Recommended Reading: What is Wide? by Thom Hogan

[keithsnell]

Another recommended reading link to an article by one of my favorite "pragmatic" photographers, Thom Hogan.  Here Thom talks about wide angle lenses and how to use them to best effect.  Scroll down the page to the short article titled "Lens Week-What is Wide"  http://bythom.com/2010%20Nikon%20News.htm

[lwiley]

Good article.  I've been guilty of his "don'ts."

[keithsnell]

Good article.  I've been guilty of his "don'ts."

So have I, although I know better.  It's good to be reminded every now and then. 

Thom has another good article on the front page of his site titled "Lenses - Convenience Zooms."  He talks about how zoom lenses make us lazy, and how we should move first, then set the zoom to the focal length needed for the shot.  It makes a lot of sense.

By the way, welcome to the site.  We're a friendly and helpful bunch here, so join right in the conversations.

Keith

[Chris]

That's not what zoom is for?    

I do use the zoom all the time.

Just last night I took a picture of my cat from across the room with the zoom and flash rather than getting up and getting closer. Then I moved closer because I wasn't happy with the result.

Thanks for posting the article BTW, I did learn something about wide angle.

[keithsnell]

Yup, I use the zoom all the time too, sometimes treating it in the manner Thom recommends, but other times just being lazy.  I like Thom's recommendation to treat the zoom lens as if it were three conveniently packaged prime lenses, and to establish your composition (and camera position) based on the strengths of each focal length. 

I'd love to replace my 28-70mm f2.8 AFS with something that would get me a little bit wider on the short end.  I'm often too lazy to switch to a wider lens when I really should.  I agree with Thom that a 24 - 105 would be ideal.  I'm just waiting for Nikon to sell one that does justice to the modern dSLRs.