Grab your Prime-Time!

[Sheiky]

Perhaps I'm a loner on this and it doesn't make sense to you, but here's my story:
Pretty much as long as I have a DSLR I'm having a beautiful prime lens in my kit which produces images like no zoom can. Still it doesn't seem to want to leave my bag. Honestly, that's all my fault because I like the easiness of the zooms... I'm just lazy I guess. So I might need some inspiration...

If you are like me or you like a small challenge: I challenge you to grab your prime lens for once and start shooting! Get out of the comfort-zone of your zoom and challenge yourself to use your prime lens.
If you don't have a prime, you could tape your zoom-lens to a specific number and leave it that way for a day without changing it.
If you already use primes a lot(or only have primes), try using different focal lengths for the things you normally shoot.

I am hoping to get my photographic interest/inspiration bumped up again this way and I hope you might like to join me.

Have fun!

[Dave Johnston]

I'm with you,

If i am on a trip and I can only take a small amount of equipment. I.e. a shoulder bag. I take 5D 28, 50, and 85. All in all I get a large focal range that is good for many light situations and volume and weight wise is still probably lower than just taking my 5d and 24-70

PRIME TIME!

[Sheiky]

So a lot has happened to me the last few years and my interest in photography went lower and lower. For what it's worth: I hardly took any photos this year and I haven't taken a single photo since my weekend in Luxembourg may 5th. A few weeks ago I decided to give it another try, see if I can enjoy photography as I used to before.

My gear existed of: Canon 24-105 F4L, Canon 70-200 F4L IS and the Sigma 50mm F1.4.
Last week I traded the Canon 70-200 for the Canon 200mm F2.8L and the Canon 100mm f2.8 macro.
My girlfriend left on holidays to Tunesia last Tuesday for two weeks and she took my 24-105 and left her Canon 85mm F1.8 for me.

So now I'm stuck with all primes for the next two weeks and since I have summer break I want to go out and take some more photos and hopefully enjoy photography more again.

I took these shots at Amsterdam Schiphol airport last Tuesday when I dropped off my girlfriend. I went to the so called "spotters" places near the runways.

This shot I took just before a good shower. The sun was setting on the right.



Shot with the 50mm at f3.2 ISO 200 1/2500 - Changed mode to landscape and used normal contrast curve, that's it.


After that the wind changed direction and they used other runways so I went to the landing-runway and used my "new" 200mm for these shots:

F3.5 ISO400 1/640s


F5 ISO400 1/100 panned

[Sheiky]

I'm with you,

If i am on a trip and I can only take a small amount of equipment. I.e. a shoulder bag. I take 5D 28, 50, and 85. All in all I get a large focal range that is good for many light situations and volume and weight wise is still probably lower than just taking my 5d and 24-70

PRIME TIME!

Nice! My travel-gear is just as I normaly do the 5D with 24-105. It's a great combo, but the primes have so much more to offer.

[andnowimbroke]

That's a pretty good pan job, Jan.

[Dr Croubie]

Maybe it's me, but i'm just not grabbing the Zooms for much at all anymore. (and i hear you on the lack of interest, but for me i'm still interested in taking the shots, I just don't have enough time to process much so they sit in my raw-conversion bucket for far too long).

Anyway, the 70-300L still gets a fair workout, but only at 300mm most of the time.
The 15-85 is gathering dust somewhere.
The new Sigma 8-16 is getting some use, but that's only because there's no (non-fisheye) primes anywhere near this length (or price).

Since I got my big backpack (Lowepro 350), i'm taking the Samyang 35/1.4, FL 55/1.2, EF 85/1.8, EF 100/2.0, and depending on location, the Zeiss Biometar 120/2.8 or Sonnar 180/2.8 (plus tripod) for night-ish events. Also using the Takumar 50/1.4 and Jupiter 85/2.0 on my mum's Pentax Spotmatic as backup film-camera (good thing, too, my EOS-3 battery died just before a show started so I had those two primes and the 7D all night, no eos 3 ).

I suppose i'm still cheating though, taking a bag full of primes just makes for a faster, heavier, and less-convenient zoom.

So I've started taking just the eos-3 and 40mm Pancake in my jacket pocket to places, to try my hand at 'street' lately.
But for travelling i'd probably be packing the 15-85 to keep it light (-er than a bag of primes at least), I just haven't done much travelling lately.

[ham]

On the subject of taping a zoom, I use one of those silicone wrist bands (like the livestrong ones) on my 15-85mm. Have it near side of the zoom ring, even so that it overlaps the FTM focus ring (this doesn't limit focus performance as the ring stays still when AF is working anyway).

Not only does this allow me to use it as a prime, it also stops it dropping to 85mm when it's on my black rapid.

[Sheiky]

Oh, I really got to get back on this thread. A few things have happened and I'm finally happy with how things are. I'll post my experiences here later on. Hopefully this week if I find some time

[Sean Setters]

Alright, this one's for you Sheiky. I shot it tonight with an 85mm f/1.8 and a couple of Kenko extension tubes:


Transformers Cuff Links by budrowilson, on Flickr

[Agilulfo]

For me, a zoom lens is a necessary evil. I have four primes and one zoom, but I need it because sometimes it's impossible or impractical changing the distance from the subject. Example:



But I don't prefer primes for quality reasons. I started to take pictures with an angular, standard and tele lenses (28, 50 and 135 in fact). Now, it's easier for me to think in the picture, to figure it out from a certain and well known angle of view.