From Cameralabs.com forums:
Gordon wrote in his review:
"Shooting with the GF1 and 20mm took us back to the Seventies and Eighties when we used manual 35mm SLRs with nothing more than a 50mm lens. Back then we didn’t miss a zoom, and it’s amazing how liberating it can still be today when you’ve become used-to adjusting your focal length."
Yes!
When you have a zoom, you love it. But when you use a prime, you find out how much attention you have used, apparently, in thinking about pictures in many different focal lengths at once. One can think much quicker with a prime.
Also I found out that I can take sharp pictures at 1/15 second with the GF1 and the 20mm pancake lens, even without stabilization! It surprised me. That and F:1.7 and ISO 800 goes a long way (even if ISO 1600 really should have been better on that camera).
Amen, brother. My favorite lens for both my Canon 40D and Elan IIe is the 28mm/1.8. Zooming with your feet rules.
ReplyDeleteFor me it's like with color and BW: one day I'm so attracted to one, and the next day, the other.
ReplyDeleteI have been using a 40mm prime for a few months now. I either step up or step back to get closer or further from the subject. I have become so used to it that when a friend asked me to take a picture with her camera (that had a zoom) I stepped close and closer to fill the frame and found myself two inches from their faces!!!
ReplyDeleteHaha, I bet they were bemused and amused.
ReplyDeleteI just spent the day with a 28-55 and 55-200. I can't believe how many times I switched lenses. So if you shoot with primes, how many bodies do you use?
ReplyDeleteI think today I would have spent my time split between a 200mm, a 70mm and a 22mm, that's two more bodies than I have (unless I went back to film).
I miss my 28-75 with macro.
One or two bodies. I think three is only if you really need them, or have a young buck to carry two of them.
ReplyDeleteI have a 18-200mm (28-300mm equivalent) lens for Nikon. I love shooting with it. Problem is, nobody has yet made such a lens without visible compromises.
Pentax has an upcoming 18-135mm lens, I'll keep an eye out for its performance.
When shooting with primes, the game is to embrace the limitations.
Actually I had a prime on loan while I took a recent trip. I needed a fast lens for some hope for night shooting.
ReplyDeleteI found that f1.8 and 16000 ISO + emulation I could get a reasonable amount hand held.
However I found for daylight shooting I spent a lot of time adjusting my position to get the composition I wanted. I had to think about it much more than shooting a zoom, where you pick your shooting angle, then frame the shot. I guess after 20 years of zoom I'm having trouble adapting back to prime.
Yes indeed.
ReplyDeleteI go back and forth.
Even more than not having to move, I like the flexibility of a zoom, particularly those that go from wide-angle to tele.
Oh, I've done that. The look of a car from 2' with my 28mm v's the same angle, but at 100mm from 20' back. There's just an in credible world along that line.
ReplyDelete