Originally posted by normhead Ah, and it's good to "force people"?
I have a number of primes and some are used more than others. Some I won't take my zoom off the camera for. What having one prime and nothing else does is it forces you to shoot in a zone that may or may not be your comfort zone. If your only lens is in a focal length you actually don't like (but don't know that yet", the one prime approach could just put you off photography period. You could go through life not realizing that it's not photography you don't like, it's that lens.
Just being argumentative here, but the notion of having to learn composition with primes is just pure nonsense. What you learn is that you have to stand 6 feet away with a 50 mm lens to get a head shot. You don't learn that you can compress your background and possibly make the head look more attractive by stepping back and using an 85.
I'm going with 18-55 and 50-200.
Perhaps `force' is too strong... maybe guide her to thinking a little bit more about the process. You compose with your eyes and brain, and I find that having a single
focal length on the camera simplifies the process for me - one less decision to make. I also agree that perhaps having only one focal length, period, might be too restrictive
to a beginner. Maybe 2 or 3 (as the OP originally asked for), in the classic FLs: 35, 50 and either something a little longer, or something a little wider, so she can get a sense
of what she likes.
Ultimately, I suppose that it really depends on what v5's sister is likely to do, or want to do with a camera...