A Look at The State of Camera Lenses In 2012

Good Times for Fast Primes


In the past year alone, we’ve tested five new fast primes including: Nikon's 50mm f/1.8, Pentax's 35mm f/2.4, Sigma's 85mm f/1.4, Zeiss' 35mm f/1.4 and Zeiss' 85mm f/1.4.

In this age of superzooms and ultrawides, fast primes of moderate focal length may seem quaint throwbacks. But nostalgia has little to do with their current success.

The ability to throw backgrounds out of focus with shallow depth of field is a big draw here. Sure, you can do this in image-editing software after the fact. But you can save yourself the step when you take the shot—quite the useful feature if you’re shooting, say, hundreds of wedding photos.

This is even more of an issue with smaller-than-full-frame sensors, because as sensor size decreases, the depth of field at any given aperture increases, given the same subject magnification. Increased DOF may be a boon for scenic and architectural shooters, but portrait shooters may find it frustrating, and for them, f/1.4 may be the answer.

The APS-C format has also given the fast 50mm lens a new lease on life. These lenses scale up to an equivalent of 75mm or 80mm on APS-C bodies, but are considerably less expensive than their longer or shorter counterparts.

Available-light shooters, too, benefit from fast glass, as larger apertures allow you to use lower (and less noisy) ISOs and/or faster shutter speeds in limited light.

Finally, photographers may want these lenses simply for optical quality. Our lab tests have shown that these modern optical designs provide higher image quality than their forebears, and often higher than the best current zooms.{C}