- Hey, everyone!
It's me, Hallease, endeavoring to persevere as always.
So, one of the subscribers, Michelle,
asked me to talk about prime lenses versus zoom lenses,
so that's what I'm gonna do.
I'm gonna go over the pros and cons to both, and what I use.
Let's roll the intro.
(electronic music)
So first off, let's define what a prime lens is.
Or, also known as, I believe, a fixed lens.
I hear the names interchangeably.
So yeah, a prime lens or a fixed lens
is a lens that you literally,
if you want to change the composition of a shot,
you need to move.
You need to physically move your body to do that.
So whatever your subject is,
if you wanna get a closer shot of that subject,
you need to physically move closer to them.
If you want to get a wider shot of the subject,
you need to physically move away from them.
There's a lot of pros to prime lenses.
One, they usually cost a little less.
And they do that because
there's less moving parts within the lens,
there's less construction materials within the lens,
and so that's a savings to the consumer.
Another good thing about prime lenses
is that they usually have a wider aperture.
So aperture is how much light is let into the lens,
and therefore, how shallow or not-shallow
the depth of field is of the lens.
When you see lenses that have the letter F,
and then a number, the lower that number is,
the more light that lens can let into itself,
and therefore more bright it can be
without needing extra lights.
And then also that's how shallow
you can make your background.
So right now, I'm shooting on F2.8, which is pretty good,
it lets a lot of light into the lens.
Visually, that separates me from the background,
and gives a more cinematic look, blah blah blah,
so on and so forth.
The major con with having prime lenses is that,
again, you have to literally move
if you want to change the composition of your shot.
You have to physically move closer to the subject
or away from the subject.
Another thing with having prime lenses is that,
you know, you have to make strategic purchases
on what prime focal length will work best
for the majority of the things you're trying to shoot.
Something that you'll hear people often say
is that the camera adds 10 pounds.
That is scientifically true, depending on the focal length
that you are shooting at,
it will somewhat distort your face.
Faces literally look different.
A video that shows this really well is by YCImaging,
I think that's how you say his YouTube channel,
he literally shows how his face looks different
at different focal lengths.
The camera really can add 10 pounds or remove 10 pounds,
depending on what focal length you're at.
Having prime lenses can be difficult
because if you want to have a wide variety of focal lengths
at your disposal, because you're very cinematic,
and you're trying to achieve a certain aesthetic,
then you're gonna have, like, 10 different lenses,
and that's expensive.
So, that's prime lenses.
Now, let's talk about zoom lenses.
As the name entails, they zoom.
So literally there are components within the lens itself
that let it go from maybe being a wide to being a medium,
or maybe being medium to being super close up,
without you physically having to move.
As y'all probably can assume, that's a pro (laughs).
You now basically have multiple prime lenses
built into one lens.
The con of that is, zoom lenses generally
are usually more expensive than prime lenses.
Because, in order for a lens to zoom,
there's more mechanical moving parts,
all that kind of stuff, it costs more to produce it,
that cost gets passed down to the consumer, so.
Another thing you end up sacrificing, usually,
is the aperture range on a zoom lens.
With zoom lenses,
if you want to get your aperture nice and low,
then you're gonna start,
the price is gonna start kicking up way way high.
'Cause now not only do they need to have it be able to zoom,
but they also need to have it
be able to let a lot of light in,
and have that shallow depth of field that you want.
So the price generally goes up.
Finally, the other con that I would say about zoom lenses,
is that usually the auto-focus tends to be like just...
(mumbles) just a smidge, just a smidge not as good.
Just like, just a (mumbles), you know?
I mean, it's like millisecond difference,
but when you're shooting, or at least when I'm shooting,
I notice it.
Usually the auto-focus features are just not quite as fast,
you're usually losing out on aperture range,
but you can get it back, you just have to pay for it,
you know?
And then finally, in general it's gonna cost more money
because it's, essentially, multiple prime lenses
put together in one lens.
So what do I use to shoot my videos?
I use three lenses pretty regularly.
Two are prime, and one is a zoom lens.
The first prime lens is a 16mm pancake lens,
and I use that mostly for vlogging.
So right now, you are watching me
on a 16mm, f2.8 Sony Emount lens.
And then, as y'all know from my previous tutorial video,
I use an indie filter on it, there you go.
Also, when you see me doing out and about kind of stuff,
anything where I'm talking to camera,
and the reason why I use that lens
is because it's nice and wide,
and I just know for a fact that I'm in frame,
because I don't actually use a monitor for my A6500.
Unlike other cameras it doesn't have a,
the LED screen doesn't flip out so you can see yourself.
But the 16mm is so wide,
that usually I know if it's pretty much
directly in front of my face that I'm good.
I know that I'm in frame, and I'm good.
Now, if you follow me on Instagram,
which, please go follow me on Instagram
'cause I really am trying to get to 10K
so I can have that swipe up feature, like (exclaims).
But any of the awesome portraits that you see
that I do on Instagram,
like any photo where you can tell
that I was using my camera to shoot myself or someone else,
those were all shot with my Sony 20mm f2.
So yeah, it lets in a lot of light, f2.
And I can really get that awesome shallow depth of field.
I feel like it doesn't distort peoples' faces too much.
Also, whenever you're seeing any B-roll in my videos
that just is like a little bit tighter,
and is super shallow and stuff like that,
I'm shooting it on this.
So those are my two fixed lenses.
Now my camera two, over here,
I usually use a zoom lens on this camera.
It's a pretty standard zoom lens,
it's not that nifty, pretty run of the mill,
basic kinda zoom lens.
It's the 18-55mm,
f3.5 - 5.6.
That's the other thing about this too,
is that even though it zooms,
when it zooms in, the f stop gets higher.
So it can't maintain an f3.5 the entire time.
It goes to 5.6 as I zoom it in more.
So I'm going to zoom it in right now so you can see that.
So you see how it kinda got a little darker,
this is me at f5.6,
all the way zoomed in to 55mm,
and then...
This is all the way out,
f3.5,
and I'm at 18,
18mm.
So I do have a zoom lens, and I do use it from time to time,
but I mostly just use it on camera two,
and that's kind of it.
I just have it a lens like the standard camera 2 lens.
If I was living my best life here on the internet, though?
You know what I'm saying?
If I wanted to live just like my best life,
my best life,
the best life I'm living, you know what I'm saying?
I would upgrade my camera.
So right now I'm at the Sony A6500,
which is an awesome camera,
actually, I really love this camera a lot.
I would make the A6500 become my camera two,
and then I would purchase
either the A7SII or the A7RIII,
so basically they're both the next tier up from this camera.
The lens I would use is the Sony G-Series lens.
It is a zoom lens, and it is the 16-35mm,
so essentially, again,
it's my two primes built in, f2.8.
And it's on my wishlist (laughs).
But it's something I'm saving up for,
because I feel like then that's a nice consolidation
of essentially everything I want.
Wide-angle lens to vlog, but then also
the capability to zoom in
and still maintain a decent aperture, f2.8.
But, as I said before,
with zoom lenses they tend to be more expensive.
So if I wanted to upgrade to that lens,
I think right now it sits at like $2,100.
And I can't find it used anywhere
because it's a good lens, and nobody returns it, you know?
Like I can't find it used.
It's hard out here on these streets for a young thug,
you know? (laughs)
And then, plus, I would just invest in just the lens,
but then I would need to upgrade the camera.
Because if I just get the lens,
then it would essentially be on a cropped sensor,
I wouldn't have the full-frame sensor of it.
So instead of being 16-35, I think it would end up being
more like... 24-43, or something like that.
So that's not gonna work, then I still need the pancakes.
So you know, it's just...
It's a mess (laughs).
All that to say,
there's always gonna be something better.
Now that you know the pros and cons
to zoom lenses and prime lenses,
you know, pick whatever works for you.
And inevitably, I feel like the better you get
you're probably gonna end up using a variety of both.
You know, my 16mm fixed lens that I use,
I think it's maybe 150 bucks?
You know, it's not like crazy awesome ZIESS glass
or anything like that,
but y'all seem to be commenting, liking my cinematography
so I'm making it work, you know what I'm saying?
I bought this 28mm f2 used.
From a camera store, used.
If anything, having constraints around budget
helps you prioritize what really matters
which is just getting good at working with what you have.
So that way when you do have the budget,
you know exactly how to spend it.
So, yeah.
I hope that helps.
Let me know in the comments below if it didn't, I guess.
(laughs)
Thank you again to the Patreon producers of this channel.
If you're interested in supporting the channel via Patreon
and becoming a Patreon producer,
check it out, patreon.com/hallease.
You get extended, exclusive content,
also get private monthly livestreams with me,
and you get that feely-warm good sensation
because you're helping keep the channel going,
you know what I'm saying?
You're helping me upgrade the gear when I can,
you know what I'm saying?
So, it is because of the Patreon producers that I can say:
I'll see you on Sunday!
(funky music)