Knowing this won't endear me to many, I have to confess I find the
endless zoom vs prime arguement tiresome. Does an artist always use
the same brush? Poet always use the same rhyme scheme? Composer
always write for the same instrument? (OK, *besides* Chopin) Isn't
a lens a little like a brush? Even if we DID always everytime want
the sharpest most distortion free image possible, the salesman at the
store where I go just told me that a company that measures medical
instruments just ordered 200 Tamron 20-40s. Go figure, I don't know
how they use them, but here's a zoom being used in science. Intruder!
But to me, photography, like music, is a combination of art and
science. I don't listen to John Lee Hooker or J.S. Bach or Johnny
Griffin the same way, don't have the same expectations.
Same goes for framing questions. You CANNOT always move your location
to get a shot. Sometimes it's just plain impossible. Like in an
airplane, or at a classical concert. or on the edge of a cliff, or the
beach. (I'll just swim out there to shoot that ship with my 50mm)
This just seems so obvious I don't even know why I'm asserting it.
Yes, I know, change primes! Oops, there goes the shot.
And we all know that by and large primes are sharper. But nobody
complains (do they?) much about the 28-70L or 70-200. (or the FD
35-105). Shots I've seen would sure make ME happy if they came from
my trigger finger.
Educating novices is one thing, but it kind of makes me shake my head
when I see the same experienced people arguing the same tired points.
One of the greatest things about 35mm photography is the VARIETY
available. Why not celebrate it. Hell, Canon makes an
*intentionally* soft lens. People put nail polish on filters to try
and tone down some lenses for cryin' out loud! If I wanted super
tack-sharp infinite DOF, I'd probably go to medium or large format.
The shots that take my breath away in that respect usually turn out to
be from those cameras. And yes, I'd like to be able to approach that
within my limited musician budget, that's why I have primes AND zooms.
(I know that was a non-sequiter!) Knowing the limitations and
strengths of your specific equipment - and exploiting them
artistically - seems to me to be the name of the game.
But even among musicians. I'm fond of saying, there are the "athletes"
and the "artists." No judgement intended, but I know where I stand.
One last point. I have a pilot's license, and when I got it, I was
told it was a "license to learn."
Ken
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