Every Photographer Needs a 35mm Lens
When you're buying lenses, there's a lot to consider.
Clearly, you need glass that fits in with the type of photography you do - a telephoto lens, for example, would be great if you photograph wildlife, but not so much if you like macro work.
You also need to buy quality glass, which, although it can be quite spendy, it's worth it to have the improved performance of a great lens.
Speaking of great lenses, one of the best focal lengths that you can have in your bag is a 35mm lens.
Let's review a benefits of 35mm lenses.
Editor's Tip: Don't buy that bargain lens before reading these essential tips.
Benefits of 35mm Lenses - They're Sharp
YouTube Screenshot/Alen Palander
Since 35mm lenses are primes - they have a fixed focal length - there are fewer moving parts and elements inside the lens.
That means that the light has fewer barriers to make it through the lens and to your camera's sensor, resulting in clear, sharp images.
Granted, every lens has a sweet spot, or the aperture at which they perform the sharpest. But from one end of the aperture range to the other, a prime lens like a 35mm is going to give you sharper results at any aperture than most zooms lenses will.
That's true whether you're shooting landscapes, portraits, cityscapes, or something in between.
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35mm Lenses are Versatile
YouTube Screenshot/Alen Palander
As noted above, you can shoot virtually any subject with a 35mm lens and get high-quality results.
That's because 35mm is a versatile focal length whether you have it paired with a full frame or crop sensor camera.
On a full frame camera, a 35mm lens produces images that look very similar to what we see with our own eyes.
As a result, these images have a familiarity and a comfort about them whether it's a portrait of a friend or a snapshot of an interesting building.
YouTube Screenshot/Alen Palander
On a crop sensor camera, a 35mm lens is effectively "zoomed in," and performs like a much longer lens (in the 53-56mm range on most crop sensor cameras).
At that effective focal length, a 35mm lens is perfect for portraits, more intimate landscape photos, and even wildlife or sports photography in which the subject isn't a great distance away.
In fact, for full frame and crop sensor shooters, a 35mm lens could very well be the only lens you carry with you on certain outings - it's that versatile!
Editor's Tip: The larger a lens's aperture, the more expensive it will be. Upgrade your 35mm lens to a faster, more capable version without breaking the bank.
Use a 35mm Lens to Get More Creative
YouTube Screenshot/Alen Palander
Perhaps one of the best benefits of 35mm lenses is that they allow you to get more creative than some other lenses.
That's especially true if you pick up a 35mm lens with a very wide aperture, like f/1.4.
With such a large aperture, a 35mm f/1.4 not only allows you to create a beautifully shallow depth of field for interesting portraits, but it also allows you to shoot in low-light conditions without ramping up the ISO.
That, in turn, means that you get cleaner shots with less noise.
On top of that, wide-aperture 35mm lenses are great for videography.
These lenses aren't exactly light when compared to something like a 50mm f/1.8, but they're still small enough and light enough that you can easily shoot video without feeling like you're carrying around an enormous lens.
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Final Thoughts
The benefits outlined above are just a few things you can expect to enjoy with a 35mm lens.
For more insights and a few tips on how to use a 35mm lens, check out the video above by Alen Palander.
He presents some compelling arguments in favor of shooting with this lens and has some beautiful sample images to show as well.