Prime Lens Vs Zoom Lens: Which Is Best?

Prime Lens Vs Zoom Lens: Which Is Best? | So, you're wanting to get a new lens, but you're not quite sure whether to buy a prime lens or a zoom lens. Both types of lenses have their advantages and disadvantages, and you want to make sure you make the right decision and get the lens which best fits your photographic needs.

In case you didn't already know, the main difference between a zoom lens and prime lens is that a zoom lens enables you to adjust your focal length within a certain range (for example 18-50mm), whereas a prime lens has a fixed focal length.

So you might be wondering what the point is of using a prime lens. Surely if you have the choice between a lens with flexibility and one with no flexibility, then surely the flexible one is the best one, isn't it? Well, its not really as straightforward as that, because prime lenses do have some advantages. To begin with, they are lighter than zoom lenses because they have less moving parts. Mechanically speaking, they are simpler.

In addition to this, prime lenses usually have wider apertures. The aperture of a lens determines how much light the lens lets in at any one time. Aperture ratings are in ratios, for example 1:3.5 or 1:2.8, but usually when buying a lens you will see it shown without the 1 in front of it, for example 3.5. Lenses with lower aperture numbers are more expensive, as a lower number means a wider aperture. Having a wide aperture produces a shallow depth of field, meaning that only a small distance range is in focus. A narrow depth of field (a wide aperture) would be great for close-ups of flowers where you want the background blurred, whereas a large depth-of-field (a small aperture) would be ideal for landscape photos.

Okay, so how about the zoom lens?

Well, a zoom lens will give you a bigger range of distances to compose your image. This means that you don't need to move closer or further away from your subject to get the picture you're after. It can also be great for taking shots of wildlife, because you can zoom in without having to change your position, so you will be less likely to scare the animal away.

The best way to decide which type of lens is right for you is to ask yourself what type of photography you are going to be doing. If you are going to be photographing a scene which remains still, such as a landscape scene, then a prime lens could be a good choice. If on the other hand you want to photograph things that are moving, such as animals, people, or sports photography, then a zoom lens is a must.

Its not always easy trying to make this kind of decision, but whatever you decide, a Canon EF 85mm or a Nikon 17-55mm 2.8 Lens are good examples of the type of lenses that will always be useful to have as part of your photography kit.

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Which Canon EOS Lens Is Best For A Beginner - 3 Hints For Choosing A Good All Purpose Lens

Which Canon EOS Lens Is Best For A Beginner - 3 Hints For Choosing A Good All Purpose Lens | What do you believe is your beginning consideration as a new digital SLR owner? It should be which lens you want as an all-purpose lens. Believe me, there are plenty of folks who have agonized over this decision.

There are many really superior lenses to consider as walk around lenses. It's kind of like buying a compact point and shoot camera, though. What zoom range are you looking for?

For the purpose of this article, it shall be assumed that you are searching for a zoom lens rather than one with a fixed focal length. Most, though not all, new owners opt for the Canon "kit lens" as their first lens. While choosing a kit lens may make sense to you now, you will likely not be happy with the lens down the road. You either think you will just wait and purchase a better lens later, or you don't even think about a different lens.

That is not my view. You should get the very best glass(lens) that money can buy rather than spending money on an inferior kit lens. After all, you will want to upgrade fairly soon, anyway, so why not get more bang for your buck right up front.

There are several things to consider about the lens you are planning to buy.

First consideration is focal length. In general, a focal length of about 18-24mm on the short end and 55-75mm on the long end will give you a very useful range. Keep in mind that these numbers are not critical. There are also some excellent quality lenses that have about 105mm at the long end.

Canon, Sigma, and Tamron have recently released some pretty good lenses in the super-zoom category. These have focal lengths of 18mm at the short end and 200-270mm on the long end. They have gotten favorable reviews, however just keep in mind that the image quality will not be as good as those lenses with less zoom capability.

Second consideration is aperture. The best lenses will have a constant aperture of f/2.8 across all focal lengths. You can almost always save money by getting a lens with a variable aperture, such as f/3.5-5.6, but they will not give you the same performance in all situations, especially when lighting is a challenge.

The final thing to scrutinize when buying your first lens is price. For some, this may be the first thing to consider, but with DSLR photography, it really needs to follow the other two factors. Rather than getting the cheapest lens on the market just to have one, it would be far better in the long run to save enough money to start with a good lens. Don't make the same mistake that so many who have gone before you. If good image quality is something you take seriously, you will not be satisfied with a poorly constructed lens. It is very frustrating to try to take great pictures with poor quality lenses.
Now, you can save money by using Canon EOS lenses from third party manufacturers. Some third party lenses are top-notch and less costly than a Canon lens that is identical in capabilities.

A word of warning. Camera forums can be very informative, and they are full of well-meaning photographers, but they can also be very confusing. This is because the folks in those forums are very passionate about their opinions. They can mislead you by bashing certain cameras and products. While this is not always the case, if it happens to you, it could cloud your thinking and mess up your research.

User opinions on the Canon USE camera manufacturer site are much more helpful. Then there are other sites that will guide you as well. What do you believe is your beginning consideration as a new digital SLR owner? It should be which lens you want as a all-purpose lens. Believe me, there are plenty of folks who have agonized over this decision.

There are many really superior lenses to consider as walk around lenses. It's kind of like buying a compact point and shoot camera, though. What zoom range are you looking for?

For the purpose of this article, it shall be assumed that you are searching for a zoom lens rather than one with a fixed focal length. Most, though not all, new owners opt for the Canon "kit lens" as their first lens. While choosing a kit lens may make sense to you now, you will likely not be happy with the lens down the road. You either think you will just wait and purchase a better lens later, or you don't even think about a different lens.

That is not my view. You should get the very best glass(lens) that money can buy rather than spending money on an inferior kit lens. After all, you will want to upgrade fairly soon, anyway, so why not get more bang for your buck right up front.

READ MORE - Which Canon EOS Lens Is Best For A Beginner - 3 Hints For Choosing A Good All Purpose Lens

HTC Hero Android Phone (Sprint) - one of the first android phones on the market

HTC Hero Android Phone | I both love and hate this phone. I love the Android operating system. It's very elegant and easy to use. The Market is filled with Apps, and I was able to find an app for everything that I needed to do. I've used several different Android phones and generally found that the Android OS is reliable and stable. The phone and the user interface is also visually appealing. Simply put, the phone and the OS are beautiful.

HTC is known for adding its own modifications to the internal OS on all of its phones, and this one is no exception. HTC has modified Android on this phone to make it better looking and in some cases easier to use. However, those modifications may also have introduced problems, as I'll explain, below.

There also seem to be some serious build quality issues at HTC. The first phone that I got experienced an intermittent problem that caused the voice recognition feature to never work the first time. If more than 30 seconds passed and I tried t o use it, it would be wrong the first time, no matter what I said. This was a minor issue, but there's really no reason why it should have occurred on one phone and not on another. I got a replacement phone, and the voice recognition now works, but it takes forever (up to 20 seconds after I stop talking) to work at times. There are a ton of posts on the internet about voice dialing problems on this phone, and so I'm not the only one complaining.

Voice dialing is a major issue with this phone because the phone lacks any tactile keys. When you're driving and you want to make a call, you can dial on a phone with a regular keypad by touch. Since this phone has no keys, you either have to look at the keypad, or you have to use voice dialing. Voice dialing on other phones (including the Samsung Moment and even my very old Motorola RAZR) can work very, very well. Unfortunately, on this phone, it just doesn't.

HTC also makes the Google Nexus One, and it too has had a mixed reception on quality issues. Even worse, my first Hero also had repeated crashes of software that should have worked fine, including the application that you use to program the phone with your phone number and MSID. These are basic phone functions, and they really shouldn't crash.

My second phone continues to have application crashes for apps that I know should work fine, and do work fine on other phones. For example, today, the telephone dialer application crashed. The telephone dialer application is the application that gives you a dialpad so you can use the phone. It's a basic application, and shouldn't EVER crash. Yet, on the HTC Hero it crashed for me today. I suspect that HTC's modifications to Android are responsible, as the problems have occurred on different HTC Hero phones, and I've found that other Android phones are very reliable.

While HTC's modifications make the Android OS visually appealing, they also replace text based labels which are easy to understand with often confusing icons. HTC's modifications also make the phone take about 30 seconds longer to boot-up. There is simply no reason why HTC needed to do this to its customers. Honestly, I'd rather they at least give me the option to disable their enhancements...

(Update: Apparently, you can disable at least SOME of them: Go to the Home Screen, Press MENU button, Press Settings, Press Applications, Press Manage Applications, wait for the OS to compute application usage, Scroll down the list until you see HTC Sense and select it to go to the Application Info page, Press the Clear Defaults button, Press the HOME button. You will be prompted to select which app to compete the action with. Select Home and chose to make this the default action. If you want SenseUI back, follow the same steps, but instead of selecting "HTC Sense" from the applications list, select the application called "Home" (not the HOME button), and then clear the defaults.)

The processor may also be a bit slow. I've noticed on several occasions that the phone seemed to miss the fact that I pushed on certain buttons. For example, in order to answer calls on an HTC modified phone, you have to swipe your finger down the screen. On several occasions, I've actually missed calls because the phone didn't register my swipe until the call went to voice mail.

Why not just use the hard buttons? Good question! The layout of the call and answer buttons makes them very hard to use for someone with medium to large size hands, so its difficult to push one of them without also pushing one of the other nearby buttons. The speakerphone volume is also a bit low, making it almost useless when you're in a car.

Also, if you have a bluetooth headset and you're used to using the button on it to activate voice dialing, you're going to be disappointed. For some reason, HTC didn't properly implement that feature. So, if you push the button on your bluetooth headset or speakerphone, nothing happens. Again, this is a basic feature built into most phones nowadays, and it surprises me that HTC didn't implement it on their flagship Android phone.

I've also used a Motorola Cliq (which also runs Android) and the Samsung Moment and found them to be quite reliable. The Moment definitely has a better screen, is a little larger than the Hero, and has a slide-out keyboard. Given my experience thus far, I think that I like the Moment better. Although it's a bit larger and I don't really care about a slide out keyboard, I can't stand the apps crashing on the HTC Hero.

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