Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/06/10
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Buzz Hausner <Buzz@marianmanor.org> wrote: >I suggest that we think about ways to carry less equipment rather than more? Does anyone really think that she or he takes better pictures because of carrying more equipment? I propose that packing any more than three lenses at a time will actually reduce your photographic ability rather than increase it. It depends what you mean by "photographic ability". Spending a lot of time 'head-down' messing with caps, hoods and lenses is a dreadful distraction from the business of seeing the potential image or situation, but for the slide shooter who must crop with the camera, it's part of life. There are times when I look back nostalgically to the days when I had just a single 50mm lens, but when I look at the slides from that period, I'm often aware that the image was limited by lack of lens speed, wide-angle coverage, or ability to cut out the surroundings. If I know what I'll be photographing, then I keep the number of lenses to a minimum (50mm and 135mm at the dog show next Sunday, 35mm only when working at an exhibition on the following days). But on occasions such as vacation when I'm uncertain what I'll be wanting to photograph, yet determined that if I can see it I want to be able photograph it, I carry five or even six lenses! (20/21, 28, 35, 'fast 50', & 85, and sometimes 135) And they all get used. Last year in Venice the 20mm was the only lens which could capture the view I wanted of St Marks Square, but once I got close to St Marks itself, my eye was caught by the tiny frescoes above each of the doorways, so it was 135mm time. Once inside the building, I faced light conditions which needed the 50mm Noctilux time (in the words of my local dealer - "It's seriously dark in those places"), while the 85mm f2 was the only lens which would give me the sort of images I wanted of the mosaics inside the domes. Four of the six lenses had been used and it wasn't even lunchtime yet! Once I got into the back streets that afternoon the 35mm came into its own, but most canal scenes looked best at 28mm. OK, so I'm deliberately playing "Devil's Advocate" by deliberately selecting a day when I was able to exploit the qualities of all six lenses. Most days the 135mm was left back in the hotel (the 20mm Russar is so small and light that it's not worth leaving behind), but the 28mm, 35mm and 50mm were widely used every day. I don't use the 85mm f2 very often, but the combination of speed and "reach" is so useful at times when it's needed that I don't grudge the extra weight in my camera bag. I'm going back to Venice this autumn, and have bought a 28-70mm Vario-Elmar to use on my SL2. This will tackle most of my outdoor subjects, but when I look through last year's slides and see the times when I needed the wide angle of the 20mm, and the light-gathering ability of a 'fast 50' or 85mm/f2, it seems likely that I'll take these three along as well on a screw-mount body. Regards, Doug Richardson