The prime lens photography myth: Why zoom lenses are NOT inferior and in fact better than ever

Mike Harris holding Nikon Z 70-200mm f/2.8 VR S II by a lake with vegetation and trees in the background — (Image credit: Future)

I think it’s fair to say that more photographers shoot with zoom lenses than prime lenses, if only because the majority of kit lenses are zooms. But I also think that while there’s an awful lot of content out there extolling the virtues of primes, we could give zoom lenses a little more love.

For the longest time, primes were an unrivalled hallmark of optical quality, but many mirrorless-era zoom lenses have levelled the playing field somewhat. It’s not uncommon to hear of a zoom lens that delivers prime-like optical quality.

And while primes are often very small, you need multiple primes to deliver the versatility of a zoom lens. For example, a 24-70mm zoom range in prime lenses would roughly equate to a 24mm, 35mm, 50mm and 60mm (or 85mm). That’s four lenses, lenses that have to be swapped in and out every time you want to change your field of view.

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Another often-mentioned prime plus point is the notion of zooming with your feet. This encourages you to experiment with different angles as you move around the subject instead of simply standing in a fixed position and twisting a zoom ring. However, what this doesn’t do is allow you to experiment with different fields of view, which is in and of itself a crucial creative ingredient.

How to photograph birds in flight — (Image credit: Future)

Ah, but zoom lenses are never as fast as comparable primes. This is very true, but for a beginner photographer at least, I think wide apertures can be a bit of an unhelpful temptation. We make such a song and dance about fast lenses that many photographers who pick up an f/1.8 or f/2 prime spend most of their time shooting wide open. Photography is much more than just a shallow depth of field.

An affordable zoom lens – likely with a variable aperture – will teach you two things, how to compose a scene properly when using a larger depth of field because you can’t simply blur it out. And how to use your focal length, distance from the subject and the subject’s distance from the background to create a shallow depth of field at narrower apertures.

So, am I telling you to ditch your primes? Of course not. I love prime lenses, but I’m also guilty of shouting about primes from the roof tops and forgetting to mention zooms. This is a love letter to the zoom lens. Not inferior to primes – just another tool in which to capture the moment.

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Check out one of the best zoom lenses in the world right now, the Nikon Z 70-200mm f/2.8 VR S II. Plus, here are the best standard zooms and on the side of the equation: Bought your first Nikon Z camera? All you need is the Z 50mm f/1.8 S.

Mike studied photography at college, honing his Adobe Photoshop skills and learning to work in the studio and darkroom. After a few years writing for various publications, he headed to the ‘Big Smoke’ to work on Wex Photo Video’s award-winning content team, before transitioning back to print as Technique Editor (later Deputy Editor) on N-Photo: The Nikon Magazine.

With bylines in Digital Camera, PhotoPlus: The Canon Magazine, Practical Photography, Digital Photographer, iMore, and TechRadar, he’s a fountain of photography and consumer tech knowledge, making him a top tutor for techniques on cameras, lenses, tripods, filters, and more. His expertise extends to everything from portraits and landscapes to abstracts and architecture to wildlife and, yes, fast things going around race tracks...