Best/Most Usable Multi-Purpose Prime...?

Hey guys and girls,

Just wondering, if you could only own one prime and no zooms, which would you choose?

Of course this will change depending on what you shoot primarily, but please (if you'd like) respond with what you mainly photograph, and which prime you'd most likely hold onto if you had to ditch all your other glass.

I'm more concerned about focal length, rather than aperture.

Oh yeah, and sorry if this has been asked multiple times (as i'm sure it has)!

Tristan

I guess it also depends on which camera you own... personally I'd love an 85L on a fullframe camera.

On a 1.6x body? Hmm... a tough one. A 600mm prime maybe?

35L. On my 1D MKIII it has a FOV equivalent of 45.5mm so although it's not quite a 50, it's close enough.
It's fast, doesn't take too much to keep things steady, it's sharp and is built to last.

50mm f/1.2 on a FF camera and a 35mm f/1.4 on a crop if it had to be one lens and one lens only.

sigma 30mm 1.4 on my 1.6 crop.

On my 40D, it would be the 35mm.

24L on crop, 50L on FF...

Kind regards, Wim

1.6x: 24L or 35L, 1.3x: 35L, FF: 50L.

picturecrazy wrote in post #5388240
sigma 30mm 1.4 on my 1.6 crop.

+100

I think the 400/5.6 is perfect....but I hang around on the bird forum

35L or 85L

50f/1.4 on my 30D...chased away by a rented 85L...

I'd say 20mm f2.8 or round about that on a crop, but I'd rather a 24 1.4 on fullframe! Wider than 50mm equiv, since I'd find that boring and longer would be frustrating.

For my XTi, if I was limited to only one lens and it had to be a prime, I would choose the 85/1.8. I would be able to shoot indoor sports and still have an all purpose lens for portraits, etc.

The 135/2.0L that I usually use for indoor sports is a bit too long for the "only" lens. But I'd miss it a lot.

At the moment, my 35L. I'll let you know if that changes after the 24L,85L and 135L are delivered

Gary