[nostatic]

OK, I have a 50-135* that I love and has served me well on some shooting trips. It is a keeper for the times I need a longer lens. I just sold a 16-45 that I almost never used, having replaced it with a 16-50*. But I think the 16-50* will be going away as well because...well, I just can't use a zoom.

Getting past the sheer mass of a good zoom (like the 16-50), I find that I end up using it either at one end (16) or the other (50) - rarely in-between. I either need a really wide shot, or I want to get up close. That has led me to the strategy to buy a 15/4 ltd (yeah, it is a little slower) and just combine that with my current lenses (31/43/77/50-135*) to cover my bases. Yeah, I have to swap lenses, but I so prefer smaller/lighter.

Maybe I just can't deal with having that much choice. I need to be forced into a FOV. I'm sure it is my mom's fault and is related to not having been breast fed or something...

[nulla]

OK, I have a 50-135* that I love and has served me well on some shooting trips. It is a keeper for the times I need a longer lens. I just sold a 16-45 that I almost never used, having replaced it with a 16-50*. But I think the 16-50* will be going away as well because...well, I just can't use a zoom.

Getting past the sheer mass of a good zoom (like the 16-50), I find that I end up using it either at one end (16) or the other (50) - rarely in-between. I either need a really wide shot, or I want to get up close. That has led me to the strategy to buy a 15/4 ltd (yeah, it is a little slower) and just combine that with my current lenses (31/43/77/50-135*) to cover my bases. Yeah, I have to swap lenses, but I so prefer smaller/lighter.

Maybe I just can't deal with having that much choice. I need to be forced into a FOV. I'm sure it is my mom's fault and is related to not having been breast fed or something...

And the bottles your mum fed you were most likely 16ml or 50 ml she could never find anything in between to please you.

[ozlizard]

But I think the 16-50* will be going away as well

I know just the place for it...on the working end of my K20! I am in the market for one of those (or the 50-135?). Seems like you have FAR too many len's anyway for someone who wasn't breast fed!

[axl]

You are not alone.
For longer end I just got Tamron 70-200 (though I'm thinking I could have gotten the 50-135 *, oh well), for wide end I'm keeping my 10-20 (though 90 per cent it's just oversized 10/f4 - I really rarely move it from the 10mm mark) but my middle section is based on primes:
24/2.8, 31ltd, 40ltd and F50/1.7. In future I'd like to get *55 instead 50, and 77 or 85. Better 24 wouldn't go amiss too. But no plans to cover them all by zoom, oh noooooo.
BR
Peter

[Mike Cash]

No, you're not the only one. The rare times I mount a zoom I also shoot either of the two extremes and almost never in the middle.

[8540tomg]

Nostatic,

You're not alone my friend. It's the old zoom-prime debate. I have the same issues with my zooms. It's one end or the other and seldom anything in between. I guess that's why I have a bag full of old primes. They are always faster and lighter if, at times, less convenient. The primes seem to work better for me most of the time. That being said the 15~50 holds some appeal for me.

Tom G

[séamuis]

the only zoom I currently use (smc-A 70~210mm) often gets used in the intermediate focal lengths. probably at 210mm the most, but I more often than not don't pay attention to FL length and just zoom to whatever works.

[Bart]

I mostly prefer primes as well.
However, when I got my second copy of the 16-50 some 3 months ago, I wanted to make sure it wouldn't 'die' on me after a month or six of limited use and I decided to use it exclusively for some months and using the zoom does grow on you. You might say I'm bilingual now .
You might give it a try.
Then of course I'm only a hobbyist - I don't earn any money with what I do.

[Lazaruscomeout]

I use all of my zooms at the extremes 90% of the time.

What if Pentax came out with a 16mm prime with a super high quality 50mm converter?

Size, IQ and price could make it the the perfect storm.

[augustmoon]

That's about how I was using my zooms as well! DA*16-50 at 16 or 50 and the DA*50-135 at 50 or around 100.

Actually I prefer to have a set FL prime on the camera, except when inside doing more lively portrait stuff, which is about the only time I've learned that I actually prefer on-the-fly zooming in and out of differing FL's. So I sold my 16-50 and 50-135 and stuck with the 28-75 for portraits, outdoors, everything else is usually served better with primes. Several small light primes take up less space and weight than those two zooms.

Of course now with video, there's another need for zooms........ well the 28-75 might see some more duty outdoors and I did recently pick up a very good and very inexpensive MF 50-135 for video.

[nostatic]

Typical internal conversations:

w/zoom mounted:

(twisting to 16) "damn, I wish I had wider" (twisting to 50) "damn, I wish I had a bit more reach" (looking around) "Squirrel!" (twisting back and forth) "back...and forth...and back...and forth..."

w/prime mounted:

"oh, that's cool, let me walk over there" (shoots) "hmm, I need to walk over here" (shoots) "Squirrel!" (shoots) "oh look, there's something..."

NOTE: edited to remove expletives and references to targets of opportunity

[Gooshin]

the last wedding that i was at, the main photographer gave me his backup D200 with the 16-55 F2.8 (or 50?) anywya, it was a very nice nikon piece and the camera was no slouch either.

this was a jewish wedding so i had to cover the bride side, pretty important stuff so i was more than just assiting, whenever there was time, he would send me out into the crowd to grab shots.

when you got 300 jews all dancing and yelling with people seemingly not giving a **** that you are trying to caputre the right shot, the zoom saved my ass many times.

could i have done it with primes? sure, maybe if i had 2 camera bodies on me, or if i just took the time to slow it down. But nowdays people want pictures pictures pictures!!



also, from my recent eurotrip, where i had a 35, a 50 and a 85 super takumar all metal primes.. plus a 16mm fish

after walking every day for 15km +, at some point i just really really wished i had the one lens.

having said that,

if you are going to sell yours, let me know!

[robjmitchell]

Thats why you need a 17-70! It give you the "in the middle" FOV as well as the "either end" FOV. The problem is your zoom isn't long enough

[redpigeons]

P is for Pentax
P is for the most amazing Primes
now if only we could convince them to make a P for a Pro digital Pentax camera
then P will be for Perfect!

[deejjjaaaa]

how unfortunate then that pentax does not make something like Tri Elmars (28-35-50 or 16-18-21) instead of zooms