Prime Lenses — Are They Better Than Fast Zooms?

Author's Intro: This article is contributed by Subroto Mukerji. Subroto is an amateur photographer of long standing who especially loves to review cameras, lenses, etc. As a passionate hobbyist, he also loves to share his thoughts and insights on various topics related to photography. I became serious about photography in the late seventies of the last century, well before the dawn of the digital era. A 50 mm f/1.4 'standard' lens was what usually came with the camera, with F 1:1.7 or F 1:1.8 as the cheaper alternatives. After getting my Minolta XE-1 (Ha! Minolta pipped Fujifilm to the post over three decades ago!) and the superfast 58 mm F/1.2 lens that came with it, I went on to acquire, after considerable effort, a 28 mm F/2.8 wide angle and a 100 mm F/2.5 - both original Minolta Rokkor lenses. While the amazing 58 mm F/1.2 gave me the ability...

Focal Length & The F-Number Mystery — Why Do We Call Them F-stops?

Focal length, f-number, f-stops - are you set for a little physics on the part of the art called photography? As much as photography is about capturing the shots with an artist's eye, it is equally about understanding the science applied in the creation of a photograph. At a preliminary stage, we hold the camera in the hand and learn to see through the camera's eye. As we spend more and more time with this awesome machinery (the shot-gun), we tend to learn more about photography like how does the camera work, the essence of drawing with light and the physics of photography. In the later realm, i.e., the physics of photography, we discover some of the very powerful basics of photography - the focal length, f-numbers and f-stops. This is what I will demystify in today's post - the meaning of these mysterious numerals that are almost always found...

Demystifying Gamma — Why Do You Need To Worry About Gamma Correction

Every photographer needs to post process the images; if not always at least on the occasional basis. I am sure they must be using Gamma Correction while correcting exposure of an image in Adobe Photoshop. Gamma is widely used but rarely understood concept in photo capturing. Technically, it is defined as the relation between a pixel’s numerical value (which is combination of red, green and blue values) and it’s actual luminance (or brightness). Gamma has nothing to do with the photographic process, but it’s badly needed while capturing (in camera) and seeing an image on the screen (to bridge the gap between what a human eye perceive and what the camera captures). There’s a huge difference between the way camera sees and captures the scene and the way human eyes see and perceive the scene. Logically, twice the number of photons (light rays) hitting the sensor produce twice the signal…