• About
  • Write For Us
  • Contact
  • Top 50 Photography Blogs
  • Resources
  • Forum

IndustryDev

  • Design
    • Photoshop
    • Lightroom
    • Camera Raw
    • Bridge
  • Development
    • HTML
    • CSS
    • Javascript
    • PHP
    • Dev Tools
    • WordPress
  • Photography
  • Blogging
  • Technology
  • Inspiration
You are here: Home / Photography / Do Prime Lenses Cost More Than Zoom Lenses?

Do Prime Lenses Cost More Than Zoom Lenses?

November 20, 2019

For the longest time, I couldn’t make heads or tails of the cost of camera lenses. It seemed as though the prices were completely arbitrary and made no sense. As I got better at photography though and as I actually used a wider variety of lenses, I began to learn exactly what the seemingly strange pricing structure was all about.

If you go into a camera shop today or if you look around online for lenses, you’d likely think that prime lenses cost a heck of a lot less than their zoom lens counterparts. What you find though is eye-popping. Some of the prime lenses available today are astronomically priced. The question is, why is this? There are fewer moving parts in a prime lens and they seem so much less complicated. Why do some prime lenses cost so much? And I’m not talking just a little bit more in some cases. Oftentimes, these lenses cost a lot more.

It seems as though apertures are able to open up wider in prime lenses than in zoom lenses. With these ultra-wide apertures comes some serious price increases. Some prime lenses are actually quite affordable, such as the Canon 24mm, 40mm and the 50mm. These are priced between $125 and $175. They are bare bones lenses though. When you get down to the f/.9 levels and very high quality glass, the price shoots right up.

My theory is that, sure, these higher quality lenses with huge apertures cost more to make and include more technology and that’s why the prices are so high, but you have to think about supply and demand here as well. If Canon is making one million 50mm f1/8 lenses per year and people are scooping them up because they’re less involved to make with a price reflecting that, the demand is pretty big. If only 1,000 of their higher quality lenses are selling, Canon has got to charge a lot more per lens because of economies of scale. The quality is higher on these lenses, but the demand is also a lot less because of price, which, in turn, jacks the price up even more.

The trick is to find used high quality lenses that are in excellent condition. Also consider giving a less pricey lenses a try. I can tell you that some of the lesser quality ones offer outstanding photography. You can even rent some of the more expensive lenses if you aren’t planning on using it too much. Another idea is to purchase one with a friend and then share it among one another. Call it a “share.” Remember, many older style lenses fit on newer cameras, so if you don’t mind manually adjusting the aperture and focus, you might want to give one of these a try. You can save tons of money this way.

So, the answer to the question in the title is yes, prime camera lenses can certainly cost more than zoom lenses, especially when you get up there in the aperture size and the quality. But, some zoom lenses can cost a fortune as well, especially when you get into those huge telephoto zoom ranges. My advice with prime lenses would be to look for value, meaning, find the in between really popular lens and get that. The reason they’re so popular is because of the price, which in turn allows the company making the lens to keep that price down. Conversely, because of their simplicity, the company is able to keep the price down, which makes the lens more popular. It’s sort of a weird loop.

What do you think about prime lenses? Do you prefer them over zoom lenses? What’s your favorite lens? Which do you find yourself keeping on your camera most of the time?

Related posts:

  1. Why Are Some Camera Lenses Called “Fast”?
  2. What I Like About Prime Camera Lenses
  3. Prime Lenses + Shallow Depth of Field: A Good Combination?
  4. What’s the Difference Between a Zoom Lens & a Prime Lens?
  5. The Canon 24mm f/2.8 is a Very Sharp Prime Lens

Filed Under: Photography

What’s Next? Email Updates!

If you enjoyed reading this post, why not consider signing up to receive others like it by email? It's so easy and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Connect With Me

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

MOST POPULAR POSTS

  • How to Set the Photo Quality in your Canon Rebel DSLR Camera Before participating in any type of photo shoot, it's i...
  • How to Adjust the Mouse Click & Scroll Settings in Windows 10 I's say this is one of the very first settings I ed...
  • How to Export Video From Adobe Photoshop When it comes to exporting and rendering video clips, t...
  • How to Apply an Adjustment to Only One Layer in Adobe Photoshop The answer is clipping. I'll tell you that right up fro...
  • How to Speed Up & Slow Down Video in Adobe Photoshop This is one of those posts that's going to be super hel...
  • Cutting Out a Shape From a Shape in Adobe Photoshop I've been using shapes for various things in Adobe Phot...
  • How to Set the Self Timer On Your Canon Rebel DSLR Camera Camera self timers are great. I was recently part of a...
  • Animating Scale, Rotation & Opacity in Adobe Photoshop I sat down a few days ago and started messing around in...
  • 3 Ways to Close Applications in Windows 10 This is going to be a very quick post because the topic...
  • How to Set Your Canon Rebel Camera For Continuous Shooting Continuous Shooting mode is very important for those wh...

Recent Comments

  • Jay Gaulard on Is Geodesic Solutions Out of Business?
  • Bajasid on Is Geodesic Solutions Out of Business?
  • Jay Gaulard on Is Geodesic Solutions Out of Business?
  • Bajasid on Is Geodesic Solutions Out of Business?
  • angelica blanco on How to Organize Video & Audio Project Files for Adobe Photoshop

Copyright © 2021 · IndustryDev.com Web Design & Photography Blog · About · Write For Us · Contact · Privacy / Terms · Sitemap