How many lenses cover 95% or more of your photography?

Karl Persson said:

I have 16 lenses and two systems (Nikon F and mFT), but for more than 90% of my shooting I only use one lens per system - and only one system (FF) for more than 85%.

Nikon FF with 150-600 and mFT with 12-60.

I have a Viltrox adapter that let me use my F lenses on mFT, with working AF. The Nikkor 70-200/4 works well on mFT, but doesn´t amount to many % of my shooting. That is a reasonably good lens that don´t find much use on it´s intended body either...

Maybe I should have had a plan before buying all these lenses

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What's the purpose of having 16 lenses?

Some lenses are more versatile than others, but unless you only do one kind of photography (example: you are a portrait photographer and that 105mm or whatever lens you're using never leaves the camera body) no lens will be anywhere close to covering 95% of your photos.

I do macro, landscape, wildlife, portraiture, food, and product photography. Even within the same genre I may use multiple lenses, so each lens covers a smaller part of my photos.

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nicodimus22 said:

Some lenses are more versatile than others, but unless you only do one kind of photography (example: you are a portrait photographer and that 105mm or whatever lens you're using never leaves the camera body) no lens will be anywhere close to covering 95% of your photos.

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I don’t think that was his question. I interpreted it as “which group” of lenses make up 95% or more of your use. I could be wrong though.

nicodimus22 said:

I do macro, landscape, wildlife, portraiture, food, and product photography. Even within the same genre I may use multiple lenses, so each lens covers a smaller part of my photos.

--
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My unscientific analyses leads me to the number 4.

I have 7 lenses.

The 100-400 gets way less than 5% of my use, because I haven't been able to get out of the city as much as I would like, since I got it.

The 17-40 gets less use, particularly this year, since it is the lens for looking at real estate. In past years, I found that I didn't want any pictures of most of the places I took it. I also like it on a second camera when I get out of the city with my 100-400.

I have two normal zooms. I only carry one with me, usually the EF 24-70, so I stuck the RF 24-105 in the under 5% group.

My three residential agents and a couple of photo clients keep my TSE 17 at the top of my most used list.

Second is probably my RF 35. It's the one I take out at night for social pictures. Sometimes I'll also bring the 85, if I want to shoot a live music show. I prefer to carry only one lens, if I'm doing anything other than photography.

Third is the 24-70 F4.

Fourth would be my 85. Even without doing as many portraits as I thought, I get a lot of use out of it for events, museums, and even a few cityscape shots.

My photos are not all in one place, so I can't do a search to really figure it out. I wish I could.

2 lenses.

I'm primarily a people/portrait photographer.

For my primary system I have a 50mm 1.4, 85mm 1.8, and a 135mm 1.8. I love the 135, but use it seldom. My 50 and 85 easily comprise at least 95% of my photography.

I'm going to be getting a 24-70 2.8, though. When I do, the 50 will be used even less than the 135.

nicodimus22 said:

Zero. Should have been a poll option. Some lenses are more versatile than others, but unless you only do one kind of photography (example: you are a portrait photographer and that 105mm or whatever lens you're using never leaves the camera body) no lens will be anywhere close to covering 95% of your photos.

I do macro, landscape, wildlife, portraiture, food, and product photography. Even within the same genre I may use multiple lenses, so each lens covers a smaller part of my photos.

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You need a lens to take a photo, right? So why would zero be an option? You said you use multiple lenses for your photography. Then the poll asks how many of those lenses that you use would have been used for 95% or more of your photography?

For example, let's say you do equal amounts of macro, landscape, wildlife, portraiture, food, and product photography. For these photos, 95% of them, or more, were taken with your 16-35, 24-70, 85, 70-200, and 100-400. Then that would be 5 lenses. Your other lenses, say, a 14, 50, 135, and 500 make up the remaining 5% or less.

Or, maybe you use all of your lenses more or less equally, and thus your answer for the poll would be 8+. But I can't figure out how zero lenses would make up 95% or more of a person's photography.

Phil A Martin said:

Great Bustard said:

Of the lenses that you currently own, how many of them cover 95% of the photos that you take since you have had all of the lenses you currently own? This includes lenses for multiple systems.

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If a lens covers 95% of all your photography, then it would be impossible for another to do more than 5%, less if you have several lenses.

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I didn't mean which single lens was used for 95% or more of your photography. I meant how many of the lenses that you currently owned are used *all together* for 95% of your photography.

For example, let's say you took 10000 photos since you bought your last lens and you currently own eight lenses. 9500 or more of those photos were taken with your 50 / 1.8, 24-105, and 70-200. The remaining 500 photos were taken with one of the remaining five lenses you own. Then the answer for this poll would be "3".

NT.

Gerry Winterbourne said:

Great Bustard said:

Of the lenses that you currently own, how many of them cover 95% of the photos that you take since you have had all of the lenses you currently own? This includes lenses for multiple systems.

For example, let's say you currently own mFT and FF. You have six mFT lenses and four FF lenses for a total of ten lenses, the last of which was purchased a year ago. In the last year, then, how many of those lenses were used for 95% or more of your photography? That is, less than 1 in 20 of your photos, on average, for both systems together were taken with one of your other lenses.

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I own 10 lenses. One is for my tiny Pentax Q and I hardly ever use that these days. The others are Pentax K-mount; three of them are nominally APS-C but I can use one fully on FF and the others with minor cropping.

However, although you ask about 95% (for which I use seven of my lenses) there are two that account for something like 75%. In other words, apart from those two none of my lenses accounts for more than 4-5% and some less.

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So two lenses account for 75% of your photography, and the remaining 25% is more or less equally divided up amongst your remaining five lenses? There was a time the same was true for me, so that completely makes sense.

J A C S said:

5 for me, out of 9. Of course, this was a very unusual year.

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True that -- this poll would have probably been more interesting had I started it a year ago or five years from now. :-(

J A C S said:

Last year, 6 lenses. Must unused - the 100L macro. Next most unused - the 15mm fisheye but this is expected, still more used than the 100L.

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The 15 FE is my most unused. However, when I do need it, I am very glad I have it!

Off the top of my head I’d say 98% of them.

Great Bustard said:

The 15 FE is my most unused. However, when I do need it, I am very glad I have it!

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Funny about that. Same for me, but in my M4/3 world it's the Samyang 7.5mm fishy. Just a handful of times on any trip it is the only lens that will do the job.

Instructions got too deep for me to follow. I only use one lens for 95+% of shots on individual cameras. But I do use several different cameras - some are interchangeable lens and some are not. I have a large collection of lenses that never see the light of day anymore as I have the lenses I use on bodies and that's where they stay. I'm a zoom guy and the widest range I can get is the one that is used. When something with wider range comes out that I like, it replaces the current user which then goes in the drawer.

Great Bustard said:

Of the lenses that you currently own, how many of them cover 95% of the photos that you take since you have had all of the lenses you currently own? This includes lenses for multiple systems.

For example, let's say you currently own mFT and FF. You have six mFT lenses and four FF lenses for a total of ten lenses, the last of which was purchased a year ago. In the last year, then, how many of those lenses were used for 95% or more of your photography? That is, less than 1 in 20 of your photos, on average, for both systems together were taken with one of your other lenses.

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1 for me for a little less than 95% of my mostly city/landscape shooting. This is a standard zoom, which bought in October. Before that I'd used 2 or 3 primes out of 5 for a couple of years. But weight saving, plus the desire for more versatility brought me back to a zoom. The interesting thing is I used zooms as dual primes. always at one end or the other. Now I use the intermediate focal lengths more often.

Guy Parsons said:

Great Bustard said:

The 15 FE is my most unused. However, when I do need it, I am very glad I have it!

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Funny about that. Same for me, but in my M4/3 world it's the Samyang 7.5mm fishy. Just a handful of times on any trip it is the only lens that will do the job.

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Thing is, I often (well, "often" considering how many times I use the lens) find the FE look to be more natural than the rectilinear look. The following examples have not been defished:











I mean, for sure, you can see the FE projection in them, but it looks more natural than the stretched edges of a rectilinear in many instances -- to my eyes, anyway.

robert1955 said:

Great Bustard said:

Of the lenses that you currently own, how many of them cover 95% of the photos that you take since you have had all of the lenses you currently own? This includes lenses for multiple systems.

For example, let's say you currently own mFT and FF. You have six mFT lenses and four FF lenses for a total of ten lenses, the last of which was purchased a year ago. In the last year, then, how many of those lenses were used for 95% or more of your photography? That is, less than 1 in 20 of your photos, on average, for both systems together were taken with one of your other lenses.

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1 for me for a little less than 95% of my mostly city/landscape shooting. This is a standard zoom, which bought in October. Before that I'd used 2 or 3 primes out of 5 for a couple of years. But weight saving, plus the desire for more versatility brought me back to a zoom. The interesting thing is I used zooms as dual primes. always at one end or the other. Now I use the intermediate focal lengths more often.

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I used to shoot all primes. However, for the exact same reason you mentioned -- convenience -- I now shoot a mix, where 3 lenses (2 zooms and 1 prime) cover 95% of my photography.

It all depends upon which camera I use. For my Nikon d750 I have exactly one lens the 24-120 f4 kit lens now most common camera. For my Leica M9 I might use 50 or 35 millimetre lenses. From ancient history I used to shoot an extensive Canon system with many lenses for shooting a diverse set of subjects however I gave that system away to a friend

Relevant and revealing. I'm all m4/3s with the exception of a Fuji X100T. Two lenses cover me 90%+ of the time: my 12-40/2.8 and the PL15/1.7. The 15 is usually on my GM5, but the OP asked about lenses.

Don't show this to my wife

tony field said:

It all depends upon which camera I use.

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The poll is for total number of lenses all systems you currently use that make up 95% or more of your photography.

tony field said:

For my Nikon d750 I have exactly one lens the 24-120 f4 kit lens now most common camera. For my Leica M9 I might use 50 or 35 millimetre lenses.

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So that would be at least three lenses.

tony field said:

From ancient history I used to shoot an extensive Canon system with many lenses for shooting a diverse set of subjects however I gave that system away to a friend

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Just since the time of the last lens you purchased.

mring1 said:

Relevant and revealing. I'm all m4/3s with the exception of a Fuji X100T. Two lenses cover me 90%+ of the time: my 12-40/2.8 and the PL15/1.7.

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But including the X100T -- how many lenses in all, for all the systems that you use, comprise 95% or more of your photography?

mring1 said:

The 15 is usually on my GM5, but the OP asked about lenses.

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I'm not sure what you mean -- isn't the 15 a lens?

mring1 said:

Don't show this to my wife

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Shhhh! That's the purpose of this thread -- blackmail material. ;-)