Quality and IQ= Primes
Practicality= Zooms
I'm considering few lenses for my d600 and would like to know your opinion of which lenses provide better picture quality and IQ - a prime or zoom ones..
I think before this question can be answered one has to define what they mean by "image quality". I think it's safe to say prime lenses are known to give SHARPER images over zooms, generally speaking, but that implies sharper is always better and leaves out important considerations such as contrast and saturation. That logic also implies by extension that zoom lenses render inferior results, which is certainly not the case. In point of fact I think the whole argument is silly and what we should really be focused on is not so much our equipment but how we use it. And spare me that tired argument about buying the best equipment to ensure it's pilot error vs limitation of equipment; that's the cry of the equipment fetishist. Quit asking, "What lens do I need to get the shot I want?" and start asking, "How do I get the shot I want with the lens I have?"
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This is the kind of techno-babble I was referring to.
That article has no real value to 90% of the people reading it, and might as well be about string theory. Stuff like that just creates ill-informed consumers who start doing side-by-side comparisons by looking at stat charts that they have no idea how to interpret.
All people really want to know is: does the damn thing take a decent picture or not?
I'm with you on this Anthony. The other side of this "mumbo jumbo", if you allow me to use the expression, is that some people do not want to take the responsibility of buying a lens. They have to rely on other's opinions to make a decision.
What is going on with the moderators on this site? Someone new comes along and asks some beginner questions, then moderators flame the new users and drive them away. You could have explained your same points to the new user in a nice way - and help educate him about photography - as some other users did.
@Browncoat
Yes right... that techno bubble will create not ill informed but WELL informed people opposed to the other 90% that are MISS-informed. There are plenty of them in the photo-forums, you can sometimes hear them reciting the obsolete clichés:
- primes are better *sharper than zooms,
- film is better than digital
- the bodies come and go, the lens is more important
- a camera does not take a photograph but the person behind it does
- etc...
I could go on ...
Just forget about clichés and try to educate people.
I'm considering few lenses for my d600 and would like to know your opinion of which lenses provide better picture quality and IQ - a prime or zoom ones..
It is true that primes were better than zooms a while ago. But not anymore especially with Nikon.
The Nikon 14-24/24-70/70-200mm are on par with every prime in the range of 14-200mm. Even more the Nikon 14-24 is sharper than any prime in its range.