[frith]

I was lying in bed this morning, contemplating my next possible lens purchase (I don't think I qualify for LBA yet - I only have the two kit lenses from my MZ-50), and I got to thinking about choosing lenses and engagement rings.

Huh? Yeah, engagement rings. See (not so much now, but back in the day) the engagement ring would be bought by the proposing party (groom/bride on 29th of feb) and would present it to their victi*ahem* partner, without the partner ever seeing it.

We can assume that couples that were about to get married knew enough about each other that picking a ring their partner would like would be relatively easy (or at least, that's not the point of this post) - rather, the tricky part would be getting a ring size without giving the whole game away.

I've seen a few techniques to achieve this end, but my favourite one - having been burned once - is the 'rent the jeweller's sizing rings' option. This is one that I encountered and rather wish I had done once before - you contact a jeweller, they send you a huge keyring with a bunch of different sized rings, then you creatively use this to get the correct size and send them back with the size you want.

Also, you can buy the sizing set for a pretty small sum...

How does this relate to lenses? Well, one of the great things about the pentax mount is the availability of quality prime lenses, old and new, at a pretty nice price. The problem (which I am facing) is choosing the right one. Now, its easy enough to say 'this is good for portraiture, this is good for sports, this is good for landscapes', but I'm sure I would find many supporters here if I said that all the reviews in the world won't tell you if a lens will suit you or your style - especially if you are a beginner and looking for a first or second lens.

So an idea hit me - in this very forum I encountered the concept of the nifty travelling 50mm - a nice lens that is cheap enough that someone would 'donate' it to the cause of seeing a nice flikr stream. What if this idea were extended a little further?

There would be some issues to work out, but the concept is a 'travelling prime box' with a few different primes, perhaps not in the best shape optically (the ones that most people here would pass over or never use) that would nevertheless give someone a good chance answer questions like "Do I prefer the 35mm or the 50mm for portraits?" "Do I need the extra speed of a 1.4, or is a 2.0 fast enough for most of my work?" "Should I use a 28mm for landscapes, or stitch a few 50mm's together?"

So the box would have (for example):

28mm
35mm
50mm
85mm
100mm
200mm

and each person would get it for a little while (a week? a month?) and after this time, they will know which lens they should look at next - it will be the one they have used the most in that time (from most of the stuff I have read, most people have one lens that spends 40% - 80% of the time on their camera).

The lenses themselves needn't be especially good quality (scratches, fungus, etc) it would just be to get an idea of what length and speed you shoot best with. I guess this is the recycler in me - it seems that there must be a tonne of lenses out there that have fairly minor issues overall that are really worth next to nothing because perfect examples can still be found that aren't that expensive. This might be a way to get them some last useful life.

What do you think? We might need a separate 'box' for each continent (keep postage down), but I imagine there would be many people who would love the chance to try a bunch of primes seriously before making a risky purchase. Then again, this might be just another crazy idea that you get from too much procrastination and not enough study!

Frith.