Three essential prime lenses

MarkydeSad

MarkydeSad

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Are there three prime lenses that every photographer should have in his (or her) bag?

And if so, what are they?
 
I'd say one would have to be the nifty fifty :thumbs:

It's a great little lens for portraits. I've got the f1.8 .........and it's very inexpensive :)
 
MarkydeSad said:
Are there three prime lenses that every photographer should have in his (or her) bag?

And if so, what are they?
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It really depends. I suppose a classic street photographer might have 24mm, 35mm and 50mm primes as their go-to lenses? :thinking:

If I could have three on a full frame camera it'd be a 35mm, 50mm and 85mm. That's because I reckon they'd be most useful to me and for wildlife I'd rather have zoom capabilities.
 
Three primes, nope.
But IMO one prime, absolutely.
50mm is a great focal length too, and what luck, the cheapest fast glass is 50mm.
 
50mm 1.4 for me.
Superb for lowlight and sharp as a pin.
Is also pretty fast too.....
 
swag72 said:
I would say that one essential prime would be the nifty fifty. Don't think many would disagree with that!
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There are plenty that do....

As for the OPs question, I don't think there are any lenses every tog should have in their bag purely because every tog has different interests.

For you I would think that

Wildlife: 400 f2.8, or 200mm f2.8 macro

City Scapes: A wide tilt n shift lens

Landscapes: 24mm (or perhaps a little wider)
 
If it were me, I'd have a 24mm, a 50mm, an 105mm, a 200mm and a 400mm.

Think it would cover all the bases, but it's by no means 3.

However, if it were zoom, I'd go for a 10-22, a 24-70, and a 70-200. Done :)
 
On a crop camera I wouldn't use a 50mm - I'd for 30mm or 35mm.

On a full frame camera, I'd go for a 50mm f/1.4

As a landscape prime, either a 24 or 28mm.

Non of those are "essential", but useful to me.
 
Everyone should own a Nifty Fifty!!!

Cracking piece of very inexpensive kit.
 
So for a crop, would that be 14, 35, 50?
 
within my studio enviroment i use the 50mm (just got the 1.4) 85mm 1.8 and soon to be getting the 28mm 1.8

I also have a 150mm f/2.8 that i use for outdoor portraits that give a nice creamy bokeh.

in short i couldn't stick to 3 primes and may go beyond the 4 mentioned above.
 
Again, bought for film but happy to have on cropped: 17mm, 24mm, 90mm macro.
 
swag72 said:
I would say that one essential prime would be the nifty fifty. Don't think many would disagree with that!
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me cause its crap lol

prime choice is down to personal choice and sensor size

given the choice I'd have the 35 L, 85L and 135 L, given my pockets I have sigma 50 f1.4, 135 f2 L :(
 
I would say 105mm, 50mm, and well a 20(ish)mm, i have a 10-20 and try not to use it cause its nt the full frame on my d700 but could have got some great firework pics last night.

Michael
 
Depends on which camera you intend to use them and for what.

On full frame I'd love the 35mm f1.4 especially after hiring one!

I'd add the 50mm f1.8 simply because it's stupidly cheap and can actually get decent pics under f2.8.

The third would be the 85mm. For Canon users there are two versions, the f1.8 is £250 and the f1.2 is £1200. I think there may be an f1.8 version sneaking it's way into my bag. I've read a load of reviews on it and it seems like a lot of lens for the money.
 
If I won the lottery, I would get either a 35mm or a 24mm f1.4. (probably the 24mm) as I don't do much wildlife as yet.................

The nifty fifty label refers to the 50mm f1.8. There are two versions of this lens: DON'T get the mark one.........definitely only the mark 2.

There is also a 50mm f1.4 but that is starting to get into the realms of serious money.
 
photostar_1 said:
If I won the lottery, I would get either a 35mm or a 24mm f1.4. (probably the 24mm) as I don't do much wildlife as yet.................

The nifty fifty label refers to the 50mm f1.8. There are two versions of this lens: DON'T get the mark one.........definitely only the mark 2.

There is also a 50mm f1.4 but that is starting to get into the realms of serious money.
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Thanks for explaining what the nifty fifty is :)

Hey I won a tenner on the lottery last week, so it's off to Jessops I go! :thumbs:
 
For me it would be 50mm f/1.4, 100mm f/2.8 macro and 400mm f/5.6, they keep me occupied.
 
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