Do you rotate your lenses around?

Do you rotate your lenses around?

  • YES

    Votes: 19 73.1%
  • NO

    Votes: 7 26.9%

  • Total voters
    26
  • Poll closed .
Not really rotating. I have a few lenses I (almost) always take out and then add one or two others that go out less. But there isn't any rotation involved, I select those based on where I go.
 
I work with a fixed lens Waltz for my high school and college years. Tried Aux lenses which proved worthless. I hated the single lens.

After graduation, I bought a Spotmatic and 6 lenses all in one go. Later a film leica when I realized I disliked Japanese glass.

I did a lot of lens changing.

Then digital came and zoom seemed to be right, Nikons.

Today pro Nikons, pro lenses, primes and zooms, and M8 and M9 and a bunch of lenses. When I do bad weather landscapes and fast changing activity where I can not move, zooms seem to do the trick.

When time is available , the Leica works great. The secret is to keeps the lenses small and light, 28 2.8 ASPH, 35 2.0 ASPH, 50 Collapsible. The heavy exceptions 75 APO and chrome 90 Macro and 50 Summilux.

To do landscapes with the Nikon, primes are way too big. Zooms convenient. But I carry the macros for close work.

Leica are kept to 3 lenses to keep weight and sensor dust down. I try to work with 1 of three, usually 50.

To get uber lazy, D7000 Nikon with 18/135 zoom.

I guess you can say I have come full circle over a lifetime.
 
Using the D800e for both portrait and landscape with eight lenses from 12 to 300mm. I tend to bring and use all of 'em at times...you never know.

OTOH, with the NEX 7 I use the 30 almost all the time taking it off only now and then for the 19 ... that's a 45/28mm equivalent that I find ideal for street/travel photography.
If the 30 produces too loose a composition the 24MP Sony sensor readily allows for a tighter crop so usually the 30 is long enough.

Hmmm, I seem to be one of those slippery "Yes and No" types. 🙂
 
I've voted "yes" but, in reality, it varies by system.

I also try to avoid swapping and changing lenses while abroad, on holiday as I find it better to have a couple of bodies with a lens "dedicated" to each so that I can be sure I don't miss a shot because I'm trying to change, for example, a 35mm for an 85mm.
 
When I was younger and working, I bought a Nikon F with a 50 1.4. I used it for 20 years straight. I also owned a 180 Zeiss Jena.

Ditto my Nikon RF, I owned an S2 and a motorized SP, both with a 50 1.4. When I bought the S2 it came with a 135, but I never used it.

I have of course over the years bought lots of lenses when I had more money, but really mostly I just buy them, always owned a 21 but never used it, hated the way the photos looked. I like a 50. Now I have Zooms, but don't zoom them much.

Honestly I have never thought lenses mattered all that much, I just bought what fit on the bodies, what the company who made the body, said was the "best" and took photos. Folks point out reasons to like a specific lens on the RFF, but really I just don't don't see the differences everyone describes. And I try to.

I just need my lenses to mount on my camera and work properly.
 
I have two DSLRs (FF and crop) and do rotate lenses between two cameras, for different types of photography. Some of those lenses will be on film camera as well.

Most film cameras I have are one, fixed lens only.
 
It could be that one of the factors that seems to affect photographers in terms of rotating lenses or not is whether lenses by themselves are a source of interest or whether the final image is. I like to think that in my case it is both!
 
I own (far too) many lenses, so I rotate them often just for a change of pace.
I like to carry triplets of SLR bodies with wide, medium and long lenses and so go back and forth between triplets of zooms and various triplets of primes.
Similarly with my rangefinders I switch between the wides, mediums and longs, just to justify (or rationalize) why I've got so many.
 
This thread is a good reminder; not to hastily sell on lenses you get bored with ... keep them for a year and they will be flavor of the month again.

Been using a 50mm Elmar-M 70% of the time, year so far, but come winter and the 35/1.4 will take over.
 
It really is for the fun of using several different lenses (with similar focal length) over time. Some of the older lenses got a new life (for me) since I started adjusting digital images with LR and CS. I am able to slightly adjust contrast and shadow details and so on.
 
Yes, depending on what I'm going to shoot and, more specifically, the light that will be available. Slower, sharper lenses in bright light, faster lenses with less contrast if I'm going to be working indoors or early morning/late evening. I shoot digital for work, and don't do this with the DSLRs, but I do it for the film cameras for my own projects.
 
...... Honestly I have never thought lenses mattered all that much, I just bought what fit on the bodies, what the company who made the body, said was the "best" and took photos. Folks point out reasons to like a specific lens on the RFF, but really I just don't don't see the differences everyone describes. And I try to.

I just need my lenses to mount on my camera and work properly.

Fred, you and I are on the same side of the street.

The closest I have come to "rotating lenses" was transitioning to almost exclusively shooting the same 35mm lens to almost exclusively shooting the same 28mm (or equivalent) about 10 years ago.
 
Hi Dave,
How sharp is the Canon FD 20mm lens on the NEX? Do you notice lack of sharpness as compared with using the lens on a film camera? I use the FD 17/4.

Raid, I haven't had a chance to do a rigorous test of the 20mm on the a7 or on film. But in my use of it so far on the a7, I have been impressed. A few are up on my flickr; this should filter to them: https://www.flickr.com/search/?text=20/2.8&user_id=27004089@N04&view_all=1

The lens is pretty large, but that's rather the point. (Specifically, the optical formula that makes it large is the point.) I got it with the a7 considerably in mind, having read that some rangefinder ultra-wides smear due to the low, flat angle at which they send the light onto the sensor. SLR wides will do less of this.

--Dave
 
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