Some thoughts on zooms... I think zooms are great tools for teaching cropping, but not that great for teaching someone how to "see" in terms of a particular focal length.
If you stand in one place and take a series of photos with a zoom lens set to, say, 28mm, 35mm, 50mm, 85mm and 105mm, you're not taking five different photos. All you're doing is taking one photo at 28mm and then cropping differently. Perspective, proportion... everything stays the same as you zoom in. Zooming a lens does not give you a different photo, only a different crop. OTOH, if you took a 28mm lens and took five photos while walking towards an object to make it larger, *then* you'd have five different pictures. The size of the object would still be increasing in your viewfinder, but its relation to the background and the apparent perspective of the photo would be changing. Can you set a zoom lens to a particular focal length and use it like a prime? Of course. Do zooms encourage this kind of shooting? Not at all, IMO. I think zooms can be a great tool if used correctly. They can give you an idea of how a shot will look like from different crops, and they can take the place of several primes if you are willing or able to use your feet. As for whether or not zooms are good for beginners... I'm staying out of that one. :) I agree with Bill in theory, but I also think that there are a lot of beginners out there who would have the discipline to use a zoom properly if their instructor explained the issue to them. chris - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
