Choosing prime or zoom lenses is mainly a matter of preference. And what to choose when you’re shooting portraits? Many photographers would rather reach for primes, but modern zoom lenses can also give you sharp, high-quality images. In this video, Manny Ortiz discusses his choice when it comes to the lens for portrait photography. He tests an 85mm f/1.4 and a 70-200mm f/1.8. They are both great, but they have both advantages and disadvantages.
7Artisans launches fast and affordable lenses for micro four-thirds and mirrorless cameras
7Artisans has launched four fast prime lenses for different mirrorless and Micro Four Thirds cameras. They are available for Fuji, Leica, MFT, and Sony cameras, and the prices start at only $70. The fastest among them is f/1.1, and still, it costs only $369.
The selection of lenses includes 50mm f/1.1, 35mm f/2, 25mm f/1.8 and fisheye 7.5mm f/2.8. Three of them were made for full-frame cameras, but they can be used on crop bodies as well. The fisheye is intended for APS-C cameras only. So, if you need a fast, yet really affordable lens, you should check them out.
A guide to prime lenses and why you should use them
After getting one’s first camera and kit lens, the first question that inevitably follows is “What lens should I buy next?”. For any given manufacturer, there’s such a huge variety. And that’s before you even consider the 3rd parties who produce lenses for that system. And, barring speciality glass like fisheye, macro and tilt shift, they generally fall into two categories. Zoom or prime.
Understanding the advantages that each has over the other can help you to make a more informed decision. This video from Craig Roberts at e6 Vlogs goes over those differences. What advantages they offer over zooms, as well as their pitfalls. With this information, it should help you narrow down your choices to at least a type of lens.
Lomography launches innovative and compact convertible lens system
Lomography has launched a Kickstarter campaign for their new Neptune Convertible Art Lens System. It’s a set of small, handcrafted lenses, all compatible with the same lens base. Relying on Chevalier’s convertible lens design, Lomography has designed the base and the set of three prime lenses: 3.5/35, 2.8/50 and 4.0/80. They practically fit inside your pocket and give you versatility and good quality on the budget.
Sigma officially releases five new prime cinema lenses
It’s been a while since Sigma announced their entrance into the world of cinema. After releasing the two announced zoom lenses, now their full-frame cinema primes are also available for preorders.
There will be five lenses in the FF High-Speed Prime line: 20mm, 24mm, 35mm, 50mm, and 85mm. All of the lenses have T1.5 aperture, suitable for low-light cinematography and composition with shallow depth of field. After more than half a year, they are finally available and the price and shipping details are known.
This website helps you compare lenses based on sample photos from Flickr
After the website that helps you chose the best lens for you, here’s another interesting lens-related tool. It’s named Lens vs. Lens and it helps you when you can’t decide between two (or more) lenses. It compares the photos taken with different lenses, at various focal lengths and apertures. So, if you’re indecisive, it can be a helpful tool to have all the sample photos in one place for comparison. I believe it has both good and bad sides, and I’m curious to hear what you think.
Lens manufacturer Veydra HQ broken into, over 200 lenses stolen
Filmmakers, Veydra fans and everyone who is interested in lenses, pay attention! Last night, someone broke into Veydra headquarters in California and stole over 200 Veydra Mini Prime Lenses.
The company is offering a reward for any information that could lead to returning the stolen lenses back to their inventory.
Sigma officially presents four new lenses: an ART zoom, two ART primes, and a Contemporary zoom
It seems that the rumors around new Sigma lenses were true. At least partially though – because they didn’t launch two new lenses, but four of them. Sigma 14mm f/1.8 and 135mm F/1.8 Art prime lenses are accompanied by two zooms: 100-400mm f/5-6.3 and 24-70mm F2.8. Considering that it’s a Sigma Art lens that got the highest DxO Mark rating ever, you might want to consider buying one of the new Art lenses if you’re looking to add these primes or zooms to your gear bag.
Interview with IRIX – new 15mm f/2.4 lens makers (11mm, 4.0 is coming soon)
There is a new lens player in town – IRIX, looks like they are there to compete with Rokinon, Sigma and other prime lens makers. Their first lens is a 15mm f/2.4 full frame prime, and it looks delicious.
We had a chat with the European branch of IRIX a few days ago in the UK Photography show and we are impressed.
5 Best Primes for Photojournalism
All things held constant, prime lenses are far sharper at any given focal length than their zoom counterparts. The trade off, of course, is that you don’t have the convenience of changing the composition of an image with only a twist of the wrist.
One field where zooms seem to make the most sense is in photojournalism, since you’re oftentimes constrained with where you can shoot. But the truth of the matter is many photojournalists prefer primes. Myself included.
The reasons will vary from photographer to photographer, but two reasons I prefer fixed focal length lenses are that they tend to offer faster apertures, which help in do-or-die situations where light is all but nonexistent, and that the constraint of primes often leads to better images, as it makes me use my own legs as a means of composing images.
Regardless of why I, you or any other photographer chooses primes, I’ve decided to bring together the top five prime lenses for anyone looking to get into photojournalism.[Read More…]
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