Any one use primes?

[poah]

apart from the usual 50mm f1.8 that people get does anyone have any others. I've only got eh sigma 30mm f1.4 and I'm considering another couple 85 f1.8 or 100 f2 and the 135 f2 L.

[beano500]

Nah!




Well, apart from my 14mm..




...and the 20mm




...and the 45mm




...and the 55mm



...and the 85mm




...and the 180mm...






...in fact, why would anyone use primes???

[Gemm]

I love my 100mm f2.8 macro.

[RobDickinson]

Comparing the 24-105f4 to the 50mm and the 85mm f1.8's the primes come off looking evry much sharper.

As I'm lusting after the 24-105 as a general purpose lens, and its huge cost, is it worth it?

Would love the 30mm sigma 1.4

[graham@reading]

Yep - got a 400L, 50 1.8 and 105 Sig Macro.

But the 24-105 is my most used lens. I only use the 400 for airshows and motorsport.

[LongQ]

Yep.

28, some 50s (1.4 and 1.8s) and a 600mm.

All old Canon FD fit of course so relatively cheap to buy.

[Andy M]

Have got Canon's 35L f1.4, the 85L f1.2 and the 135L f2.

All are spectacularly awesome in the right hands. Though, not necessarily mine...

[tog]

The 85/1.8 is a cracking lens - light, fast, unbelievably sharp, and a complete bargain. I use it all the time, for portraits, reportage, etc.

[matthew_h]

At the moment, the only prime I have is the 50mm f/1.4.

My next lens, which is fairly imminent, will another zoom but after that I would like to add a wide prime. Probably the 35mm f/2 (would love the L f/1.4 but it way too much money for me)

[Andy M]

matthew_h said:

Probably the 35mm f/2 (would love the L f/1.4 but it way too much money for me)

If you can stretch to it, you should. Some mad people even sell theirs on eBay for quite a bit below rrp, so keep an eye out.

I took this snap today, and aside from altering the white balance, these are the colours it gave straight out of the camera:


(you may recognise the above? )

[RobDickinson]

Why Nots the sigma 30mm f1.4? quality lens.

[matthew_h]

Andy, I will keep my eyes open on ebay one the budget recover.

The Sigma 30mm f/1.4 doesn't work on full frame cameras so is out for me.

[Andy M]

matthew_h said:

Andy, I will keep my eyes open on ebay one the budget recover.

Another:



The 35 1.4 is probably my favourite lens. I'm not tempted by the 24mm 1.4 as I'm told it's not half the lens the 35mm is (though, I've yet to test it).


Poah - the 135 f2 is an absolute beauty of a lens. I can't imagine Canon having a quicker focusing lens in the rest of their range, and the bokeh is something else!

[Gemm]

tog said:

The 85/1.8 is a cracking lens - light, fast, unbelievably sharp, and a complete bargain. I use it all the time, for portraits, reportage, etc.

Somehow mine doesn't get used that much. In fact I'm thinking of selling it. Anyone interested?

[jwyatt]

I love prime lenses, especially for landscapes. I use the 20mm and 24mm canon primes on my digital and film canon SLR's respectively, and the 28mm f2.8 and 50mm f1.4 Zuiko primes on my OM1 and OM2. The latter give vastly better picture quality than modern SLR's with even quite an expensive non-pro zoom lens, and are tiny, light, and rugged. They are also exceptionally cheap on Ebay!

I often like using primes as it makes you focus more on composition. Plus thge depth of field markings are clearer than on zooms, so you have the ability to generate huge depth of field even at quite wide apertures. With zooms the tempation is just to stick it on infinity, and thus give up quite a lot of depth of field.

[scalper]

I use primes almost exclusively

[Wyvern971]

I only own 2 primes, the 50mm 1.8 & a 300L F4

The main lens I use though is the 24-70 F2.8 (which is more expensive than the 24-105 F4) but IMO worth it (yes you lose a little at the long end and the IS, but I prefer the 24-70 and the 2.8 really helps in low light (which IS really can't compensate for)

other than the 300 (for which I also have a 1.4 TC) all my other lenses will probably be zoom lenses for versatility
(planning on a 70-20 2.8 & 16-35 when I can afford it)