Frederik0711
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 Re: Home vs. travel needs - expand or restructure my lens kit? | |
I had the same dilemma as you; I didn't want to bring a whole bag of primes when travelling. I've tried several zooms, and even tried to replace my primes completely, but nothing worked; they were either too heavy, large and cumbersome, slow, soft, or too expensive for me to justify only using them occasionally.
None of these lenses did it for me, and I gave up on acquiring any zooms (beside the 200-600 for wildlife);
12-24 f/2.8 GM
14-24 f/2.8 DN
16-35 f/4 G PZ
17-28 f/2.8 Di
24-105 f/4 G
24-70 f/2.8 GM II
28-75 f/2.8 G2
28-200 f/2.8-5.6 Di
35-150 f/2-2.8 Di
50-400 f/4.5-6.3 Di
70-200 f/2.8 GM II
70-300 f/4.5-6.3 Di
100-400 f/4.5-5.6 GM
100-400 f/5-6.3 DN
so I ended up just sticking with my manual focus primes;
9 f/5.6 RL
21 f/2.8 Loxia
35 f/2 APO-Lanthar
50 f/2 APO-Lanthar
135 f/4 Elmar
(300 f/5.6 SP (rarely use))
and accept the compromises.
The 9, 21, 35 and 50, weight about the same, and about the same size, which I appreciate as well. The haptics are very different, though.
I do use the Contax 100-300 sometimes, though, as it's fun to use, and I got a good offer on one.
I don't think that there is a fitting solution. One of these might work:
a) Accept that you have to change lenses often, and won't be able to cover every focal length inbetween. This is my current choice. Even with zooms, I would change lenses all the time, as my subjects vary a lot. I can live without super-tele, but anything from hyper-wide to short-tele is absolute. When I travel (which isn't that often), I bring all of the primes, and decide from there, what I will use on each trip during the vacation.
At least for my usage, I don't need autofocus or wider apertures than above. I don't care about covering every focal length, but more about enjoyment of using the gear; which I base on haptics, camera-to-lens balance and image quality. Certain restrictions give me peace of mind, as too many options or coverage can be a clutter, too. No matter if I use primes or zooms, I must crop 95% of my images, as rarely any subjects fit optimally in the sensor image, especially not when wanting to level architectural images. Drastic cropping and some touch-up in Gigapixel works surprisingly well.
b) Buy zoom(s) before travelling, and sell them as "like new" when returning home. I do consider this choice at times. If possible, you could rent at the location you travel to. I think this is the easiest choice to make, but it's not sustainable.
c) Accept that you either need multiple zoom lenses or combine primes and zooms to cover your criteria. You want ultra-wide and short-tele, but also want wide apertures. By this, you would at least need two zooms, or a prime and a zoom.
Perhaps one of these kits might work:
1) Bring all of your primes, but pick one to three for each trip on vacation.
2) 14-24 f/2.8 DN or 16-35 f/4 G PZ + 35-150 f/2-2.8 Di
3) 15 f/2 Z-D + 25 f/2.4 Loxia + 35-150 f/2-2.8 Di
4) 15 f/2 Z-D + 24-70 f/2.8 GM II + 70-200 f/2.8 GM II
5) 16-35 f/4 G PZ + 50 f/2 A-L + 50-400 f/4.5-6.3 Di or 70-300 f/4.5-6.3 Di
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