"Charles Schuler" wrote in message
...


No offense, but there are already so many well-meaning people ignorantly
misusing "prime lens" in this way, it sure would be nice if we could stop
encouraging innocent newbies to parrot the same mistake.

No offense taken, but you have stated one point of view.
From the dictionary at PhotoNotes.Org:


"Prime lens.

A lens with a fixed focal length - its field of view cannot be changed. At
least, not without the addition of supplemental lenses or teleconverters.

Generally, prime lenses are lighter, sharper, cheaper and of higher
optical quality than zoom lenses, since it's easier to build a prime lens
than a zoom. By tradition, common prime lenses used by 35mm cameras are
lenses with 28, 50, 85, 100 and 135mm focal lengths."



Check other sources ... the definition of a prime lens, as presented, is
widely used.

Yes, unfortunately the misusage is now very widespread and has found its way
into many places that should never have accepted it as proper.

Charles, I'm sure whoever compiled that "dictionary" at PhotoNotes.Org meant
well and believed that's what "prime lens" means, just as everyone else who
misuses it (including anyone else who compiles an online reference) believes
that's what it means. After all, who would DELIBERATELY misuse a word in
this way?

But of course anyone can put together whatever definitions for words he
likes, call it a "dictionary" and publish it online.

Note that the very exhaustive and authoritative Canon Lens Glossary at
http://www.usa.canon.com/html/eflens...y/index_p.html does
not even mention "prime lens." Isn't it surprising that a term that now has
such currency in these newsgroups isn't even mentioned at Canon?

Nor has any lens literature I've ever seen from Minolta over the last 25+
years referred to any FFL lens as "prime" (unless used correctly, e.g. to
distinguish a long telephoto from its matched extender) and I would be
surprised if any other major lens manufacturer did. This is a misusage that
appears to have started on the old Fidonet (which is where I first saw it)
and spread like a weed through the magic of the Internet and especially
Usenet. I believe this happened because there just never was much CORRECT
usage of the term (there was no need for it at all, except to distinguish
the camera lens from some auxiliary attachment), making the term relatively
easy to misappropriate.

There are, on the other hand, variable prime lenses (i.e., prime lenses of
variable focal length) marketed by Zeiss, Schneider and others and
catalogued just that way: "variable primes." Obviously this proves that
"prime" CANNOT POSSIBLY mean fixed focal length, since a focal length cannot
be fixed and variable at the same time.

N.