The Case Against 16-35mm Lenses: Generic Perfection
The infamous 16-35mm, we all own one, and it is very likely one of the first lenses you ever picked up for your camera, but it’s time to move on. This article is likely going to rustle some feathers, as this lens is a very popular choice in the industry, particularly for videographers and photographers starting their journey, and I used this lens for years as my go to workhorse underwater lens, and this realisation is truly something that I wish I had learnt sooner. The 16-35 is hindering your work, and is producing the most generic look you can capture, hear me out.
One of the reasons the 16-35mm is a staple in most beginner shooters camera bags, is that this lens is quite versatile. The lens covers a wide focal length range, from 16mm for landscapes to 35mm for a touch of zoom. It's the go-to lens for a lot of tourism and travel, street, and underwater photography, and if you’ve invested in an f2.8 model, it allows for some slight depth of field at the tight end.
But what this lens makes up for in versatility, it lacks in mastery. In my opinion, the 16-35mm look provides the most generic looking image available. It’s not wide enough to be interesting, nor is it tight enough to provide close ups or produce any real depth of field. On either end of it’s focal length, it produces such a classically generic image, from sorta wide, to sorta not wide.
Now I have held this opinion about this lens ever since I first bought it so many years ago for topside filmmaking, and as such I have almost never used this lens above the water, but it took me a lot longer to realise that this was also the case underwater. And that this lens was forcing me to shoot in a way that was holding my creativity back, and looking back at my work shot with this lens, creating really generic looking footage.
Having dug a little deeper into why I feel this way about this lens, I have narrowed it down to a few key reasons.
The first is that 16 to 35’s have a very limited and odd perspective. This lens can create great wide-angle shots, but when looking through your monitor, it’s almost never wide enough. In filmmaking we almost never use wide angle lenses, unless we have a good reason to do this. Usually, that reason is because we are looking for a unique perspective, or we’re looking to capture a vast open scene. And at 16mm this lens can’t really do either of those things. The lens is at an odd focal length where it unnaturally looks somewhat normal. It doesn’t have that natural looking life like 24mm look, but it also isn’t wide. It’s just unnatural, and feels like a generic iPhone style perspective. Thus we fail on our unique perspectives front. On the same line, it’s also never as wide as we think it is when we put the lens on, and the vast scene that we were looking to capture, is almost never done any justice at 16mm where we always end up clipping our corners, or not being able to fit our subject in frame and compose the shot how we wanted to.
Unfortunately this is the case above and below the water, with 16mm just never being enough to produce anything unique, or to actually shoot anything wide.
On the tight end at 35mm, the lens similarly suffers from the same issues. In most scenarios, 35mm isn’t tight enough to shoot headshots, or to capture anything tight. Again, this focal length is just slightly tighter than our natural vision which is around 24mm, and this perspective doesn’t really offer anything unique. As a wide angle lens, we can’t really make up for any of this either by simply moving the camera closer to our subject, as these lenses typically have quite poor close focus distances.
Shooting at F4 or if you’ve splurged, f2.8 at 35mm doesn’t offer all that much in the way of depth of field either, and if you’re after this focal length spending the money on a prime that will offer you f1.2 will provide a much more unique look, at half the price.
To me, this lens provides that generic looking iPhone perspective. And not one of the new iPhone’s with 7 different lenses, I’m talking about that old school iPhone 7 look. A jack of all trades, master of none generic focal length.
So what are some better options?
Since having ditched my 16 -35, I have moved all of my wide angle work over to ultra wide angle lenses, such as the rectal linear 12-24mm that I am using now, or the 14mm f1.8 prime if I need low light. The extra 4mm may sound like a miniscule jump, and if we were talking about telephoto lens, you would be right, but on the wide end that extra 4mm completely changes the look and feel of the lens. 12mm is remarkably wider than 16mm, and the perspectives you’re able to capture are so much more engaging and unique than the generic look of the 16-35. I have seen such a shift in the way that I shoot since having left the 16mm behind, as I am able to get so much closer to my subject and create far more engaging compositions with unique perspectives. Every time I go back to the 16-35 as I think it may be better for this one particular scene, it honestly just annoys me, and forces me to revert back to the bad habits I had assumed were just normal.
On the tight end, you’ll capture far more engaging work with a few f1.8 prime lenses such as a 50mm or 85mm, but if you’re looking for versatility lenses like the 24-70 f2.8 are some of my favourite choices. They capture wide angle shots, from the natural 24mm looking perspective, but also have the ability to produce those tighter moments at 50mm to 70mm with a good depth of field at f2.8.
If you’re looking to level up your work, and capture footage or images that are unique and engaging, it’s time to put the 16 to 35 down. There’s a reason It’s never used on a more professional end, and it’s because it offers a very generic look, and excels at providing versatility over uniqueness.
Alright, I think I’ve ripped on this lens enough. I just want to end this off by saying that I used this lens professionally as a work horse for years. Even after ripping on it all blog, I concede it can do the job, and it can do the job well. But if you’re looking to enhance your work.. well you know what to do.