AlbertInFrance
Regular
- Location
- Morbihan, France
I often see 'Zooming with your feet' as a description of moving forwards or backwards to get the exact framing you want when using a prime. It often turns up in discussions of the X100, for example.
I have an assortment of primes for my X-E1, and also a little P&S Canon with a 6:1 zoom lens.
My standard approach when composing a photograph is to look at the scene, identify where I think I should be standing to get the shot I want, go to that position and move about a bit decide the exact sight-line and distance before putting the camera to my eye. At that point I decide the exact framing I want to use. With my little P&S it's easy -- I zoom to get the framing right. With my X-E1 I change lenses, if necessary, to the focal length that i need to include all my shot, quitre often with a bit of superfluous image round the edges because what I really want is a 43mm and I have a choice of a 35mm or a 50mm.
In my way of thinking, if I then walk forward ('zoom with my feet') I am going to change the perspective (controlled by subject distance).
Similarly, if instead I fit a 50mm (instead of my desired 43mm) I'll have to walk back a bit.
I'm quite happy to live with this situation until I can afford to add a zoom to my armoury, but I can't see that 'zooming with your feet' is really an option assuming that you are not just recording a very 2-dimensional scene.
Have i misunderstood something?
By the way, this isn't intended to be a knock at fixed lens cameras like the X100.
I have an assortment of primes for my X-E1, and also a little P&S Canon with a 6:1 zoom lens.
My standard approach when composing a photograph is to look at the scene, identify where I think I should be standing to get the shot I want, go to that position and move about a bit decide the exact sight-line and distance before putting the camera to my eye. At that point I decide the exact framing I want to use. With my little P&S it's easy -- I zoom to get the framing right. With my X-E1 I change lenses, if necessary, to the focal length that i need to include all my shot, quitre often with a bit of superfluous image round the edges because what I really want is a 43mm and I have a choice of a 35mm or a 50mm.
In my way of thinking, if I then walk forward ('zoom with my feet') I am going to change the perspective (controlled by subject distance).
Similarly, if instead I fit a 50mm (instead of my desired 43mm) I'll have to walk back a bit.
I'm quite happy to live with this situation until I can afford to add a zoom to my armoury, but I can't see that 'zooming with your feet' is really an option assuming that you are not just recording a very 2-dimensional scene.
Have i misunderstood something?
By the way, this isn't intended to be a knock at fixed lens cameras like the X100.