Posts Tagged ‘Fast lens’

A prime lens is a lens with a single fixed focal length - it cannot be zoomed. Prime lenses appeal to photographers for a number of reasons. Depending on the lens, it might offer some combination of a large maximum aperture, small size, excellent build quality, better image quality, or lower price, compared to a zoom lens. In this article we'll look at some tips for using a prime lens, and how to deal with some potential issues you may come across.

Shooting in low light situations can cause a number of problems such as autofocus issues, high levels of image noise, and blurry photos. However, unless you resolve to only photograph outdoors when it's sunny, you'll sometimes have to shoot in low light and deal with these issues.

While these problems can be a pain, they can all be minimized to a certain extent, so you don't need to worry about them so much. There are a load of great photo opportunities that can only be had in low light situations (such as shooting at night), so it's worth learning the tricks for getting great photos in low light.

I've seen a few comments from some photographers stating that with the good high ISO performance from current cameras, there's no need to spend money on fast glass anymore. (If you're wondering what fast glass means, it means lenses with a large maximum aperture like f/1.4 or f/2.8, you can read more here: What does Lens Speed mean?)

In this article I want to take a look at this argument, and see if there is any truth in the statement.

A term that you might come across when reading photography articles or forums is that of Lens speed. This relates to all cameras, but you are particularly likely to see it used when lenses for interchangeable lens cameras are discussed.

Sometimes it may be mentioned that you need a fast lens, or that a certain lens is too slow. In this article we'll look at what lens speed means, and what makes a lens fast or slow.