Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Primes ARE Past their Prime




Back in the good old days we bought our film SLR cameras packaged with nice sensible 50mm prime lenses. I bought several such camera and lens combinations back in the 60s and 70s. They all functioned pretty darn well too.

The 50mm focal length approximated the natural field of view that our unassisted eyes enjoyed. They usually offered handsomely fast maximum apertures like f1.8 or even f1.4 which enabled us to make the best use of our slow 64 ASA colour transparency film or 125 ASA monochrome negative film. We could still take nice sharp pictures when the clouds came over or when the sun was low in the sky. I used to feel sorry for my father who had to struggle by in bleak conditions with an f3.5 fixed lens on his old German rangefinder. Those nice wide hunks of glass also gave us pleasantly bright viewfinders which enabled us to focus (manually of course) accurately and quickly using those infallible old split image focus collars.

Moreover those good old lenses were (and still ARE) razor sharp from edge to edge. Being small, they were light, which enabled the camera weight to sit well-balanced, back in our hands. Holding the camera steady was a relative breeze. They were tough too. After all there was almost nothing to go wrong in them and the barrels were constructed from good old fashioned METAL.

If we wanted to capture something a long way away, we could screw out (yes, SCREW out) or otherwise disconnect our 50mm lenses and mount a nice long 135mm or pehaps a brute-like 200mm telephoto prime. For cramming in the family on Christmas day we could mount our nice new 35mm or (if we really wanted to show off) our 28mm wide angle prime. If we wanted to get fancy for portrait sessions, we could always swap over to a 90mm prime etc.

Occasionally one would spy a photographer struggling with big cumbersome new-fangled lenses called (what DID we call them?) ... oh yeah. ZOOM LENSES. The things were a handful, our viewfinders became unworkably dim and the maximum apertures (in combination with our slow old emulsions) disallowed photography in all but the most favourable lighting conditions. Zoom ranges were so narrow that we STILL needed to swap glass to cover any decent range of circumstances. Worst of all, they performed appallingly. At some focal lengths they could be positively blurry, edge sharpness was always a joke and one had to overlook the ever present geometric distortions. Tch tch tch! Experienced camera jockeys just KNEW that zooms would never catch on.

Yes Sir. They were the GOOD old days. It is simply amazing how selective our memories can be. Don't you reckon?

Back in those good old days, getting around with our 50mm primes, we couldn't always frame up a picture when we saw it. We really DID need the time of Methuselah, the experience and skill of a Cartier Bresson and the athleticism of an Olympic gymnast to always be in position for the picture WHEN it happened. Pictures didn't wait around until we got where we needed to be. The sun went behind the cloud, the cute little dog stopped looking in our direction and wandered off, the silhouetted man, standing in the focus point of the backlit narrow passage, walked around the corner removing all interest.

When we fidgeted around to change lenses, we took even longer than we did by running into position. Either way we missed the shot. Time and again we frustratingly MISSED THE SHOT. Worse still, we stopped trying. We saw the shot, remembered we were using a prime lens and walked on ... looking for something that providence would be kind enough to conveniently dump into our laps.

Then times changed. Zoom lenses got better .... a GREAT DEAL better. For all practical intents and purposes, today, a half way decent 18-200mm zoom can do a pretty reasonable job of substituting for a whole BAG of tolerably competent primes. With any luck at all, if we SEE a picture, we can GET the picture - within seconds. Okay, the edges of the prime may be a fraction sharper but if using the prime would have caused us to miss the picture altogether, what does it matter?

Yes, but what about the zoom's lousy maximum apertures?

Thing is, we don't operate with 64 ASA film anymore. Most modern DSLRs can deliver a lovely clean image at 400 ... 800 ... even 1600 ISO. The very latest cameras are optimistic enough to offer us 25,000 ISO or more. As far as the ability to operate in dull light is concerned, who needs f1.8?

"Ahhhhhh!" you say. "The big prime maximum aperture will give us lots of nice out-of-focus background. You can't do that with your f4 max aperture - can you?"

I realise of course that modern users of zooms don't get as much exercise as prime lens users do. That doesn't mean that we can't muster the strength to run the zoom out to telephoto, take a few paces backwards, dial up a highish shutter speed and frame the original subject. Hey presto - an out-of-focus background.

For some reason, there's a breed of newbies out on the internet forums who have convinced themselves that like REAL men who don't eat quiche, REAL photographers don't use zooms. What is more they are often rude to "obviously ill informed" correspondents who suggest alternatives. I see them now, in my mind's eye - hurtling about helter skelter and/or staggering under the weight of HUGE gadget bags crammed with primes, missing pictures by the truckload, eternally juggling glass.

Unfortunately no one seems to have told these characters that few people use film anymore. Think about it. Change a lens on a film camera and dust gets on the film. It winds on and out of the way with the very next shot. With a digital sensor, the muck may stay in place on the sensor (AND our pictures) until we finally get round to cleaning it.

Try this! Want a 50mm lens? Set your zoom to 50mm. You then HAVE a 50mm lens. See a picture that needs a 135mm lens to frame it properly? Set your zoom to 135mm and you have one in an instant. No drama, no losing the shot, no dropping expensive glass on the ground, no frustration, no lugging gadget bags. Personally I don't normally use ANY primes these days. How about you?

About a year ago I asked: "Could Primes be Past their Prime?" Now I think I know the answer. Primes ARE past their prime.