Width in moderation

We’ll be focusing on lenses that give a generous but not overly exorbitant viewing angle, based on focal lengths of about 20mm to 24mm. There are some significant advantages to be enjoyed. Compared with outlandish focal lengths of around 11mm to 15mm, the viewing angle is more natural. Indeed, relatively extreme ultra-wide lenses give you a viewing angle that’s much wider than the field of human vision, producing a rather extreme and unnatural perspective.

Even with a 20mm or 24mm lens, you can really exaggerate perspective effects, stretching the apparent distance between close foreground objects and the middle distance, to the background beyond. With the typical availability of a close minimum focus distance and wide viewing angle, you can get in really close to fairly large objects, making them really stand out against a rapidly diminishing backdrop.

You might think there’s little point in getting a 24mm prime lens when this focal length is covered by the majority of standard zooms, like 24-70mm and 24-120mm lenses, as well as Nikon’s new 24-200mm Z-mount superzoom lens. However, a fast 24mm prime has some benefits. The faster f/1.4 or f/1.8 aperture rating enables faster shutter speeds that can be a real bonus for handheld shooting indoors, for example in museums and other locations where tripods are prohibited. It also allows for much faster shutter speeds, so you can freeze the action in sports and wildlife shots, or any other time when you need to stop motion in its tracks.

A less obvious but valid advantage of the wider aperture offered by most wide-angle primes is that you can get a fairly tight depth, at least when using