LENSES: Facts and Fallacies - Part IV

[Gerald]

Fast lenses have always fascinated photographers. In the age of film, a common excuse was that fast lenses were required to available light photography. Today digital sensors are 100X more sensitive than photographic film, but fast lenses are still as fashionable as ever, and lenses with aperture F1.0 or larger turned into a real fetish.

Fast lenses have pros and cons, as the article shows. One of the mentioned advantages of a fast lens is a brighter display. However, the electronic viewfinders, EVF, ended this advantage. Nonetheless, there are still many people who prefer optical viewfinders. Unfortunately the optical viewfinders of current DSLR have no longer the efficient focusing aids of the old SLRs, i.e. the split-image prism, microprism and ground glass.





to be continued...