Sam: In the late 1970s and 80s I worked for a major Texas daily newspaper for 10 years as a reporter and sometime photographer. I covered West Texas for several years by myself, then I started staying home and covering the FBI, ATF, cops and firefighters. The consensus among our 15 or so full-time photogs was the Nikkor 35mm f/2 and the Nikkor 105 f/2.5 were the best lenses to carry in your bag if you didn't have anything else. (A couple others were sold on Leica and used rangefinders with usually the 35 and a short tele). They next suggested , not in any order, the 20mm, 28mm, 85mm, 180mm 2.8, and 300mm f.4.5. depending on where your interests lay. We had a lens bank at the paper where we could check out some of the more exotic stuff like the 6mm fisheye, 300mm 2.8, or 400, 600, and 800mm super teles. Since I was by myself a lot in West Texas (and bought all my equipment myself), I carried the 24mm 2.8, 35mm f2; 43-86 3.5 zoom, 105 2.5, and 200mm f4, all Nikkors. I talked the paper into buying me a Nikkor 300m 4.5, but it was theirs not mine so I had to give it back when I left. Also I carried an FM, FE, F3, and an old F Photomic( in great shape I got at a post office auction for almost nothing). Most of the time I just carried the FM and FE with MD11 motors. The 35 and 105 choices they said< besides both being great lenses, would give you a moderate wide angle and short tele that would cover most (but not all) shooting situtations. Of course you could be like the friend of mine who ran a small town weekly newspaper in Central Texas with his brother. Donald just used a WWII era Exacta 35mm, and a Rollei TLR with 120 film. He had been a staff photog for Stars and Stripes and the wall behind his desk was covered with photo awards he won. If you saw his darkroom you wouldn't believe he could find a negative, least of all print it. But he'd print up 20x24s and 16x20s that were tack sharp. His big prints looked better than my b&w 8x10s. Tom Anderson Bedford, Texas Tom Anderson Bedford, Texas > ------------------------------ > > Date: Thu, 18 Feb 1999 10:47:15 -0000 > From: "Sam Doshi" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Lens Choice. [v04.n253/16] > Message: 16 > > I'm hoping to travel to Tanzania this summer to do some charity work and > take some photos. I plan to buy an FE2 and an FM as my F801/N8008 probably > won't survive two months in Africa, so I need to buy some second hand MF > lenses. Bearing in mind that the majority of my work will be journalistic - > i.e. photos of people and places visited - what should I get. > My current idea is to choose a few lenses from the following list: > > 20mm/2.8 > 24mm/2.8 > 50mm/1.4 > 50mm/1.8 > 85mm/1.8 > 85mm/2 > 105mm/2.5 > 180mm/2.8 > 200mm/4 > > Which ones should I get. > > Cheers, Sam Doshi. > Leamington Spa, England >
