David Emery OnlineA zoom lens is never wide or long enough
10 May 2011
I was taking photos at Angkor Wat in Cambodia yesterday with my Olympus E-P1, and noticed something about my pattern of taking photos: Most of the time, I'm taking pictures either fully zoomed in, or fully zoomed out. It was annoying me, because I figured that showed a weakness in the lens: Basically, it was never wide - or long - enough for the photos I really wanted to take.
When I used to use zoom lenses this is exactly what I found – with my 24-70 I was 90% of the time either at 24mm or 70mm. I much prefer now using primes (fixed focal length lenses) all the time; I think it’s much easier to focus on composition when you take zooming out of the equation. The trade-off is that you might not have the right focal length on the camera at the right time, but you can’t always be in the right place at the right time.
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