6 Reasons You Should Own a Prime Lens
/Yes the video is just 5 reasons but in this post you get a bonus 6th reason you should own a prime lens. Watch, read and let me know your thoughts on prime lenses in the comments below.
What is a prime lens?
A prime lens has a fixed focal length; it doesn’t zoom. Why would you want a lens that doesn't zoom? 5 Reasons below!
What are the advantages of prime lenses?
- Prime lenses often offer very wide maximum apertures, ideal for isolating your subjects from the background and capturing beautiful bokeh(background out of focus).
- Those wide apertures also allow you to maximizing the light entering your camera. Keep your aperture wide and you can then keep your shutter speed higher or your ISO lower. This makes prime lenses a good choice for low light photography.
- Because of their smaller and simpler construction, prime lenses have fewer moving parts which means less distortion and better quality images than your typical zoom lenses.
- Reasons 1 through 3 means you get a better value for your money as primes are often hundreds of dollars cheaper than zoom lenses.
- They are often smaller and lighter compared to typical zoom lenses - making primes a great choice when you want to travel light.
BONUS REASON
- Forcing yourself to use a prime encourages you to move to achieve the frame you want, as opposed to the lazy zoom in out and approach and moving and thinking critically about your framing is a good habit to build as a photographer.
Let me know in the comments your favorite prime lens and your favorite reason(s) for attaching a prime lens to your camera.I have recommended prime lenses for Canon and Nikon and 5 tips for sharper images
