Three lens kit

I was reading an old post on The Online Photographer about the traditional lens kit, and I realized that that has been my approach to photography for years.

As I was packing for a family trip a few days ago I took a picture of my super light go-everywhere photo bag.

1. A 50mm f/1.4 Super Takumar + Fotodiox adapter. I’ve had this lens for nearly 30 years now (it came with a Spotmatic my dad gave me when I was 8 years old). It’s my most used lens, by far. I absolutely love it.
2. A Meike 25 f/1.8. Not the sharpest lens out there, but I like it.
3. An Olympus 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6. Regular, average, nothing to write home about. I just keep it for the autofocus, as I need that to take pictures of my kids running around.
4. An Olympus E-M5. Despite some flaws I really like it.
   

   

The whole bag is extremely small and light, thank you m4/3!

So, what’s your story? Which camera and lenses do you pick when leaving the house?

What I pick up varies greatly. Often E-M1 MkII + 12-100, sometimes E-M1 MkI + 12-50 or 14-42 EZ.

Basic three lens kit is E-M1 MkI + 12-50 macro, 40-150R and f/1.8 25.

My basic kit is:

GX850
12-32
20/1.7
35-100 (the small one)
9mm Bodycap fisheye

The 12-32 is surprisingly good, and accounts of about half of my pictures. Often used at 12mm.

The 20/1.7 just takes nice picture.

The 35-100 is small enough to not be worth leaving behind, most of the time.

The BC 9mm is almost small enough not to notice to fill in for an ultra wide.

I'll add one lens to that depending on how I feel:

100-300  I'm surprised how much use I make of that, compact for what it is
42/1.2     Really nice, but not compact, almost as big as the 100-300
7-14/4     I gave up looking for a compact AF ultra wide.

I can take the 100-300, and the 7-14, but then I have to leave the 9mm BC and 35-100 behind. I don't take many shots in that range. (And then of course want to take one at 60mm.)

It all has to fit in a small travel purse, that's my constraint.

Typically the EM5 MKiii (replaced the Pen-F or EM1 MKii generally speaking)

The 12-100

Either the Voigtlander 10.5 or 17.5 depending on my mood but mostly the 10.5

Either the Laowa 7.5 or the PL 8-18

Many times the 14-42EZ is in the bag because it is so small and light, it just stays there. I have way too many other lenses/options but this is the general kit that goes with me. I love the Voigtlander’s for their sunstars and are fantastic at night.

My lightest weight three lens kit (take everywhere) is:

Pen F and one spare battery

Olympus 17 f1.8

Olympus 25 fi.8

Olympus 60 2.8 Marco

I also have an all Olympus small f 1.8-2.0 primes kit, 12mm to 75mm

and an EM 1 based Pro kit, Olympus Pro 8mm fisheye and Olympus Pro 2.8 zooms covering 7mm to 150mm, plus 1.4x extender.

i have now a max 4 lens kit. G80

my most mounted.

-PL12-60mm f2.8-4.0

my first lens

- Lumix 14-140mm f3.5-5.6

the telezoom for wildlife.

-Lumix 100-300mmii

and shortly for lowlight and some new learning using a prime a

- PL 15mm f1.7

my snakehead body flash is supported with a meike 320p

And i have three batteries and a usb charger for travel by car.

All this is stationary stacked in a normal looking backpack with space for personalstuff ready to go.

leave at home a trypod mostly. and sometimes i take my monopod to support filming and lowlight shooting. The travel trypod is still to visual and heavy for walking around when you not know if you would need it that day so i relay on Ibis and OIS in dualIS2.

i am trying to keep my selection/gearkit that way , that i have no doubles and shelfsleepers. Second body, hmm sounds great but for now i just swap a lot.

maybe a rangefinder type to mount the 15mm on stationary when i stumble over a great deal.  Then i can keep my zooms on the G80 mounted and be more flexible without swapping a lot. This would mesh up my gearstack in the bag which is "full" so a beltbag would be the solution. (a click-on on the front of the backpack...

Define going light ... LOL

G9 with Panny Leica 8-18, 12-60 and 50-200mm

Gx9 with Panny 15, 25 and Sigma 56mm

Either camera with whichever combination of lenses I feel like at the time 😀😀

Typical 3 lens travel kit:
E-M1/II
m.Z 14-150 MkII (may eventually replace w the 12-200)
m.Z 17/1.8
m.Z 9-18mm

Birding/nature:
PL 100-300
m.Z 12-40
m.Z 60 macro
Street (night time):
usually just one lens- 17/1.8 
Might add a FE or 75/1.8 depending on my mood

My three less kit is generally two lenses: EM1 M2, 9-18 mm and 14-150 mm. For macro I add the 60 mm 2.8. For birding and wildlife I add the 75 -300 mm, leaving the 9 - 18 at home. All Olympus gear. For European travel I am thinking about adding the 9 mm body cap lens.

For the last several years it's been the EM5.2, the Panny 12-35 and 35-100 2.8 zooms for general use and the Oly 17/1.8 for interiors and evening walkabout.  However I received the PanLeica 12-60 for Christmas (thank you good son!) and so I'll be experimenting with Pl 12-60, the old Panny 45-200 and the Oly 17/1.8 as my new "standard" bag.  I know the 45-200 is not the sharpest knife in the drawer but the appeal of having that extra reach is difficult to resist.  If that disappoints, then perhaps I'll pick up one of the "plastic-fantastic" 40-150's.

Asla wrote:

Hi!

Seems my three lens kit is tad bigger...

In Manfrotto Messenger bag...

That looks like FOUR, no, FIVE lenses to me. One on the camera and the other four. Creative liberties, no doubt. 😜

1. Lumix 7-14/Olympus 1.8 25 or 60/Lumix 100-300

2. in difficult light: Olympus 1.8 17/Nocticron or Panaleica 1.4 25/Olympus 75

3. hardship locations: Lumix 20 & Sigma 60 - no camera bag

I always have my kit so this is a kit of compromise.

20 f1.7 and 14-140 3.5 mk2 (weather proof version) with my gx8.

20 is on 85% of the time (portraits street shooting candids, low light, indoors, etc...) 14 -140 for everything else.

Ideal 3 piece 8-18, 25 f1.4, 50-200 f2.8-4

For my m43 kit it's a Pen F usually wearing the mZuiko 17/1.8 with the 25/1.8 and one of either the 45 or 75mn primes as the longest lens depending upon what I'm doing.  If I bought another prime it would be the 12/2 but that's not in my plans currently.

Zooms get used on occasion... The 9-18, 14-42EZ and 45-175 Lumix.  Even the six lens kit easily fits in a Think Tank Retrospective 5 and weighs astonishingly little, but I mostly pick 2 or 3 lenses and leave the rest behind.

A couple of months ago my wife and I took a week and a half trip to the Angel Fire, NM area. My plan was to shoot a lot of photos, and hopefully capture some of elk and deer while there. So, I took my Olympus EM-1 M2 w/70-300, EM-10 M3 w/the 14-150 (and the pancake kit power zoom lens), as well as my Nikon Z6 w/the 24-70 Kit and 70-300 zooms. I fully expected to use my Z6 for most of the photos (and I did use it some), "BUT" (and this amazed me and sold me), what I ended up (after about one outing) taking with me absolutely everywhere we went, was the EM-10 M3 and the kit/pancake zoom.

It was handy (kept it on the console of the car, put it in my pocket when needed, and took probably 75% of all images with it and they turned out great! While I wished it had been 12mm wide for some of the landscape shots, it was "OK" as was. I shoot primarily Jpeg's and I think it produces sharper Jpegs than my EM-1M2.

I never had the Nikon 70-300 on the Z6 once (just too big to lug around). Stopped taking the Z6 on walks (and I do really like it). The small size simply won me over in so many ways. In restaurants, shops, etc... where normally I'd have used my iPhone - I could just pull out the EM-10M3 and use it - w/better results.

So - now - after that experience, I'm torn between getting an EM-5M3 or a Z50. Not sure which way I'll go, but the build of the OLY's (weather sealing - great in the mountains which I love) will probably nudge me in that direction. It was just so handy to have something so good and so small. LOVED IT! I may end up re-buying the 12-40Pro which I got rid of when I got the Z6 as it was going to be my Landscape camera.

I could almost see me replacing my EM-1M2 w/the EM-5M3 for size and convenience given all the capabilities of the 5M3.

Anyway - amazing experience for me.

Bob

It all depends on what I hope to achieve.

I seldom take three lenses. Usually two.

One is usually the Oly 12-100.