[seventysixersfan]

Because I'm a bit OCD, I was hoping to come up with some way to keep an inventory of my lenses in a way that goes beyond just my simple Excel spreadsheet. Ideally, I'd like something visual like the official Ricoh/Pentax Lens Roadmap, which shows focal lengths and the lenses on a chart.

Does anyone have a template or something that they'd be willing to share? I'm not very good at computer graphics.

Thank you!!

[Na Horuk]

I see you have quite a collection, so this would take some time. Maybe someone already has some excel spreadsheet or something, with a graph. I don't have the skills to make something like that, but I also don't have that many lenses. I just line up my lenses on a shelf according to focal length and use.

[Lowell Goudge]

I simply use a spreadsheet, and shade to cover the range of the lens

This is quite old, as I now have about 60 lenses, and have them grouped into M42 primes, K/KA primes, MF zooms, andAF zooms



See below

[blackcloudbrew]

That is exactly what I do as well. Although I fill in a lot of fields as well, like coatings, cost, bokeh ratings, f-stop min and max, filter size, IR performance if I know it, etc. I do also use the same bars as above to show the focal lengths.

[Lowell Goudge]

That is exactly what I do as well. Although I fill in a lot of fields as well, like coatings, cost, bokeh ratings, f-stop min and max, filter size, IR performance if I know it, etc. I do also use the same bars as above to show the focal lengths.

For costs etc,mi have a separate "inventory" that includes those things as well as Serial number.

I got into the idea of having an inventory for all the household goods when we moved internationally.mmyou had to have one for insurance purposes, customs etc... I just kept it maintained

[max_pyne]

i started mine when i was ading my stuff to lenstag, downloaded the file and added all my want to know fields

[audiobomber]

Chart 39 would give you the equivalent of a roadmap.
http://www.kingsoftstore.com/chart-ppt-template

I'd be more interested in a simple line graph with aperture on the x-axis vs. focal length on the y-axis. It would show more information than a roadmap, and you don't even need a computer program or template. Just get some graph paper and plot it. Or use Excel if you have it.

[MJSfoto1956]

if you want your spreadsheet to be truly useful, the grid should ideally be spaced on angle of coverage (i.e. exponential spacing) rather than focal length (which is linear).

To wit: imagine if you only owned the following lenses: 10mm, 20mm, 40mm 80mm, 160mm, and 320mm

If you space them out in a spreadsheet using even focal lengths (e.g. ever 10mm) you would end up with a spacing like the following:

xx-x---x-------x---------------x

however, we "know" that the 10mm covers twice the area as the 20mm, the 20mm covers twice that of the 40mm, and so on. A more useful graph would depict our ficticious lens kit as the following:

x----x----x----x----x----x

In this way we would get the proper "relative" coverage of each lens in our kit. Zooms too should follow this pattern.

Michael

[crewl1]

This is why I don't want to buy a lot of lenses, as it is I have a couple I rarely take out.
I can imagine how many would go neglected if I needed a spreadsheet to track them

[seventysixersfan]

OK, I actually used "Google Drawings" to create the following personal roadmap. I should add some space for lenses that I want to buy in the future, but for now, this is my collection. Nice to see it visually depicted as opposed to just text in spreadsheet cells.

[audiobomber]

if you want your spreadsheet to be truly useful, the grid should ideally be spaced on angle of coverage (i.e. exponential spacing) rather than focal length (which is linear).

Good point. That is in fact what I did, AOV vs. aperture. I can't find my graph, just the raw data. My lens collection has changed a great deal. I'll have to plot it again.

---------- Post added 2015-05-04 at 14:27 ----------

This is why I don't want to buy a lot of lenses, as it is I have a couple I rarely take out.
I can imagine how many would go neglected if I needed a spreadsheet to track them

I spend an immense amount of time trying to decide which lenses to carry on any particular jaunt. I stupidly bought an a6000 kit and some nice primes, which further complicated the decisions.

[monochrome]

This is why I don't want to buy a lot of lenses, as it is I have a couple I rarely take out.
I can imagine how many would go neglected if I needed a spreadsheet to track them

I have too many lots of things*

I have many, many tabs on my spreadhseet.



* oddly, I don't have guitars.

[EarlVonTapia]

I like the simple spreadsheet method because it allows me to play with the data, in terms of being able to sort the numbers, run calculations, etc.

Although, some of these visual representations that look like lens road maps are intriguing. I might have to look into that. Thanks for the idea guys!

[Wingincamera]

I use a simple MS Word table document that gives lens info, serial numbers, min focus distance, cost and any internet links I might want for it. I have it printed out, it's also on my laptop of course and then emailed a copy to my cell phone.

I really like the graph that seventysixersfan posted. That is a good visual chart.

[seventysixersfan]

I really like the graph that seventysixersfan posted. That is a good visual chart.

Thanks! I just slapped it together quickly. I've actually modified it a bit a few minutes ago to add some more color to distinguish between brands and FA versus DA lens lines. But I kind of like the simplicity of the above, where I just have two colors-- one for zooms, the other for primes. Anyway, this either shows off how crazy my LBA is (so many overlapping focal lengths!) or maybe how logical (variety of lenses for different situations/purposes...). It also helps me see where there may be gaps, like how the Sigma 18-35 f/1.8 would slide in very nicely, or perhaps I should sell FA 50mm f/1.4 and get DA* 55mm f/1.4. Or sell smc-F 28mm and FA 35mm and get, ahem, FA 31...