Holy Trinity - Zooms or Primes?

I always hear the Holy trinity being talked about on here. I just completed mine this weekend and they're all zooms.

As much as I like my one and only prime (Sigma 35 1.4) it just doesn't come out of the bag enough for me to buy another prime.

With the quality of the new zoom lenses is the old trinity an outdated custom?

So which would you rather have.

Canon 35, 85, 135 or 16-35 II, 24-70 II, 70-200 II?

Well....

I've been away from the forums for a while but the trinity always used to be the 50 f1.0, 85 f1.2 and the 200 f1.8. As two of them are no longer made and near impossible to get you can see why they get hat name.

From your poll I picked the zooms as I like the range and versatility they would give, zooms are useful but if its low light and shallow dof you are after then primes are the way to go. As always it depends on what you are trying to achieve as to the tools you pick.

All the best

BearSummer

Zooms are convenient, but I love the shooting experience with primes. My holy trinity would be the 24L, 50L, and 135L (or 70-200 II).

Primes. They make me at least think more about the composition of the shot and less about just getting a shot.

Everyone's "holy trinity" is different though, it totally depends on what you shoot.

Both.

If you have both a FF and crop camera you can do with the 16-35 and 70-200, 16-35*1,6= 25-56 which is a good normal zoom. Then you're only missing 56-70.

24LII, 35L, 85LII and 70-200LII on FF

Holy Trinity for zoom is 24-70mm II, 70-200mm II, 200-400mm 1.4x

I think I would prefer the zooms, however I need only one lens and I will have both sets anyway so...

WE need so many others choices !

I can't participate to that vote. I was never able to choose between zooms/primes trinity. That's why I got both and finaly best of 2 worlds

Another good alternative is f4 zooms trinity + primes trinity

El Pedro wrote in post #15990951
I always hear the Holy trinity being talked about on here. I just completed mine this weekend and they're all zooms. So which would you rather have. Canon 35, 85, 135 or 16-35 II, 24-70 II, 70-200 II?

The new L sect calls for the following trinity: 50L + 85L II + 70-200II

If you'd like to be overly religious, pls add: 24-70 II and 24 II T&S

My 3 lenses when I do events are:

24-70 2.8 L - Stays on my camera most of the time.

50mm 1.4 - When I want to get creative with DOF effects

85mm 1.8 - for creative portraits. I normally shoot it at 2.0 - 2.2 That I know my zoom can't cover.

not at all.

Zooms are only handy for when you don't kmow the circumstances you are going to shoot, dont want to invest in primes or dont want to carry around a bag full of glass and metal.

zooms cant get down to 1.4 like my zeiss 35mm... they dont offer the same results as the zeiss 50 2.0 makro... or the canon 85mm 1.2... anyone who says the 70-200mm for portraits is even close to the 85mmm 1.2 is kidding themselves.

why not get a mixture?

get a 16-35L 50mmL and a 70-200L