Myth No. 6 – The best zoom is your legs

It’s often said that you don’t need extra lenses because the best zoom is your legs. Again, there’s quite a bit of truth in it – sometimes if you need to get more in a shot, you can just move backwards, or move closer to fill the frame. Further, you have a chance of finding a better viewpoint than the original one. However, what if you want to use a particular perspective effect that requires a certain viewpoint? Or if you can’t physically get closer or move further away? In such circumstances, if you’ve not got the appropriate lens available, you’re stuffed.

11 Responses to “Myth No. 6 – The best zoom is your legs”

  1. fol de rol says:

    Well Ansel Adams didn’t need one – nuff said.

  2. Nick says:

    Nuff said indeed – just look at how boring his pics were!

  3. fol de rol says:

    What? Moonrise over Hernandez has got to be the best picture ever. Anyway his most used lense was a convertable, the zoom of it’s day.

  4. Nick says:

    “Moonrise over Hernandez has got to be the best picture ever”

    Well there’s a subject for a myth in itself… :)

  5. fol de rol says:

    Yeah? Well show me a better one!

    How about Aspens, New Mexico, 1958 – no wait, that’s one of his too. Or Mount williamson, 1944? Or White house ruin 1942. Huh this is to easy I’m shooting rats in a barrell here.

  6. Nick says:

    More like what the rats leave behind in the barrel…

    BORING!

  7. fol de rol says:

    Look, I’m doing my best – if you want more interesting trolling you have to write a more interesting blog! ;-)

  8. Nick says:

    Fair comment!

  9. Anonymous says:

    “Anyway his most used lense was a convertable”

    WRONG! I can assure you that every photograph Adams ever took, he took using a LENS, not a sodding lense!

    Learn to ****ing spell.

  10. Tim says:

    “In such circumstances, if you’ve not got the appropriate lens available, you’re stuffed.”

    Best (and unanswerable) response surely has to be that’s equally true if you don’t have the correct zoom range also.

    Anyway, find pictures to suit the lenses you do have. :)

  11. Admin says:

    Unanswerable? Dunno about that…
    True, yes, but the point is that it’s probably more likely that you can have the correct focal length with a few zooms than with a similar weight and bulk of primes.
    Don’t misunderstand me, I prefer to use primes, but this is an area where zooms have an undoubted advantage.

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