On Sep 22, 2010, at 7:04 PM, Eric Weir wrote: > > Thanks, .... Maybe I have all I need for the time being. > Eric Weir > Decatur, GA USA > eew...@bellsouth.net >
Amen to that, brother! Cotty's suggestion for an MX plus one 50mm lens is a bit extreme, but has merit. A basic truth in photography is that you can only put one lens on a camera at a time. Even a Pentax camera. A corollary of this truth is that you cannot take pictures with lenses which are not mounted on your camera. So, if you have multiple lenses, you have one mounted on your camera that you can use to take pictures, explore and learn about photography. And you have x others on a shelf at home or in a bag over your shoulder doing nothing but encouraging early signs of shoulder distress. So you see a photo op - do you take the picture, making do with the lens on the camera? Or fumble around trying to find the "right" lens for the situation? Hopefully the former. Which means that all of the extra lenses are redundant. Concentrate on the photography, not on the lenses for now. Special situations call for special lenses, but most photographic situations you will encounter can be handled with one general purpose lens. Note how many of the really fine photographers on this list have a favored FOV and corresponding lens. Macro photography calls for a macro lens, but you can get very fine close-ups with a 50mm or 85mm lens. Sports photography seems to call for zoom lenses, but a medium-length tele will do just fine most of the time. Choose a single lens, preferably a fixed focal length lens. On the 35mm system, when I was first learning, I had a 50mm and a 105mm lens. I later bought a 135mm to complete the system. Of the 3 lenses, the 105mm was used far more often than the other two combined. Others prefer a 50mm or 35mm FOV. If I had to go with one lens today for use on my Pentax digital, it would be the 21mm, with a FOV close to the 35mm lens on a 35mm film camera. Do just a little experimentation, see what focal range suits YOU best, then use that single lens for 5-10,000 images. Periodically review your images in Lightroom. Don't just look at the "good" shots! Look at your rejects. Are you rejecting many images because the composition is just too tight, because the FOV was not wide enough to capture enough of the scene to tell the story you wanted to tell? Then get a wider lens. Or are you rejecting images because the (flower, football player, child playing, whatever) that was the subject of your image is just too small within the overall image? Then get a longer lens. Try to resist zoom lenses unless (a) you have physical problems that keep you from easily moving your body as needed to change the composition; or (b) you pay close conscious attention to the focal length you are zooming to on each shot, and you take the opportunity to learn something about your own preferences. I own a bunch of lenses. Some I take with me if I am going to do candid shots in a city, others would be chosen if I were traveling through an unknown countryside. I have a macro kit and a bird watching kit. I can justify this extravagance because I have taken the time to think about and learn what my preferences are. Without that learning process, multiple lenses are just a distraction. An analogy. I am a fairly decent amateur woodworker, with reasonably complicated furniture and cabinetry accomplished over the years. Recently I hired two carpenters to repair wood rot on window sills in my very old house. At one point one of them pulled out his portable selection of drill bits. My first thought was, "wow, I need to buy a complete set like that!" My second thought was "but do I know enough to make effective use of them?" Another general principle is that it is a good thing to use the right tool for any given job. Don't pound nails with a wrench, use a hammer. But if you don't know what type of nail you will be driving, don't buy a full range of hammers; get one good general purpose tool, like a 50mm. You'll learn its limitations as you learn your own way of viewing the world, and then you can go buy some more tools. And learn some more. And the cycle never stops. stan -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
