Tell about your first zoom lens experience

I thought this might be interesting on more than one level. Among our broad age group here on Photo.net we have members that are old enough to remember the first zooms, some like me that were exposed to zooms later in their learning experiences, and some so young that zooms were what they saw first.

My first experience was with my dad's Vivitar 85-205 f 3.8 that he had for his Mamiya Sekor 1000 TL. I quickly learned there was a huge difference between using an f 1.4 lens and an f 3.8 lens. My first experience with the zoom was photographing afternoon football during my freshman year of high school. It took a while to get the hang of focusing, but I soon learned to focus at maximum zoom an zoom back to the desired focal length. I also shot some high speed Ektachrome from the roof of the newly opened Golden Triangle Airport in 1972. Again, I used my dad's Mamiya and zoom while he took super 8 movies. If I can find those slides I will scan some of them. No more zooms until I bought a Tamron 85-210 f 4.5 to go with my Minolta SRT 201 in the spring of 1978.

Looking forward to everyone's "first zoom" experiences.

Disclaimer - I don't own any zooms.

 

 

BUT - later on for many years I sold cameras. so plenty of experience using them. I never did get to like any of them, especially the one touch type such as the Canon 100 - 200. They have a tendency to zoom on their own. Two years ago my brother GAVE me his 28 - 85 Canon. I'll admit that the photos came out just fine, but it didn't feel right. Too sloppy and slow. It's back at his house now.

 

The only zoom that I had any slight affection for was the Vivitar Series 1.

 

As for cine lenses, not much choice in S8, but with 16mm, I still use nothing but primes. (OK, if I had lots of spare cash I'd pop for one)

Edited December 31, 2018 by chuck909

Photography only became a hobby for me when cameras went digital. I have a couple of prime lenses but I hardly ever use them. Nowadays I use just two on a a FF: 24-70mm and 70-200mm.

I, like chuck909, above do not own any zoom lenses. I really do not know why that is but they have never appealed to me. I have been using Nikon cameras since the early 70's and have Nikon lenses from 20mm to 200mm but no zooms. I guess that I just got used to carrying 2 cameras with different lenses and just never saw the need for a zoom. Maybe it is time to try one out.

My first zoom experiences were in the late 1970s-early 1980s. I don't remember the brand or focal length, but I do remember it was with a Canon A1 body, and not only was focusing difficult due to reduced light transmission thru the lens at the longer focal length, but the lens "crept" when held up or down. This turned me off of zooms for the next 25 years. Although I typically still use primes these days, I have a couple of zooms which are particularly good and see use in about 10% of my shots (film & digital).

My 2nd lens on my first SLR was the Takumar - A 28-80/3.5-4.5, followed by some Soligor 70-200 (or such). The Takumar lastet about 4 years till it fell apart the Soligor no way longer.

I learned to own & bring backup primes, a bit later to love them and when I got somewhat serious with film photography there were no zooms available (for the Mamiya TLRs or Pentacon).

My first zoom experience was a cheap 80-200 for my trusty Pentax K-1000. I liked the ease of composing with a zoom, and soon got a 35-70 which was my most-used lens for a long time. Image quality was not as important as getting exactly what I wanted into the frame. Edited December 31, 2018 by Julio Fernandez

My first zoom was a Zuiko 28-48mm f/4 back in the early 1980s, used with an Olympus OM-1. I got it to replace a Zuiko 28/3.5. Though one of the budget "S"-series zooms, it was a nice contrasty lens, not much slower than the prime, and not much bigger either. Apparently they were only made for a short time, and are rather hard to find now.

 

I found the zoom to be more versatile, but being a twin-ring design I also missed having a depth-of-field scale, which I find useful with wide-angle lenses (not so much with tele lenses, though). IIRC the front of the lens barrel rotated, which made using polarizing filters less convenient. I eventually sold off my Olympus gear as I now prefer larger SLRs.

Edited December 31, 2018 by m42dave

My first zoom back in the late 70s was a Soligor 70-210 - I returned it after a few days. The first one I actually kept was an Ai-S Nikkor 35-105/3.5-4.5 - convenience and the capability to frame my shots better (I was mostly shooting slide film) were the main draws over using fixed-focal-length lenses.

When I started more serious photography with an SLR, I had the usual kit of a 35mm, 55mm, and 135mm.

 

I wanted a little more reach, so I got a Vivitar Series 1 70-210mm, f/3.5 and a Vivitar 2X telextender. Worked well for me.

 

 

 

 

Serengeti - Kenya

Vivitar Series 1

My first zoom was acquired in the early 1980s. I got the Canon FD 35-105 f/3.5 Macro for travel and walk-around use on my A-1. Still have it, still use it; it's a very satisfying hunk of metal and glass!

My first zoom lens was a Canon FD 80-200. It was too bulky and slow for the kind of photography I was doing way back when in the mid 70s. I wound up trading in all my FD equipment for a Leica R3 and several Leica R lenses.

My first zoom was a Pentax A series 35-105 that I used for weddings. It was fairly sharp, covered the range of focal lengths that I used the most and was a constant aperture so flash wasn't a hassle. When I started shooting digital, this was one of the first lenses to go since it had major flare problems with digital that hadn't been there with film. Most of my digital photo work is done with either zooms (17-50 f/2.8 Sigma, 50 - 135 f/2.8 Pentax) or macro primes for studio work.

mid 80s, Olympus OM cameras, I'm thinking my first zoom was a Vivitar 80-200/4 or so. It's been a few years.

I haven't found any shots from my dad's Vivitar 85-205 but did find a couple from the first zoom I owned: Tamron 85-210

Mississippi State Union dining area, Minolta SRT 201, Tamron 85-210, Fujichrome R100

Above image likely at the 85mm setting

portrait at Officer's Lake, same gear as above with Tri-X

8-48/1.8 Yashinon on a Yashica Super-60 Electronic Super 8. Zoom lenses were widely used on cine cameras long before they were spread to 35 mm still. And don't tell me about the Voigtlaender-Zoomar.

 

The Su60E shot lovely footage that I wasn't able to use and is the reason I took up still photography. It taught me that film wasn't the way to accomplish what I then wanted to do. When a cousin admired the Su60E I gave it to him.

 

Years later I returned to shooting movies. By that time most S8 cameras had fixed zoom lenses. The exceptions included the Fujica Z1000 (single 8, can be intercut with super 8 using tape splices) and a number of Beaulieus, all C-mount. I ended up with a couple of Beaulieus, on which I sometimes used prime lenses, and a Fujica bought for its lens, a lovely 7.5-75/1.8. I intended to get a 4008 for the Fuji's lens, ended up with one that had a 6-66/1.8 Varigon, decided I liked the Schneider lens better so sold the Fuji, lens and all. I also had a heap of old Bauers and Canons, of which the best, but most uncomfortable to use, were Canon 310XL. The Canon 8.5-25.5/1.0 is a marvel, shot better footage than anything else I've ever used. Within its limits, preferable to the Beaulieus.

My first memory of a Zoom lens is an option for a Sawyers slide projector that my father didn't buy.

(He bought the projector with the more usual 100mm lens.)

 

When I bought my Nikon FM in 1979, I bought it with the AI 35/2.0, but thought about the

AI 43-86 because the price wasn't so different. But I really wanted the 35mm lens.

 

A year later, my dad bought me the Vivitar 70-150 with matched multiplier.

That is, a telextender optimized to go with the lens.

 

I also had the Vivitar 283 flash with lens kit for longer lenses.

 

A few years later, I bought a used AI 35-70.

I’ve not owned many, but I do remember my Dad coming home with a ‘one touch’ of some description, and I thought that the mechanism was pretty sexy. I was impressed with performance of the 18-70 ( was it 3.5-4.5?) that came as part of the kit with my first digital camera, the Nikon D70s, especially at the long end. Mostly primes on film bodies these days, so my zoom is Shanks’ pony.