The Standard Kit Lens

50mm. These lenses were the standard kit setup with a new SLR camera back in the day (a couple of decades or so ago...). Until recently, zoom lenses were thought to be inferior to "prime" lenses. When you bought a new camera, if it didn't come with a lens, the 50mm was usually sold as the complimentary lens to the camera. The idea was that the 50mm focal length was close to the magnification of the human eye. It's actually not a good comparison as we see in stereo and it's very difficult to find a lens/camera that can replicate the way we see a scene with our naked eyes.

Now, zooms are much better quality and usually come with most kits when you buy a DSLR. The primes are still good lenses to have for specific tasks, such as portrait work (85mm-90mm equivalent), landscape (24mm-35mm equivalent), and wildlife (300mm-600mm equivalent). The single focal length determines the category "Prime." All others are zoom or specialized in some fashion. Most point and shoot cameras have a fixed zoom, and some very fine fixed lens cameras have great range without ever having to change the lens (The new Stylus 1 from Olympus gives the photographer a 28mm-300mm range with a continuous f2.8 aperture, if desired). The new things happening with cameras and lens technology is quite amazing.

I have been sorting and arranging my various lenses for FX and DX cameras that I own. The 50mm lens on the right side of this image is a manual focus, non-Ai lens manufactured sometime in the late 60's to early 70's. The one on the left is the new 50mm Nikkor which you can see has a M/MA switch to be able to use it with auto focus or manual focus. Both are very nice primes, but I find the 50mm focal point restricted for the variety of photo work that I do. It never hurts to find a few prime lenses to add to your bag for those specific needs that might arise. A lot of pros these days are finding one zoom to carry around with them with a range that usually goes from 28mm - 200mm. This range covers a variety of shooting needs. These new zooms are almost as good as having the primes, but take up a lot less room in the bag.

Enjoy!