Lens Need Vs. Want: AKA, I Could Sell All Of My Prime Lenses.
I am not going to. That is crazy talk… now anyway… but I could.
This is not a new thought. Have been learning about myself. Mainly during photo sessions. Nothing teaches like shooting out there in the wild with someone expecting results on the other side. With the addition of a tiny little lens this is moving from a passing thought to viable end result. If I should choose to do so.
A few photo sessions brought me here.
Weddings.
I did two weddings almost entirely with one zoom lens. For the first wedding with this lens I brought high fallutin’ prime lenses, but the star of the day was the 35-150mm. The great majority of the photos were taken with it.
Then the same thing happened at another wedding.
And then a graduation session really put a fine point on it.
That session brought me to face something that I really already knew.
I want bokeh, and I want subject isolation. Both are far less important to the customer than they are to me. In fact, a lack of bokeh is often more important to them. This became clear, as I outlined in that blog post.
Bokeh sidebar cut and paste:
My personal preference is bright lenses used wide open if at all possible. I often only half jokingly say, I hear tell you can adjust the aperture on this lens. Blow the background to smithereens! But… Was reminded that not everyone sees things as I do. Slow lenses would often do it seems. Started with the 35-150mm wide open, naturally. I showed her an early image and Maya asked, “Could I see more of the background?” And I saw her point right away. These photos were being taken in locations that were important to her along her college journey. To blow them away into a blurry haze would make them unrecognizable. So of course I did as asked and closed the aperture down further. See? I can do it. So basically a kit lens would have been fine this day. Thankfully she did humor me later on with some ridiculous aperture pics.
Close bokeh sidebar cut and paste.
Then I used the 35-150mm almost exclusively at a pastoral anniversary.
I could go on but you get the point.
For all of these occasions I had a prime lens on me, used them occasionally, but I could have done just as well with a zoom lens. The usual justifications do not really hold up given the current state of technology.
Cameras are producing better and better results at what would have been unusable ISO levels a few years ago.
Post editing technology like Lightroom’s AI Denoise works magic on images that would have been unusable images in the past.
And the new kid on the block around here makes this point clear as well.
I used it back to back with my camera nerd favorite prime lens, camera, and film…
…and if I am honest with myself I like the image taken with the digital camera and zoom just as much.
Better? No. Did I enjoy the process of taking the photo with a rangefinder and developing the film better? Yep. But I like the resulting images with both.
But there has been a change. Zooms were for sessions up to now. “Real” work. Primes were for fun. When I wanted to blow backgrounds to smithereens when a customer humors me…
…but mostly for personal work.
This was easy to justify in the past.
Primes small.
Zooms big.
Fast-ish zooms f/2.8 or greater anyway. But the 20-40mm kind of upsets the logic of this. By choosing an interesting focal range and perhaps some manner of dark magic the 20-40mm f/2.8 is comparable in size to many prime lenses. At worst, it is not much larger. Add in it being light with a good build quality with excellent/fast/silent AF and great IQ… there are few downsides to this thing.
I loved the Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8.
Not a large lens given what it was capable of. But what kept a 50mm-ish prime on my camera instead was size. Sure, there are plenty of tiny variable zoom options, like the Sony 28-60mm. But for the first time ever I have been presented with an f/2.8 lens that is quite compact.
For example, if I were to go back and redo that NYC photo walk from Harlem to the Village I would now do things differently. That day I carried a small bag, but it contained multiple zoom and prime lenses. The only lens I would have needed was the 20-40mm. Even for the photo above. Taken at 50mm with the 28-75mm I would have done fine at 40mm. The same goes for the rest of the photos. Do I like the ones I took with the Rokinon/Samyang 75mm f/1.8? Yes.
But I would have also been happy with images taken with the 20-40mm. How do I know this? Because a 40mm lens did far better than I expected for a quick portrait one day.
In fact after those portraits I put the 75mm away and it did not see the light of day that day or for the rest of the NYC trip. And with its ability to go wide the 20-40mm would have been perfect for pics I took with the Rokinon/Samyang 24mm f/1.8.
I also had a Sony ZV-1 on me that day and the 20-40mm could have handled those pics also.
Adding the fact that I could also employ APS-C mode or simply crop an image in post to mimic a 60mm lens which brings a bit more flexibility. Bottom line I would have made out just fine that day in NYC with just this lens.
And the 20-40mm is influencing my decisions now. Will be going to rehearsal tonight. I will usually reach for a prime lens. But after seeing the way this lens performs it will be the lens of choice thank you very much.
None of this will likely impact the prime lenses I have now. I have already sold off a net five prime lenses recently (Sold 6. Bought 1.). Time will tell if I sell off more. More specifically if lenses start collecting dust they take one step closer to the great sell/trade beyond. And so far I have no regrets.
Other companies are trying to mix things up with zoom ranges on the wide to normal range also. The Sony 24-50mm f/2.8 and SIGMA 28-45mm f/1.8 come to mind. But 20mm at the wide end along with the lower price and smaller size make the 20-40mm the Goldilocks lens for me. Also does not hurt that it pairs nicely with the Tamron zoom mentioned above.
While not necessary I do like to match lens brands when feasible.
So. As time goes on I will definitely still be using primes. But, with the advances in zoom IQ performance, interesting focal ranges, high ISO camera performance, and post editing tools, more and more primes are becoming a case of want rather than need.
In addition this 20-40mm is having some unintended ripple effects that may impact other small camera gear I have purchased over the last couple years. More to come but more consolidation may be on the way.
Happy capturing.
-ELW
Eric L. Woods 