Infused Light :: a photography blog by Helder Ferreira   

And that's it! This is the last photo concerning Sea Life at Porto.
I don't know about you but I was already feeling bored to see so much sea life in the last days. :)
Which is good because now I can go back to different subjects and other life situations.

To sum-up:
A friend asked me about 2 options concerning shooting indoor aquariums like SeaLife:
a) use a prime lens with wide aperture, OR b) use a zoom with not so wide aperture?

There's not a black and white answer and I think there is more than one question there: 1) zoom or prime? 2) wide aperture or not? :P
I definitely used a non-fast lens and the results were not so bad (high ISO and good response to it helped a lot, I couldn't do the same with my 450D).
But if I had to go again to Sea Life I would have taken a wide aperture lens (at least F2.8).

Therefore, if you have a zoom with F2.8 go for it. You will have creamier backgrounds, more options in low light and the flexibility of a zoom lens to get closer or get wider.

If you don't have a zoom F2.8 but have a prime with 2.8 or more, e.g., 50mm f1.8 :), then go for it as well. You will have better optical results but no flexibility like zooming in (except if you do feet zoom... that's right, walk to get closer or not, although there's always the limitation that you cannot enter the aquarium - which would be awesome! :) ).

Lesson nr 15 (the last one): Creativity is your best weapon but the equipment helps you achieve it or at least supports you in the process. Prime lens give you better optical results but no zoom flexibility. Wide aperture lens are the best for this job!