Having the proper lens is an important part of creating impactful images. A camera’s lens allows you control over focal length and light, with specific lenses catering to different types of photography. Understanding the differences between a prime lens vs a zoom lens will help you become a better photographer. While there are several variables at play when creating photos, the lens you choose is a major factor in the final image.
What Is A Prime Lens?
A prime lens is a lens with a fixed focal length. This means that if your camera has a 35mm lens attached to it, all your photos will be shot at this 35mm focal length. It’s a stationary lens that requires the photographer to change their position while shooting. If you want to get a close-up shot of your subject, you’ll have to physically move closer. Conversely, if you want a wide shot, you’ll have to back away. While this may seem like more work, most photographers actually prefer it.
What Is A Zoom Lens?
A zoom lens incorporates multiple focal lengths and can zoom in on your subject. Some zooms give you wide-angle, standard, and telephoto focal lengths all in the same lens. Examples of this would be a 16-80mm, or 18-135mm zoom lens. This makes them highly practical as you can shoot at various focal lengths on the fly.
There are also zooms that are strictly wide-angle or strictly telephoto. A 10-24mm lens gives you an ultra-wide 10mm focal length and a wide 24mm when zoomed in. A 70-300mm lens starts at a telephoto focal length of 70mm and can further magnify to 300mm for extremely far away subjects.
Prime Lens Benefits
Many photography purists swear by primes lenses, and for good reason. Here’s why they’re the most popular type of lens:
Wide Apertures
Primes have wide apertures (ie. f1.4, f1.8, f2), allowing more light to enter the camera. This makes them the preferred lens for low light shooting, as zooms rarely go below f2.8. The wide aperture of primes also provides photographers with a more shallow depth of field. The more shallow the depth of field, the more isolated the foreground subject is. This creates a background blur effect known as bokeh. The wider the aperture, the more blurry the background will be. This is a highly sought-after technique that many photographers frequently use.
Cost
Generally speaking, the price of prime lenses is a lot cheaper than zooms. This mainly has to do with how they’re designed, as they contain less glass. The mechanical components built into a zoom contribute to its higher price. However, you will find some primes that are more expensive. This is usually because the prime is of high quality while the zoom is mid-quality. When it comes to glass, high quality always costs more.
They’re Lightweight
Prime lenses are physically smaller than zooms because they contain less glass. Some are so small it barely looks like a lens is attached to the camera. With a small size and less glass, they’re lightweight. This is beneficial if you’re holding your camera for long periods of time. The smaller overall camera size also lends itself well when traveling or if you’re short on storage space.
Shooting Requires Creativity
A prime lens forces you to work within its constraints. While this seems like a negative, it’s not. The boundaries actually boost your creativity. As the focal length doesn’t change, you have to adapt to it. The repetitive nature of shooting with a prime helps you learn the ins and out of a specific focal length. You’ll also learn composition and framing at a faster rate, becoming a master of the lens. Before long, you’ll intuitively know how a shot will turn out before looking through the viewfinder.
From my own personal experience of shooting with primes, I’d argue that they help you feel more connected to your photography. Constantly moving through a scene and reframing it to meet the focal length’s specifications results in more thorough compositions. Composition is a huge part of what makes a great photo.
Zoom Lens Benefits
Zooms aren’t to be looked down on and many professional photographers frequently use them. Here are the reasons why:
Multiple Focal Lengths
Zoom lenses give you multiple focal lengths in a single lens. Their zooming capability also means you don’t have to move around as much. You can stay static and compose your photos as you choose a focal length. Also, shooting far away subjects is much easier with a zoom lens, which comes in handy in many environments. Having different focal lengths at your disposal provides you with options you can experiment with. Learning how your pictures look at different focal lengths will help you grow as a photographer.
They’re Practical
Another benefit to zoom lenses is that they’re practical. Shooting with a single lens is a lot easier. If you shoot with primes, you’re either carrying around multiples cameras or switching out your lenses. Multiple cameras are costly, and constantly changing lenses can quickly become an annoyance. Using a zoom may also make traveling easier, with fewer lenses to lug around.
Pros & Cons
Here’s a quick breakdown of the pros and cons of both lenses:
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Prime Lens vs Zoom Image Quality
For a long time, the general belief was that primes offer better overall image quality than zoom lenses. Sharpness, chromatic aberration, vignetting, distortion, lens flare, and color rendering were all believed to be dominated by primes.
This may have been true in the past. But current technology has made primes and zooms pretty much on par with each other today. Some zooms can even outperform some primes! It may be more beneficial to do studio photography with a prime, but even then the difference is negligible.
As for zooms, pincushion distortion usually occurs to some degree with telephoto focal lengths. This is due to the magnification of elements in the photo near the frame edges, causing the image to flare outward. However, the opposite, barrel distortion, occurs on wide-angle lenses. This will cause parallel lines to curve inward. Distortion can be corrected through editing programs such as Lightroom, or Capture One. Unfortunately, fixing barrel distortion causes a certain percentage of image loss due to flattening it out and cropping.
What’s The Best Lens For Travel?
The gear you bring on your travels will be situational to your travel style and the photographs you’re taking. Having said that, I always recommend traveling as light as you can. This is the main reason I use primes.
Of course, some companies gear their cameras toward travelers. The Fuji X100V is a perfect example. It’s compact, lightweight, and has a fixed 35mm equivalent lens that’s more than adequate for many shooters.
Whatever your flavor, keep in mind that a zoom lens is a lot heavier and less practical to travel with than a prime. Attaching it to a full-frame camera gives you a very bulky and heavy setup. Shooting with a zoom can also intimidate people in the environment, and I wouldn’t recommend it for a genre like street photography. Additionally, carrying the weight of the zoom and camera all day long can wear out your arms quickly.
Prime Lens vs Zoom: The Verdict
There is no right or wrong approach when it comes to lens choice. Both sides of the prime lens vs zoom debate make good arguments. The correct choice is the one that appeals to you most. If you like the versatility of a zoom lens, that’s perfectly alright. If you prefer to work with a constrained focal length, a prime is the way to go. Part of taking great pictures is having the proper tools to work with. Only you know which is the correct type of lens for you.
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