114 Better Available Light Digital Photography
able to “open the lens up” to a wide aperture for success and to
use a faster shutter speed to stop the movement.Zoom vs. prime lenses
Lenses are designed to work under normal lighting conditions.
In photographic terms, “normal” means outdoors. Normal light-
ing may be workable in overcast weather, shade of trees or
buildings, or in brightly lit rooms (those with skylights or large
and plentiful windows). Basic lenses supplied on point-and-
shoot cameras and entry-level SLRs have maximum apertures
ranging from f/3.8 to f/4.0, f/4.5, and f/5.6. Some point-and-
shoots have only an f/6.3 maximum aperture!
Both varieties of lenses, prime and zoom, are available in either
the fast or slower versions for SLRs. There’s a growing popular-
ity as well for the prime lenses (those having a fi xed focal
length), due in part to the improvements in reduced digital noise
in cameras. Most zoom lenses haven’t broken the f/2.8 barrier,
whereas many primes are available at f/2.0, f/1.8, f/1.4, and even
f/1.2 maximum apertures. Fast, faster, fastest. The combination
of these lenses with a clean ISO of 1600 or more means revolu-
tionary opportunities for successful low-light photography—
opportunities that didn’t exist before.Matthew Staver photographed these boxers during a trip to Cuba. He and a colleague knew that lighting
conditions in Cuban gyms would be primitive in comparison to U.S. standards, so they brought fast lenses
along with them (along with proper State Department visas). The extra weight in their backpacks was worth
it, however, judging from the images captured. © 2003 Matthew Staver.