One focal length for the rest of your life?

Not one lens... one focal length. If you could only have one lens for the rest of your life, what would you choose? Note.. if you use a crop sensor body, please enter the FF-equivalent!

Al, I'm going to guess a 50mm for you. Am I right? As for me, at least right now for the past year or two, it's the 35mm. Something about that focal length really speaks to me and I have the most fun taking photos with it. I just shot a small event this past weekend and even though I had the 24-70mm lens, I kept going back to my 35mm prime lens.

Got hooked on macro photography about 9 years ago and I haven't shot much else since. If the MP-E 65mm was stuck on my camera I wouldn't be all that disappointed...

Tech Specs: Canon 70D (F16, 1/250, ISO 100) + a Canon MP-E 65mm macro lens (about 1.5x) + a diffused MT-24EX. This is a single, uncropped, frame taken hand held.

Tech Specs: Canon 1D Mark III (F14, 1/250, ISO 200) + a Canon MPE-65mm macro lens (~1.5x) + a diffused MT-24EX. This is a single, uncropped, frame taken hand held. I am the finger model.

Al Downie wrote:

I can see why! Outstanding shots. Love the bee. Brilliant.

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Flickr photos: https://flic.kr/s/aHsjXbgGu9
(Mostly) Photography blog: http://wp.me/r7wg

Thanks!

I have two answers...

If it's based around logic, it would be the 100L. It's the most versatile. I like portraits and macro and I also benefit from IS. The 100L makes sense for me.

But if it's based around a focal length and the pleasure derived from the images, I'd go with the 135L.

Spotted Cow wrote:

Al, I'm going to guess a 50mm for you. Am I right?

Am I that transparent??

As for me, at least right now for the past year or two, it's the 35mm. Something about that focal length really speaks to me and I have the most fun taking photos with it. I just shot a small event this past weekend and even though I had the 24-70mm lens, I kept going back to my 35mm prime lens.

I know many people who feel the same - 35mm seems to match their perception of things around them. I think I 'see longer'! If I'm wanting to travel light with a camera, I sometimes take my x100 and I have a lot of fun with its fixed 35mm (equiv) lens, but often it throws background elements too far away for my liking, and I'd definitely have chosen a 50mm model instead if I'd had the choice.

I think for one reason or another, some photographers enjoy viewing photos taken with a specific focal length. My "love" for the 35mm focal length started when I saw some random guys' collection of photos (I believe they were all black and white) that was done with a 35mm lens on his website and I thought ithay they were done very well and for some reason, as I wrote before, it really spoke to me as a photographer. Of course there are countless number of great photos taken with every other focal length I can imagine, but for some reason 35mm does it for me. So when I look around me, I "see" the world with a 35mm focal length when I'm constantly looking for interesting opportunities to photograph and I'm starting to be able to see the photograph that my camera will take before I even put my camera up to my face.

Of course there are times when I put the camera up to my face and realize that a slightly different focal length would work better. That's why the Sigma 18-35mm lens was perfect for me on my 7D. I used it at 22mm focal length (35mm equivalent) most of the time I still had the option to switch to a 31mm equivalent for example (50mm equivalent) when those opportunities would come about. Yes, I also used it at those i between focal lengths as well but vast majority of my shots were at 22mm focal length - 35mm equivalent.

400mm

Al Downie wrote:

Not one lens... one focal length. If you could only have one lens for the rest of your life, what would you choose? Note.. if you use a crop sensor body, please enter the FF-equivalent!

24mm because I can use it as a 24mm lens FF, a 36mm lens APSC, a 48mm lens M4/3 and as a telephoto on a Pentax Q (if I got another Q)......all different enough and practical enough to me to make a difference and matter.

If I choice a telephoto lens to start, all I am getting is greater magnification with telephoto.

28 mm f/2.8 IS. I love shooting motorcycles at the track, but only get to do it a couple of times a year. So I'd really miss a 400 mm equivalent lens, but it simply restrict me too much for too long. 40 mm f/2.8 pancake would also be close, but not quite wide enough if that's all I had. So 28 it is. It's just wide enough, without getting wild distortion, yet can still do full body portraits & the like with a little bit of care. Hard choice though.

I would chose the 50mm. I prefer the 85, but 50 is more versatile for me.