[Arpe]

I find myself hardly ever using the 3 primes I have - lazy i guess! Hence I am currently trying to sell my A50/f1.2 in NZ. No takers so far. After that I'll see if anyone here wants it. I'll keep my FA50 and 35, but wouldn't be purprised if I sell them in the not too distant future too.
I just find the zooms so damn convenient for me, and certainly good enough IQ.

[yeatzee]

Heck no.... I own a lot more than whats in my signature... the signature is just what I use

And I do actually use all of them frequently except the M 135mm which is just here because I can't get much if I sell it.

[Jyrkira]

I had two lenses I didn't use much and I just sold them. All the lenses that I have now are all in use.

[robjmitchell]

The poor Tak 55/1.8 doesn't get much use apart for splinter removal since i got the 43ltd.
The da 50-200 wasn't seeing much action till i started shooting lightning at night, the hard stop at infinity is really useful.
As for the Da 14, I really have to force myself to use it as the 43ltd and sigma 70 tend to get all the attention. Seriously considering changing for the Da 15 so i can have lightish 3 piece prime kit.

[Lowell Goudge]

.

Sometimes I like to peruse really old threads, like 150 pages ago, just to revisit old forum members who have left, see old topics that went away, and old topics that are still with us.

I was just thinking about this subject - using all our lenses, etc - and saw this old thread that I remembered.

So, with new (and old) members - do you use all the lenses you own? Why or why not? (and what ever became of the "Lonely lens Club?" I may have to bump that one too!)

I will be the first to admit that I don't use ALL the lenses I own, just like I don't use ALL the cameras I own.

I have not shot film in 3 years so my PZ-1, Ricoh XR-2s and KX sit on the shelf and look down at me in my office every day begging for use, along with my XR rikenon 50mmF2 and my vivitar 400mm F5.6. Aside from those 2 lenses and one more that will go on the shelf because it is inferior to another I picked up (135mm F2.8 rikenon M42 mount see 135mm thread for why) I use all my other lenses (26 of them) .

let's be clear, I don't use them every day, but they are there when I want them. The bulk of my lenses can be split into 3 groups. M42, K mount and AF.

I have essentually complete M42 and K mount kits, which I got into somewhat by accident. I had picked up some M42 lenses as gap fillers in my K mount kit and decided that for a minimal cost, It was more convenient to have an M42 Kit and avoid taking the adaptor out of the camera to change lenses. As a result, while there are still a few holes in each kit, I can take one or the other as I please. I have attempted to get different characteristics in the M42 lenses so that the pictures will be slightly different when shot with those lenses.

My AF kit is several high quality zooms, sigma 10-20, tamron 28-75 F2.8 and sigma 70-200F2.8 plus TCs. This is supplimented by an 8mm fisheye and 85mmF1.4 manual focus lens

wouldnt sell any

[RioRico]

HA! I don't/can't even use all my 40-odd cameras, let alone all 160+ lenses of various sorts. Of the ~100 lenses usable on my K20D and ZX-M (not counting glass that could be reversed for macro work) I actually use maybe 30, with some of the others being taken out for a walk every now and then. (If I lived somewhere of more visual interest, this might be different. Well, if I get another RV, I'll be able to take them all for a ride.) A few lenses are trash, but even they have their uses, theoretically. And I have this odd habit of mounting chunks of optical material in a bellows to see what happens with images -- do these count as lenses? Do diopters count? Pinholes? Optical copiers/scanners? A slide copier attachment?

[magkelly]

Well, the lenses I bought for my Fuji digital just plain suck so I rarely take them out of the bag, but in terms of my non-digital gear, yes, I use most of what I have. I don't have but a few lenses for both film cameras actually. Only 2 for my SP1 and 1 for my Canon AE-1 at the moment. That's about to change. I'm going to pick up some sweet lenses for the AE-1 next week. I'm working for them, long story, but when I am done I'll have a major kit of lenses for that camera.

I wish my Pentax gear was looking as good actually but that may change soon. I have my eye on an SP2 for upgrading my Spottie, and I still hope to come up with a 200MM or better lens and a macro too. Patience is a virtue and I have several people looking for me out at my local flea market, and around town.

I really don't feel like I need more than 4-5 lenses per camera though. I doubt I'd keep more than that under most circumstances. Macro lens, regular lens, good portrait lens, middle of the road zoom, maybe a really long zoom if I can ever afford one for photographing wildlife, that's my idea of the perfect set up. More lenses than that seems pretty redundant to me with what I want to do and if a lesser amount of lenses can handle doing all that, I'm okay with that.

[Votesh]

I have 6 lenses in my regular use kit, and then 6 or so that I have picked up as part of a kit from ebay or craigslist. Those latter six never get used, and I'm working on getting rid of them.

Of the lenses in my regular use kit, I've been neglecting 2 of them as my tastes have changed lately. I'm considering selling one of them, the Sigma 100-300mm f4, just because I don't foresee wanting to do much ~300mm photography in the future.

My FA 31mm Ltd. is getting more use than ever and I grow to love it more and more as time goes on. This means the other lenses get less love. The 31 is just so good.

[TaoMaas]

No, I'm not really using all the lenses I own. I almost have 2 sets of lenses...those I use with film (which I shoot less and less frequently)...and those I use with digital.

[Marc Sabatella]

The way things are, I can divide my lenses into three categories. Those I carry with me and use regularly (DA15, M28/2.8, DA40, DA70, M135/3.5), those that commonly supplement this kit for particular purposes (M100/2.8 and DA50-200 are the most common calls here), and the "bench warmers" that really only get pulled out very rarely on a whim (A50/1.7, M200/4, Vivitar 500/8 Mirror). My DA18-55 II probably in that last category now too, but until I got the DA15 a few months ago, it was in the second category.

[bdery]

I get ALL my lenses with a purpose in mind. I'd love to be a collector but I am not. Here's my lineup, with the rationale behind each one:

Sigma 17-70 : most used lens, "standard"
DA 18-55 WR : for hiking, snowshoeing, tricky weather, compactness
FA 100-300 : tele
FA 50 macro : for macro and ultra sharp necessities
F50 f1,7 : low light with the DA 21 LTD
DA 21 LTD : low light with the F50
M150 f3,5 : low light tele

There are duplicate focal lengths, but no duplicate purposes. I love my kit.

Certainly not. First, I've found that I'm not much of a manual focus guy and I practically never use those. Then I have extra 18-55mm and 50-200mm kit zooms (own two of the first one, the latter was replaced by the 55-300mm). Then there are lenses like the 8mm fisheye that I like having, but use nearly never. In practice I tend to have one or two favorite lenses (usually the newest ones) that I really use. Like at the moment I just tend to switch between the DFA 100mm f/2.8 WR and the DA 15mm ltd.

Actually I'd probably do pretty well with just a DA* 16-50mm, but I refuse to buy one until Pentax does something about the SDM issue.

[Ash]

I'm with bdery, rationalising all my lens purchases according to practicality. I must have a defined purpose for each lens, but even so I have lenses that overlap each other in focal length, e.g. DA 55-300 and Tamron 70-200.

So when the Mrs asks why there are so many lenses around, I've got a justifiable answer for her.

[farfisa]

I'm with bdery, rationalising all my lens purchases according to practicality. I must have a defined purpose for each lens, but even so I have lenses that overlap each other in focal length, e.g. DA 55-300 and Tamron 70-200.

So when the Mrs asks why there are so many lenses around, I've got a justifiable answer for her.

I was thinking this thread title could've been started by the Mrs!

Well, are you wearing all your shoes?

[axl]

I always try to build the line up in the way that I don't have to feel bad for leaving out any lens.
One reason is because I'm "fairly" indecisive so having only one lens in each position makes my life a helluva easier