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What lens will I use today?

Hank Taylor

By Hank Taylor
in Customer Forum

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Hank Taylor

Hank Taylor

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Carrying around a bag of lenses isn't the answer for me. What I learned over the years as I grow older the advantage of having an assortment of lenses in your camera case is not worth the trouble, especially when I usually end up 90 % of the time with the lens that is on my camera. Sticking with one lens for the day has convince me to be the right approach. This way I learn its capabilities and weakness. Each day I decide what I want to shoot and set up my camera with the appropriate lens. This week I have been concentrating on using my wide angles, Next week I'll try my R350 4.8 . Anyway, you got the picture.

 

It works for me,what works for you?

 

Hank

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TomB_tx

TomB_tx

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I tend to do the same thing: decide on a lens for the day and leave the rest home. Sometimes just take one camera and lens for a vacation trip. Limiting, but also freeing, and by choosing a lens I don't use much it forces me to look for the pictures that fit it. I tend to gravitate to a 35 much of the time.

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Hank Taylor

Hank Taylor

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I tend to do the same thing: decide on a lens for the day and leave the rest home. Sometimes just take one camera and lens for a vacation trip. Limiting, but also freeing, and by choosing a lens I don't use much it forces me to look for the pictures that fit it. I tend to gravitate to a 35 much of the time.

 

 

Tom I agree, the 35mm is the most useful lens for me too, however been experimenting with the wide 21mm lately

Thanks

Hank

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lct

lct

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50mm is my favorite FoV but i would not miss a good pic for the (insert a politically correct adjective) reason that i've decided to bring one lens alone so my smallest bag (Leitz 14825) has always two or preferably three lenses: 35/75 or 35/50/90 on FF and 28/50 or 28/35/50 on APS. YMMV.

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Paul J

Paul J

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I like to take just one lens when i'm out for the day, usually the 35. Unless I know I'm in a situation where I have time to consider and change lenses. It's always prefocussed to 3m at f4 and hanging around my neck with shutter finger at the ready. At times I will take the 50.

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rickp13

rickp13

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you've got good ideas, hank. i'm down to two summiluxes - 24 and 75 - and think they will be my minimum MM kit for quite a while.

 

greetings from hamburg

 

rick

 

ps i'm confident because there are wider and longer goodies on the R side of the gadget bag :cool:

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Hank Taylor

Hank Taylor

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you've got good ideas, hank. i'm down to two summiluxes - 24 and 75 - and think they will be my minimum MM kit for quite a while.

 

greetings from hamburg

 

rick

 

ps i'm confident because there are wider and longer goodies on the R side of the gadget bag :cool:

Excellent choice Rick, when I had my M9 this is what I carried when traveling

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wizard

wizard

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It all depends. On a day trip, and having a clear idea about the subjects to be photographed, a single lens may well be all that is needed. However, on my recent trip to Spain, I took along my M7 with 21, MATE, 90 and 135 lenses, and used every one them more than once (which in my view justifies taking them along).

 

Andy

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Orient XI

Orient XI

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Wizard has the correct approach. When I walk 800m to the Regional Park I have a clear idea what I wish to photograph. In winter it is the wildfowl; I now have most of the stock shots of the dozen or more species there so I can specialize still further and choose from a 560mm, 400mm, 280mm, or a 200mm with a 15mm extension tube for close-ups. Let's face it, nobody wants to carry two of those lenses over a possible 10km circuit! In spring and early summer I take the VisoflexIII, bellows, and the lens head of a f/4 135mm Elmar for wildflowers. However, next month I will be in Berlin so I will pack an 18mm, 28mm, 35mm, and 90mm in my ancient Benser case and should be able to cope with most of the subjects available in a big city. It really is a matter of horses for courses.

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TomB_tx

TomB_tx

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Lately my "lens for the day" on the M9 has been a 1956 ELMAM 50mm f3.5, keeping the ISO at 160 (because I can't set it lower). Makes one appreciate the technique needed to shoot available light with the REAL Leica lens, at 1/8 sec handheld. Work at getting results for a reasonable 10x enlargement, and it helps technique with modern lenses as well.

Next week I'll step up to the 2.8 version, which is what I started with in the mid '60s.

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dickgrafixstop

dickgrafixstop

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It depends, but the answer the majority of the time is a 35mm. Seems as if my

"travel" kit has boiled itself down to a 35/75 combination - light enough to carry,

small enough to not be obtrusive, Everytime I think about a 21 or a 24 I have to

ask myself how many times could I have not taken several steps backward. So

far it's worked everywhere but shipboard.

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Hank Taylor

Hank Taylor

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Lately my "lens for the day" on the M9 has been a 1956 ELMAM 50mm f3.5, keeping the ISO at 160 (because I can't set it lower). Makes one appreciate the technique needed to shoot available light with the REAL Leica lens, at 1/8 sec handheld. Work at getting results for a reasonable 10x enlargement, and it helps technique with modern lenses as well.

Next week I'll step up to the 2.8 version, which is what I started with in the mid '60s.

 

Like your thinking. Certainly there are times when you are planning ahead to carry more then one or two lenses . As a matter of fact, when shooting the air shows at Chino airport, my cameras I would take would be the M9 with a 35mm and my Nikon D600 with the R350mm4.8. Left the tripod home and didn't need since I was shooting at 3000 sec. Never had a problem using this set up on manual and infinity. ( enclosed is one of my shots taken from the grandstand. I found the R350 4.8 was super. Many of my colleagues were amassed I was getting better results then they were shooting with Nikon and Canon 70-200 2.8.

Hank

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Swistak

Swistak

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IMHO, the question of what lens I am going to use today has much to do also with choosing the right camera. With the children around, it does not make much sense to have the entire stock on board, so in this case I normally prefer something like D-Lux 6. When I bought the X2, it was revealing to be reduced to only one lens (I bought it deliberately for that purpose), which is, after all, one of the most versatile focal length ever. Via the X2, I have learnt to confine myself to one to two lenses, when I go for a walk with my M7 -- I prefer WATE with 50, or 28 with 90. For wide angles, the Tri-Elmar 16-18-21 is a good compromise, and I consider to enrich the personal lens park with the MATE by the end of the year, although I have the focal lengths of the MATE already covered. But the first step will be the change to digital M, waiting for a M240... Let's see how it will change lens preferences, especially with the option of using R lenses (maybe the often praised 4,0/35-70 will win against the MATE, although it will be impossible to use it on the M7). Finally, for real telephoto purposes, I am using a APO-Televid 82 / X2 combo for birding... 1500 mm focal lenght is something worth mentioning, but, of course, this slow combo is absolutely unable to shoot down planes during an airshow:). Greetings from Berlin, Ingo

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Hank Taylor

Hank Taylor

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Hank:

Thanks for the D600 / R lens photo. I've been thinking of adding a D600 for my "R" solution. Guess I should try one out and see how it handles compared to my R6.

Thanks Tom, I know you will like it, I traded in a new D800 for it because I realized I really didn't need the 36 mpx .

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