I realize I'm blessed in having quite a choice. Over the years, I have been able to upgrade my lens collection incrementally. Generally, I only buy used or refurbished lenses. Typically, I will get 1 lens a year (sometimes 2 cheaper lenses), but in the last year, I got a bit of a G.A.S. (gear acquisition syndrome) and got 3 lenses, which I'll be paying off over the next couple of months.
I tend to be a record the moment photographer rather than a plan for the best shot in detail photographer. So when I go out, I generally figure out the lens to use and I don't change the lens during shooting. If I have 2 lenses I go between, I use two cameras with a different lens attached.
Of course it depends on what the scenarios are:
For normal shooting, I go out with the Olympus 12-200mm f/3.5-6.3 on one camera (OM-1 or E-m5 mark III) and the 12-40mm f/2.8 mark I on the other. Typically for outdoor shooting, I will use the 12-200mm and for indoor shooting, I will use the 12-40mm. Before I got the 12-200mm, I used the 14-150mm f/4-5.6 lenses, going through the mark I and then mark II lenses.
For whale watching and birding where the thing I want to photograph appears randomly either close or far, I will put the 12-200mm on one camera, and a long lens on the other. In this case, changing lenses is not an option, as the critter will be gone before I can change lenses. At some point, I hope to get an Olympus 100-400mm f/5-6.3 lens. Currently, I have 3 options:
- Panasonic 100-300mm f/4-5.6: Particularly if I'm using 2 cameras, I don't like having the zoom/focus rings go in the opposite direction as the Olympus/OM Systems lenses. After an incident on a whale watch, I do not consider this to be a splash resistant lens.
- Classic 4/3rds Olympus 50-200mm f/2.8-3.5 with either the EC-14 or EC-20 tele-converters. The 50-200mm + EC-14 is a 70-280mm f/4-5 lens. The 50-200mm + EC-20 is a 100-400mm f/5.6-7 lens. Coupled with the MMF-3 adapter, this is the only long lens I have that is splash resistant and I have shot in wet conditions with the lens over the years. The downside is it is the heaviest/largest of the large lenses.
- Classic 4/3rds Olympus 70-300mm f/4-5.6. Recently, I have been using the EC-14 on it, which makes the lens 98-420mm f/5.6-8.
If I'm photographing indoor scenes, I will typically use the Olympus 12-40mm f/2.8-3.5 lens. If I'm photographing things on a stage further back, I will use my f/2.8 intermediate lenses. For quite some time, I used the Panasonic 35-100mm f/2.8 lens, but in a fit of G.A.S. I just acquired the Olympus 40-150mm f/2.8 lens. In the past, I would use my Panasonic-Leica 15mm f/1.7 lens and my Olympus 45mm f/1.8 lens, with the old Panasonic 20mm f/1.7 lens on-board in case the 15mm is too wide. Generally, I prefer the f/2.8 zooms over the f/1.7 and f/1.8 lenses these days. Before I acquired the 12-40mm f/2.8 lens, I would use the primes more often.
I don't shoot formal portraits, so I generally don't use a fast lens to show the subject in focus but the background de-focused.
For photographing fall in New England, I typically use the 12-200mm but I will carry a wider lens to use occasionally on a 2nd camera. I have gone between a classic 4/3rds 9-18mm f/4-5.6 on an Olympus E-1, a micro 4/3rds 9-18mm f/4-5.6 on a micro 4/rds body. As part of my recent G.A.S. upgrade, I just got an Olympus 7-14mm f/2.8 lens.
The one place I routinely use a prime is for my steampunk and renaissance faire cameras. In this case, I embed the camera into either an older large format camera body, a castle cutout with a dragon puppet over the lens, or a box with bellows, etc. made to evoke a large format camera. The issue is it takes me 10 minutes to disassemble and reassemble the gear, so changing lenses is out of the question. I need to photograph stuff indoors in dim light and outdoors where rain is always a possibility. In the past, I had used the Sigma 16mm f/1.4 lens, but I just recently got the Olympus 17mm f/1.2 lens, and I really like this lens. For this setup, 15-20mm is my sweet spot. Because of the size of the bellows or dragon puppet, having a larger lens is actually helpful. I had thought about the new OM 20mm f/1.4, but in this case the larger Olympus 17mm f/1.2 works better.
In the few times when I want to shoot macro, particularly shots with focus stacking, I got a used Olympus 60mm f/2.8 macro lens. But I don't typically use it.
I do have other lenses that I've used in the past, but I don't use them as much these days.
