im completely clueless in most things including photography. but hear me out. shop guy told me to get prime lens like a 50mm for starting out and learning. but if i buy a 24-120 zoom, cant i learn just the same if i limit myself to use it at 50mm? i dont understand. i also have no idea what i want to shoot, except i dont want no bird or sport photography

just buy a zoom. who cares. nothing matters anyway.

>>4443686 (OP)
No. don't be an autistic fag. If you're purely at the learning stage just get a zoom. The only thing I'd recommend a beginner buy a prime for is portraiture since you often want a fast aperture for that, which zooms are not (typically). When you graduate beyond the green auto mode you can always sell shit for 75%+ of what you paid and reassess what gear you want/need.
If you care, prime lenses are good because they're often small, light, inexpensive, and provide better image quality compared to zooms. But being locked into a single focal length is not the greatest, especially if you don't know what you want to take photos of.
>shop guy told me to get prime lens like a 50mm for starting out and learning
shop guy might just want to make more sales ngl. On a crop camera a 50mm f/2 prime can be a good portrait lens but that's assuming you want to do that.

>>4443686 (OP)
I really recommend you buy a zoom lens because being able to change focal lengths on the fly is way more convenient than getting 2-2.5 extra stops of light with faster apertures. Some zooms are f/2.8 anyway.
>I have no idea what I want to shoot, except not birds.
Rules out anything 70mm+, I’d say.
My advice is that you get a used zoom lens to fuck around with until you realise what limitations you’re actually running into with whatever zoom you end up with. That day may never even come.

It's hard to describe why to a beginner, but you will learn much more with a prime. 50mm is the perfect starting lens.

It's hard to explain why to someone who has never done photography but retarded boomers and autistic people are the ones telling you to get a prime. The only reason to prefer primes is lower cost. A good zoom lens is better to learn with.

Zooms are great because if you stick with it youll quickly find what focal range you actually like to shoot at.