[dadipentak]

modern zooms have got it, man.

I'll certainly agree that many modern zooms are very, very good--as good or better than many primes (especially in their sweet-spot in terms of FL and aperture.) Still, if the situation allows and I'm committed to squeezing as much quality as possible into a shot, I'll go with a premium prime.

[Eagle_Friends]

I usually pick up the 35mm macro or 15mm when I head out. But if I know ahead of time that I would take some lengthy shots, I bring the 50-135 along. That's the only zoom I use.

[keithlester]

I almost never use any of my zoom now. I needed the 10 - 20 to photograph the interior of my shop for the realtor, but that was the last time I used that. I soon got tired of the extreme wideangle for landscapes. So now I only carry a small bag of primes, 24, 35, 50, 100 (or 100 macro) and sometimes a 2x macro teleconverter. I have gone back to my old-school ways of pre-visualising and zooming with my feet. The cost of film was a good teacher, especially when I was a poor struggling family man with mouths to feed, (cue violins) LOL

[twitch]

I only use my long zooms for shooting sport. I use my short zoom (12-24) when on a tripod, and then only when 15mm is not wide enough. The rest of the time I use primes. I'd guess 80 to 90% of the time I'm using primes.

[Marc Sabatella]

My bag normally has only primes in it, from 15mm to 120mm. I take my DA50-200 when I expect to need more reach than that (like if I'm anticipating shooting wildlife), simply because the 50-200 is actually smaller and lighter than any 200mm prime. I occasionally take my 18-55 to the botanic gardens because I find it pretty useful for shooting flowers - the combination of having reasonably close minimum focus distance and of course a range of focal lengths gives you some nice flexbility.

[Digitalis]

I don't own many pentax zooms, I mothballed the few I had (or gave them away) when I got my FA 31,FA77 and DA15 limited lenses. The only zoom lens I consistently use is a Sigma 100-300mm f/4 APO EX DG - that's it.

I mean, my FA 77 and F 70-210 look pretty much the same at f8.

but you can also be pretty sure they won't look the same at f/1.8

[RioRico]

I have 18 zooms: 8 AFL's and 10 MFL's. (And another 190+ other lenses.) ..

I think we have found the poster boy for the LBA helpline poster.

Not really. At least one member here admittedly has more Fifty's than I have lenses, total. A couple people on various forums say they have 10x my count. I'm just a piker.

Meanwhile, I'm spending a few days around the ski ghetto of Park City UT, site of the 2002 Winter Olympics and just around the corner from Sundance. (Cheap off-season rates, you-betcha!) I tried my standard small-town primes (24/2, 28/2, 35/2, 50/1.2, 85/2) but I had to revert to my DA18-250. Indoors and out, in-town and out in the alpine scenery, at Sundance and BridalVeil Falls and elsewhere, only the superzoom had the flexibility to capture people & places & things to my satisfaction.

This is what zooms are good for: dynamic situations. Tomorrow I'll be at the town's Sunday community market, a much more static scenario, and the MacroTak 50/4 should do wonders. Different tools or different jobs, eh?

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Last edited by RioRico; 06-11-2011 at 07:55 PM.

[raymeedc]

To every lens there is a season.....
Between 21mm & 100mm (80% of my shooting), I use primes. At the far wide end, I use my 12-24mm..... comparable quality to the 15mm, same speed, more versatile to be able to reach a more "normal" perspective in an instant when necessary (important to me when mounting such an extreme perspective), while at the same time offering a substantially wider view. Portability in this instance, a MAJOR reason I love using primes, is unfortunately sacrificed as a result of this decision. Such being the case, if I had the extra cash, it wouldn't be too difficult to talk myself into picking up the 15 anyways.
At the telephoto end, I also use zooms. There isn't enough of a savings in weight and/or bulk to justify the loss of framing/isolation accuracy & versatility more important (IMHO) as the focal length increases (extra speed would be nice, though). The fact that Pentax offers few telephoto prime alternatives makes this choice easier.
I also take my 18-250 out if I'm going out for the day on a casual daylight walkaround or large event when I don't know quite what I'll come across &/or I'm not in the mood, &/or it's not practical to be changing lenses..... Although I might, on these occasions, stick a fast prime in my pocket, just in case.
These exceptions being noted, I always try to find a reason (not a difficult task) to use my primes first.

[steve1307]

I use a 55-300 at the zoo or sometimes at sports or car racing as long as the light is good. I will only carry it if I know i will need it.

I have primes from 15 to only 100 and i cant justify spending more on longer primes when the 55-300 is pretty damn good in decent light. I am not really interested in birds. (with feathers)

Took out my 18-55 for the first time in over a year, the other night basically because i was shooting at night with a group in the city and many other (ametuer photographers) all with tripods crowding in. It was much more difficult to frame the shots properly as you would normally do with a prime when you are free to move around.
When shooting primes with a group of CanNikon users, I tend to change lenses a lot. This was bit difficult at night, in the wind, in the cold.
After all that, about 1/3 of my shots are with a DA15, but some cropping will be necessary.

Maybe its just me, but to shoot with primes I think you need to be able to move around to find the right vantage point, not easy when you're tangling legs in a big group or a crowd of tourists.

[Digitalis]

At least one member here admittedly has more Fifty's than I have lenses, total.

I do have 178 50mm lenses but that doesn't mean I use them all, and there are some lenses in my collection that are so old I don't think I would want to.

[Kerrowdown]

Prime Lens Owners - How often you use your zooms?

Never, only cos I don't own any.

[yusuf]

I do have 178 50mm lenses but that doesn't mean I use them all, and there are some lenses in my collection that are so old I don't think I would want to.

178? wow, that's lot. Are they all uniquely different?

[jstevewhite]

I've got the "zoom bag" ( A 3-lens bag with the 10-20, the 18-50, and the 50-135/55-300 - depending on the reach I need ), but the camera still has a small prime when in the bag. Also, I always pick up the OTHER bag, which has my FA35, my FA43, my Helios M44, D-Xenon 100 macro, Tamron SP 180 f2.5, and now Pentax-A* 300 f4. If I need really long reach, I dig out Bigma.

[philippe]

Hardly once a year if I can't resist the force of circumstances... At the time I bought the DA* 16-50 mm and I wished I spend the money on a good DA Ltd.
I still find it a pity that there is no DA 50mm Ltd, some sort of a Summicron, that's the one on the top of my wish list!
Imagine: 15mm, 21mm, 35mm, 50mm, 70mm and 100mm, what a lineup!

[Verglace]

I have the 35/2.4 and 70/2.4 primes, the kit 18-55 and and a tele 70-300mm...

I notice that I tend to go for either extremes of my zooms, so either 18mm/55mm or 70/300mm... that's when I decide to get the primes. Now I only use my zooms when I want a wide angle (18mm) or telephoto at (300mm) however, when I have the camera in the bag, I like to always have the 18-55 lens on it as that is water resistant, just to be safe, but when shooting if I'm not going wide angle I'll use the primes. This of course will change when I get my hands on the 15mm Ltd. But the WR will still be there for protection