Most Popular Prime Lenses for Reuters’ 2012 Photos of the Year

[rob_w]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

This is an article on PetaPixel from last December. Re-reading it, I was struck by the strong trends in the data:

 

The Most Popular Cameras and Settings for Reuters' 2012 Photos of the Year

 

In particular the choice of prime lenses. We often get questions on the forum about "which lenses I should choose". Looking at this data, 50, 24, and 16 are streets ahead of the other focal lengths. Guess if you want to win Photo of the Year, you have the best chance with one or more of those three in your bag.

 

I am not thinking this will be a long discussion thread. Just that the data is interesting and I have not seen it shared here. (Also the data on zoom lens choices: where WA and Telephoto zooms are both much more frequent than mid-range, indicating you are better to buy one or both of those with, say, a 50 prime for the mid-range, if you have a camera which takes zoom lenses of course).

[Paul J]

Most interesting and a little surprising too.

[pgk]

I was struck by the strong trends in the data:

In particular the choice of prime lenses. Looking at this data, 50, 24, and 16 are streets ahead of the other focal lengths.

Which is intriguing. Given that Canon don't make a 16mm prime lens it looks as though all the Nikon shots were taken on 16mm fisheye lenses;). Or could the data be flawed I wonder.......? Or perhaps misinterpreted?

[mmradman]

From the web comments on The Most Popular Cameras and Settings for Reuters' 2012 Photos of the Year

 

What an absolutely meaningless and pointles post.

Who cares what brand Reuters photgraphers use or what their settings setting are for journalistic photos.

[IWC Doppel]

That reminds me I remember the Leica 16mm being imminent with some talk of coding a while back

[rob_w]

Who cares ... well I don't. But the disparity in the data is truly remarkable. Maybe the analysis is faulty but when you look at the photos it's not obvious.

[peterbengtson]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

What these do not tell you is the breakdown between prime or zoom lens. It would be interesting to find out what percentage of the pictures were taken with each.

[adan]

I suspect the data shows the focal length used - whether on a zoom lens or a prime. I've noticed EXIF data usually lists both the actual focal length setting, and the zoom range of the mounted lens.

 

Either a poor interpretation of the EXIF data, or poor wording of the pie-chart label ("Actual focal length used" instead of "prime lenses").

 

I suspect - having been in the business and watched what shooters DO actually use - that the usual "carry" is a 16/17-35 f/2.8 and 70-200 f/2.8, with a 50 f/1.4 filling the gap and providing extra low-light capability. As rob says.....

 

On a side note - I'm intrigued by the ISOs used. Despite the internet panic attacks over cameras with weak high-ISO performance (e.g. Leicas) - most pros still seem to favor the lowest possible ISO for a shot, and ISOs above 1600 account for only 15% of the pictures.

 

I also note the strong preference for full-frame cameras. Although maybe that goes along with preferring "16mm."

[semi-ambivalent]

...Guess if you want to win Photo of the Year, you have the best chance with one or more of those three in your bag...

 

Remarks (and articles) like this is why so many photographers think they can buy their way to great images. It strengthens the economy but weakens the photographer by drawing vision away from the heart.

 

s-a

[michaelwj]

On a side note - I'm intrigued by the ISOs used. Despite the internet panic attacks over cameras with weak high-ISO performance (e.g. Leicas) - most pros still seem to favor the lowest possible ISO for a shot, and ISOs above 1600 account for only 15% of the pictures.

 

I also note the strong preference for full-frame cameras. Although maybe that goes along with preferring "16mm."

 

I think Thom Hogan made some comments about the ISO settings when the data first appeared. What he found interesting was that the full stops (100, 200, 400, 800, 1600) were used most, rather than the in between settings. His explanation, combined with the shutter speed and aperture data was that the photographers were most likely shooting in aperture priority, setting the aperture (also mostly in full stops) for the scene , and then upping the ISO manually as the shutter speed dropped (shutter speed is not on the full stops, and much more dispersed), rather than using auto ISO/aperture, which would result in the half and thirds like ISO 160 and 320, and f1.8 and 3.2 for example.

 

Anyway, it is interesting that's for sure.

Michael

[rob_w]

Remarks (and articles) like this is why so many photographers think they can buy their way to great images. It strengthens the economy but weakens the photographer by drawing vision away from the heart.

 

s-a

 

To be clear, my comment was tongue-in-cheek, not serious!

 

[philipus]

I found this very interesting, thanks for posting.

 

I suspect the data shows the focal length used - whether on a zoom lens or a prime.

 

I also wondered about this - I wouldn't have thought a 16mm lens would have ended up on third place.

 

Remarks (and articles) like this is why so many photographers think they can buy their way to great images. It strengthens the economy but weakens the photographer by drawing vision away from the heart.

 

s-a

 

Well, on that note, I was surprised to see the 5D2 appear ahead of the 5D3. And that the original 5D is still so popular that it appears ahead of all the Nikons (and I know that the population of the statistics is small but that affects all results).

 

And I'm sad there's no film camera listed sniff

[NZDavid]

Wide over tele. There has been a trend for W/A news pictures. Fairly shutter speeds, fairly fast lenses, fairly fast ISO. Striking a happy medium to capture the shot reliably.

[semi-ambivalent]

To be clear, my comment was tongue-in-cheek, not serious!

 

 

Rob,

 

Yes, I got it. And I own more than one lens and one camera. But you know that thought is widespread out there.

 

s-a

[menos I M6]

I found this very interesting, thanks for posting.

 

 

 

I also wondered about this - I wouldn't have thought a 16mm lens would have ended up on third place.

 

 

 

Well, on that note, I was surprised to see the 5D2 appear ahead of the 5D3. And that the original 5D is still so popular that it appears ahead of all the Nikons (and I know that the population of the statistics is small but that affects all results).

 

And I'm sad there's no film camera listed sniff

 

I remember this statistic being discussed, when it appeared in 2012 - it has been mentioned that the photographer pool, used for this statistic had been mostly supplied with Canon gear, explaining the stark contrast between Canon and Nikon gear used.

[wda]

I think the findings are only relevant if your work matches the press photography genre. For other fields, you would find different focal length preferences.