Wide prime or zoom?

M. Gilden

M. Gilden

Canon DSLR Moderator
Ok guys, I need some advice.

I currently have a Nikon 50mm 1.4 and a Nikkor zoom 75-150 as well as the t2i kit lens 18-55mm.

I love the look of the 50mm 1.4, and find myself wanting to to use it the most often. However, with this crop sensor, 50mm is far too zoomed in for most shots. I often need to setup the camera in the next room to get the shot I want!

At first I thought I'd just use the kit lens for wider shots, but I really don't like how it looks (I blame the slow f-stop of 3.5+). So, I guess now I'm looking for a wider fast lens to take its place.

At first I was looking at fast wide zooms, like the Tamron 17-50 F/2.8, but the price tag is a bit more than I am comfortable spending right now.

Would I be losing anything by just getting a wide prime? Would something like a 28mm 2.8 be sufficient? Budget is a major constraint as I just purchased about $1000 of additional equipment and need a break from spending anything major for a bit...
 
I'm looking at a selection of Nikon primes 28mm for under $200 right now. Seems like the best bang-for-buck right now. But now I'm also wondering if 28 is too tight...
 
dishe said:
Ok guys, I need some advice.


At first I thought I'd just use the kit lens for wider shots, but I really don't like how it looks (I blame the slow f-stop of 3.5+).

At first I was looking at fast wide zooms, like the Tamron 17-50 F/2.8,

Would I be losing anything by just getting a wide prime?
Click to expand...

You don't really have that many wide prime choices.
Wider than 18mm it's going to be a zoom, a fisheye or a fortune.
I have the Tamron 17-50 2.8 non VC and it's an excellent lens both sharp and fast enough for most situations. I don't think you will find anything faster, sharper, better, cheaper between the price of the 18-55 and the Tamron 17-50. If I were you I'd suffer along with the kit lens and save up for the Tamron.
 
+1 to Michael's suggestion. 28 is more on a normal lens on APS-C. Primes at 28 and wider either cost a fortune (canon 24 F1.4L II $1600), or are no faster than the Tamron Michael is suggesting. I have the canon 17-55 2.8, but for less than half the price, you can get the Tamron and very close performance. I would have gone that way had I not found such a great deal on the canon.
 
for now, I picked up a 28mm f/2.0 Vivitar for about $85 used.
Reading up on this lens, it seems a good deal. At least I'll have my bases covered for now- I don't really have a need for anything super-wide at the moment, its just that the 50mm on a cropped sensor is too close for comfort.
I guess if anything requiring a wider angle comes up, I still have the kit lens (which isn't terrible being f/3.5 at its widest).
Meanwhile, I was just offered a 24-40mm 2.8 Tokina with a manual Nikon mount for $50. If I hadn't *just* bought the vivitar, that'd be a nice semi-wide zoom to walk around with.
But now, I don't know.
I'll have a 28mm and a 50mm, both at faster apertures than 2.8, and this barely gives any more range than I already have.
I feel like I should wait and save up for something wider, right? What do you guys think?
 
dishe said:
28mm f/2.0 Vivitar
kit lens f/3.5 at its widest).
24-40mm 2.8 Tokina
50mm,faster apertures than 2.8

I feel like I should wait and save up for something wider, right? What do you guys think?
Click to expand...

Sounds like you are all set to shoot. Work with all those lenses and save your money. When you're ready and know what you really want, just go get it.
For ultra wide the Tokina 2.8 is very sharp and you don't have that range covered yet. Also look into Olympus OM manual lenses on ebay.
 
Last edited:
ROCKMORE said:
Sounds like you are all set to shoot. Work with all those lenses and save your money. When you're ready and know what you really want, just go get it.
For ultra wide the Tokina 2.8 is very sharp and you don't have that range covered yet. Also look into Olympus OM manual lenses on ebay.
Click to expand...

The Tokina I mentioned here is only 24mm at its widest. Is that really so much of a difference from the 28mm Vivitar?

Maybe if it started wider, like in the 17mm range or something. Still, $50... Gah, I need to take a break from buying things for a bit until I make some money with these lenses!
 
dishe said:
The Tokina I mentioned here is only 24mm at its widest. Is that really so much of a difference from the 28mm Vivitar?

Maybe if it started wider, like in the 17mm range or something. Still, $50... Gah, I need to take a break from buying things for a bit until I make some money with these lenses!
Click to expand...

24mm is not that wide with a 1.6 cropped film plane which in 35mm full frame terms is about 38.4mm. I used the 18-55 mostly at the 18mm f3.5 end for 10 months on many paying projects. the wide end of that lens is is strong end and has IS which is a plus. I only sold the 550D and kit lens because a friend had cash and wanted the 550D and lens bad.
I decided better the cash and add it to the 60D body with other lenses I had collected. My widest lens was a canon 24mm 2.8 with a Century x.7 adapter. I used that for a few weeks while researching wide zooms. The Tamron 17-50 2.8 non VC and the Canon 17-55 2.8 were the only options for me.
Since I'm still waiting for the next generation of FF 5D to come out I didn't want to invest too heavy in EF-s cropped lenses so I went with the Tamron for the money, but was very satisfied with the performance. More than satisfied, it's a keeper.

Like I said you have all the lenses you need. Now invest the time in shooting. When you have more cash you can get more lenses. You should get an external mic though. you can get the ATR- 6250 for $30 bucks at B&H. Audio people will tell you you need to spend $1500, and they are right, but for $30 you can have something better than the camera mic today.

BTW the Tokina 11-16mm 2.8 is a fine lens, but you can do without it. It has heavy object distortion at 11mm (Heads and soccer balls) in order to correct straight lines in buildings, it's strong end is 15mm to 16mm. I like that lens but but may never buy one.
 
Last edited:
The lenses is a typical cine prime set are 18, 25, 35, 50 and 85. Your camera has a similar field of view so you should try to cover these basic focal lengths first. ANything outside this range is considered a specialty lens.
 
ROCKMORE said:
24mm is not that wide with a 1.6 cropped film plane which in 35mm full frame terms is about 38.4mm. I used the 18-55 mostly at the 18mm f3.5 end for 10 months on many paying projects. the wide end of that lens is is strong end and has IS which is a plus. I only sold the 550D and kit lens because a friend had cash and wanted the 550D and lens bad.
I decided better the cash and add it to the 60D body with other lenses I had collected. My widest lens was a canon 24mm 2.8 with a Century x.7 adapter. I used that for a few weeks while researching wide zooms. The Tamron 17-50 2.8 non VC and the Canon 17-55 2.8 were the only options for me.
Since I'm still waiting for the next generation of FF 5D to come out I didn't want to invest too heavy in EF-s cropped lenses so I went with the Tamron for the money, but was very satisfied with the performance. More than satisfied, it's a keeper.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I figure if I really need something super-wide in the mean time, I can still use the kit lens at 3.5 in widest position. It wouldn't have been my first choice, but since I already have it, might as well make use of it for now.
You didn't get a kit lens with your 60D?

Like I said you have all the lenses you need. Now invest the time in shooting. When you have more cash you can get more lenses. You should get an external mic though. you can get the ATR- 6250 for $30 bucks at B&H. Audio people will tell you you need to spend $1500, and they are right, but for $30 you can have something better than the camera mic today.
Click to expand...

Good advice- I think I already have a very similar mic to that in one of my bags from my DVX-100 days (only difference seems to be mine is XLR), along with a Sony and I think a Panasonic directional mic as well.
This may be my first SLR (hence my lens noobishness), but NOT my first video camera. Biggest issue for me currently is that most of my audio gear is designed for XLR, so I might need to invest in adapters.
I've even got a boom pole left over from a documentary shot with it many years ago, but I must admit I haven't really used it. When I'm working with a crew, there is usually a dedicated sound guy, and if I'm working myself... well, I can hardly be in charge of a boom pole and the camera at the same time!
Last I checked, I think the end of the boom pole might have even broken off- I really don't use directional mics as often as I could.

Lately, I mostly use a Sennheiser wireless lav. Not only are they great for the documentary/interview style shots I usually get, but since the receiver has a half decent pre-amp of its own, the audio going into the camera has more oomf than a straight in mic (one of the biggest gripes people seem to have with in-camera audio is the preamp, after AGC of course). Using Magic Lantern, I've managed to get pretty great sounding audio with the Sennheiser receiver. And now that I can do live monitoring via headphones, my workflow is starting to look a lot more like what I'm used to!

But anyway, I'm getting horribly off topic here- if I didn't already have some equipment, I agree, that should be my next investment.

BTW the Tokina 11-16mm 2.8 is a fine lens, but you can do without it. It has heavy object distortion at 11mm (Heads and soccer balls) in order to correct straight lines in buildings, it's strong end is 15mm to 16mm. I like that lens but but may never buy one.
Click to expand...
Yeah, people seem to go gaga over it. I don't think I need something that wide (and if I recall, that lens is on the slower side as well), even with the cropped sensor.

Getting my 28mm in a couple of days, we'll see how that pans out.
 
dishe said:
You didn't get a kit lens with your 60D?

XLR, so I might need to invest in adapters.

I've even got a boom pole left over from a documentary shot

Sennheiser wireless lav.
Click to expand...

I didn't get the kit lens even thought i think it's a sharp lens for only a hundred bucks. I wanted to find a constant aperture zoom to replace it and not buying it was the only way to move on or I'd still be using one.

Radio shack has XLR adapters. I have a few different ones for my Sony wired lavs.

Sounds like you have a lot great gear already.

I had a shoot with no assistant and had to boom the mic in front of the tripod to mic a few interviews. No big deal it worked great. I can even see the mic in the gray area out of frame. If you have to work alone, work alone, you'll hear less complaining.

Just shoot and don't look back
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top