Originally posted by ehrwien I've often read the advice for people starting out with DSLRs to set their zoom (which is what most beginners have as their first lens) to a certain focal length to see if they like shooting at that focal length before investing money into a prime. It might offer better quality than a zoom, but brings some serious limitations with it and one can see what those are when setting a certain focal length on a zoom and fixing it with tape or something and shooting with it as if it were a prime.
This may be true, but you can also use tools like ExposurePlot to see what you shoot most often.
ExposurePlot jpg exif lens length analyzer for photographers
The risk with zooms is you often frame the shot exactly , or you are at one of the two focal length extremes but you will still be able to see this in the data,
The problem remains however that most zooms change focal length as you focus so what the lens is set to is not relevant at other than infinity focus. This means what someone learns with a zoom, may not translate to the liking a prime at that focal length, unless they always shoot at infinity focus