One Lens?

[hamradio]

A Nikkor-O 35/2 resides on my Canon 5d about 80% of the time, and on my F3 nearly 100% of the time if I'm shooting it. I imagine my new CV Ultron 40/2 will push the 35/2 aside, due to its size, whenever I get around to fixing infinity focus.

For medium format, I'm stuck with one lens on my RZ67 and Super 23. I always gravitated toward a 40/4 when I used Bronica ETRS stuff more.

A good deal of my pictures that I'm closest to being satisfied with were taken when all I had was a beat up F3 and Series E 50/1.8. I think having five lenses in a bag kind of slows one down, with wondering what the perfect focal length for a given shot might be. If I'm stuck with one lens, like with my Super 23, I end up 'seeing' shots framed into that field of view.

I suppose it also helps that I feel little to no desire to acquire more gear and have been trying to get rid of stuff.

 

[Red Robin]

All I do now is bring one lens . Sometimes a better choice could have been made, so other choices must be made. Back in the day I'd lug extra pounds of stuff trying to cover all the potential situations. The first choice lens was usually still on at the end of the day. All I got was a pair of sore shoulders. On my rangefinders mostly I keep a 50mm, sometimes a 35 or 28 mm , all being in LTM . More and more I find it,s not so much what camera or lens I use but how I use them.

 

[mdarnton]

For years I've been able to do most of what I want to do with two lenses, depending on my mood, 28/50, 24/50,21/50. Something wide and a 50, anyway.

 

[David Hughes]

Hi,

I guess most of you live in the town, because of the wide range of wide angles mentioned. Living in the middle of nowhere and going for a walk every day I usually carry a camera but the 200mm lens is one that would be most useful. The trouble is it's heavy and frightens the wild life that I want to photograph. Or rather, they know I've got it somehow and hide.

Naturally, when I've a compact with a wide angle lens on it they all come out of hiding and stay just at the edge of the frame; it's a pain.

IMO, when you carry one lens it's usually/always the wrong one.

Regards, David

 

[Soeren]

Hi,
>SNIP<

IMO, when you carry one lens it's usually/always the wrong one.

Regards, David

No matter how many lenses you bring its always one left at home or one you don't own you'll need. Or the one not fitting the required filter for the task.
I see myself growing more and more towards one lens. A lot of times I have brought the bag with 4 lenses in it and just used the one thats been on the camera in the first place. Last week I was in Brussels for a couple of days and just brought the FM and 35mm f/2.0. There I didn't anything else. Kind of funny since it would normally not be my first choice but it did great and it was fun fun fun.
Best regards

 

[Paul Jenkin]

I shoot a few different systems but the one (approximate) "angle of view" that is repeated most is that of a 35mm on a film SLR. From a rangefinder perspective, it's a 65mm lens on my Mamiya 7. When I had Leica, it was my 35mm Summicron and on my Nikon system it's my AIS 35mm/f2.

No way would I hog-tie myself to one lens (unless I had no room or capacity to take something wider and/or longer) but I find I can shoot most thinks to my taste with a 35mm lens.

 

[mdarnton]

I see a lot of people in this thread making similar statements, more or less: For me there's a real tactical advantage to carrying one lens: I see photos through a mental "window" as I'm walking around. I'm constantly shooting, camera with me or not. Occasionally one of these mental images merits using the camera on it. Me, I can handle two windows, one wide, one tight, and that's the limit. More than that, and my internal process turns to mush. For that reason, I've never been able to work with a zoom, which has no point of view at all.

There's another thread running where people are trying in various ways to justify cropping, which to me just means a bad initial vision trying to be corrected afterwards; photo torture, punishment for not paying attention at the time. I think of framing the same way I think where I stand, what the background is, etc: it's all part of getting the picture right, in one concise statement that couldn't be made any better way, and I move around until everything clicks in the frame; THEN I push the button. The photographers I like the best think about all of those things before they push the button, not later, and as a consequence, their pictures hang together much better as a cohesive statement. An intuitive, unpretentious understanding or recognition when that is happening seems to be part of this. HCB is the best example, maybe.

Which is the long way around to asking how many one-lensers here are also habitual non-croppers?

 

[Frida]

I've always been a one lens shooter. When my wife and I shoot weddings, my 35/2 is glued to my D700 all day long. When we sell our D700s at the end of this wedding season, I'm either going to keep the D3000 as my only camera and keep the 35/1.8 as my only lens or do the same with a D3100/3200/5100, or buy an X100s and sell everything off. For me, one lens and one camera is ideal, as it gives me the chance to learn both thoroughly (much as how I prefer keeping one car for years and years so I can learn to repair it myself).