reviews Editor Paul Ip, and Editor in Chief Chris Gampat as they candidly discuss the products they’re actively reviewing and the gear they’ve just reviewed. Open Q and A from the audience towards the end of the show. Every Sunday at 7pm EST. Please Register here.

If you’re looking for a fun time while staying safe, we strongly recommend that you tune in for Pro Camera Reviews. It’s a weekly show where the staff tackles a couple of issues in the Photo World. They mostly pertain to cameras and lenses, but sometimes things get a bit more serious. This is partly because we still feel that we need to be educators and leaders in this space. Additionally, we also need to be responsible. Episodes are done on Zoom and are recorded. They’re then shared on YouTube. We recommend that you subscribe to us on Youtube to keep up.

In This Epsiode

Why All You Need Are Three Small Prime Lenses: In this segment, sponsored by Samyang, we’re going to review our obsession with small primes. The masters of old only needed these lenses. And if you’re a Sony FE camera user, Samyang has a few that could appeal to you. We’re going to go over three of our favorites in this segment.

Over my past decade of work, I’ve realized that most of what I can do is easily done with three small prime lenses. If you’re a wildlife shooter or some other sort of professional, then this doesn’t apply to you. But if you’re an event shooter, a hobbyist, and you like to photo walk then three small primes could be all you need. All the great photographers made award-winning photos with them.

Samyang’s approach to this is very different from everyone else’s. Coined, “The tiny trio,” they consist of the Samyang 18mm f2.8, 45mm f1.8, and the 75mm f1.8 lenses. They’re all for the Sony FE lineup of cameras and none of them are over $400. If you’re a hobbyist looking for something holistically different that doesn’t break the bank, then you’ll probably be able to get a new spark of creativity from these lenses. Here are some image samples.

Samyang 18mm f2.8

We used this lens and the others on the Sony a7r III. What we got were beautiful colors, nice contrast, lots of sharpness, and solid autofocus performance. For the price point, we were very impressed, and so too was the audience.

Samyang 45mm f1.8

Of the bunch, this lens is my favorite. It’s between a 35mm and a 50mm. 45mm is also very close to true normal on a full frame 35mm sensor.

Samyang 75mm f1.8

Here’s another gem!

On the Next Episode:

How to Shoot Without Image Stabilization: Editor in Chief Chris Gampat will lead a discussion about shooting without image stabilization. He was taught to shoot at 1/13th with a Leica rangefinder and he’s still incredibly steady even without stabilization. In his journeys, he’s found a lot of problems with the way people shoot. But he’s also found ways that work no matter what their body type is.

The Most Forward Thinking Cameras of the Past Decade: Since the introduction of the Canon EOS 5D II, digital cameras slowly shifted towards becoming less about stills and more about video performance. A quick look at today’s camera marketing materials reveals that camera melting video specifications take precedence over still specs. While there is nothing wrong with digital cameras that can deliver the best of both worlds, hybrid cameras do introduce quite a few problems, like more complicated menus, and increased heat output. In this segment of the show, we will discuss some of our favorite digital cameras from the last decade that focus more on photographers and stills than on video and videographers.

Our Dream Cameras: With all the speculations being thrown around about upcoming camera releases, what unique features can we combine from leading camera manufacturers to create our dream camera? I.E. Canon colors, Olympus Live COmp, Sony’s advanced AF, etc

Editor’s Note: This is a sponsored segment from Samyang. The views and opinions expressed are still solely our own.

camera image quality lenses samyang samyang 18mm f2.8 samyang 45mm f1.8 samyang 75mm f1.8
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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.