A prime lens is one that has just one focal length only (in contrast to a zoom lens that covers a wider range of lengths). Besides the image quality, using a prime lens simply means a much lighter, more compact lens. If a prime lens gives you only one focal length, but a zoom gives you a range of focal lengths, what are the benefits to using a prime lens? Simply put – You cannot get better value in image quality to cost than a 50mm f/1.8 prime. It was the end of 2016, after two weeks in Myanmar using the Fuji X100T, mostly against my bulky ex-Canon 5D Mark III with Canon 24-70 f2.8 zoom lens, when I took the decision to sell my Canon DSLRs and a good amount of high quality zoom lenses to build a Fuji kit. Prime lenses, are smaller, lighter and more compact than zoom lenses … Prime lenses come in a wide range of focal lengths from wide angles through to the very longest of tele-photo lenses … Coming to you from Julia Trotti, this great video follows her as she discusses her reasons for using a set of prime lenses (24mm, 35mm, 50mm, 85mm, and 135mm) as opposed to something … Pancake lenses are the most extreme example of this, where a lens is shorter than it is wide. Given the size and weight of the Fuji X-T2 I bought, it made total sense to buy small and light lenses … Only two lenses above it in the rankings are under twice the price of this lens, and to further illustrate the point every single lens above it is a prime.