Prime Lens

Han Yang talked to me about getting a prime lens. The very first time when I heard those two words, I was like,"What is a "prime lens"? Is it something like your favourite lens which you mount on your camera most of the time - hence primary lens?"

"No, it's a lens with fixed focal length. But faster aperture. So your image will turn out pretty sharp than the zoom lens. Furthermore, with larger aperture, you can shoot nightshots without tripod also. Furthermore, it has less depth of field which makes it perfect for shooting portrait."

Har? Cannot zoom? Sound not very appealing to me le...Furthermore with my D60, which comes short of the built-in focus drive motor, getting a prime lens would mean that I can only focus manually.

After some research on the internet, I realized that as a DSLR beginner, I should start off with prime lens instead of zoom lens. Reason being, without zooming, I would need to zoom with my feet, closing in or moving away from the subject. Indirectly, I would be more aware of the surrounding and it forces me to think more about my framing. Read here, here and here.

Immediately after my last paper yesterday, Han Yang and I went to Alan Photo at Sim Lim Square to get one of this each for $171 (inclusive of GST).

That very night, I mounted the lens on my camera and started testing out the gem. The image is sharp, good low light performance and the best part is that it is so much lighter than my zoom lens. Plus, the manual focus part is so cool. Think I will use manual focus with my zoom lens in future as well!

The prime lens will be permanently mounted on my camera for a while. More photos to come soon:)