Hi Peter Your teachers advice can be explained by the fact that many consumer zoom lenses (rather cheap lenses) are not very fast (F 3.5-F5.6) and requires a lot of light and often not very good either. (If you are using a digital camera this is not a big problem since you can change the ISO ssetting in a few seconds. With film it's different.) Secondly because prime lenses often are superior in regard to optical quality. Primes simly produce better quality pictures. That is when you know which focal length to use. But until you do, the zoom lens is a good choise as a walk arround lens IMO. A 28-70mm, 35-80mm, 24-90mm or a 28-105mm seem like good choises to me. I use a 2.8/28-70mm, which is really not quite wide enough for my *ist D. I often carry a 2.8/20mm, a 1.4/50mm a 2.8/28-70mm and a 4-5.6/70-210mm in my photobag. I never "walk arround" with just one lens.
Jens Bladt mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://hjem.get2net.dk/bladt -----Oprindelig meddelelse----- Fra: Peter Smekal [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sendt: 23. oktober 2004 09:50 Til: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Emne: www? www = walking with what When I started photography more seriously a couple of years ago I went to a photo course. Our teacher gave us the advice to use prime lenses, preferably normal primes, at least to start with. So for some time I only had a 50mm-lens. The last year I found a used FA 20/2.8, started to experiment with it and became really fond of the perspective it gave. During a trip to a Greek island this summer it became the favorite lens on the PZ1-p I walked around with. It produced images I am very pleased with. Sometimes, however, it made me unprepared for certain motives. I remember walking through a fantastic barren, almost moonlike coastal landscape, when suddenly a man appeared from the left carrying a huge sack filled with salt he had collected. On the photo taken with the wide angle he (of course) appeared as a tiny figure. Thus, using a 20mm as a walking around lens is not so clever. Changing lenses would have taken too much time. The obvious solution might after all be a zoom lense, like a 28-105. I am thinking about buying one now. But then again, maybe using a longer prime lens as walking around lens might be better. One mostly has more time to change to a wide angle when the picturesque landscape or the like "appears", than the other way around. At least that's what I think. So what about let's say a FA 100/2.8 (too heavy?) or the FA 135/2.8 (too long?)? I am still quite a novice so any advice is really appreciated. Thanks Peter, Sweden
