More About Lenses

More About Lenses

by William Lulow

About a month ago, I wrote a piece about choosing the right lens for a particular image you might have in mind. I am not a big believer in carrying a whole arsenal of lenses with me whenever I go anywhere to make images, so I have tried to keep my collection down to the lenses that I absolutely need to do various types of jobs. Since I am a commercial photographer, I literally never know what a client might want at any given time, so I need to make sure that the lenses I do have will be adequate to handle whatever type of image might be thrown my way. So, the following is my notion of the lenses that I feel are necessary for any photographer and the reasons.

First, many photographers love their zoom (variable focus) lenses. It would be great to have to carry only one lens wherever you go. It certainly cuts down on the weight of your camera bag. But unless you can find a really fast and sharp zoom lens (they do exist, but not all are really sharp), prime lenses are more reliable, faster (because there are no moving elements) and much less expensive overall. I used to use a Canon 17mm-55mm zoom lens which had a pretty decent speed of f/2.8, but I found it was a bit soft on the edges sometimes. I somehow got the feeling that I couldn’t rely on it for really sharp images all the time. So I began to trade the zoom lenses I had for all primes which is what I use today. With two camera bodies, I can shoot an event with a moderate telephoto and a wide-angle prime lens and get great results without having to use a zoom lens.

Second, I began thinking about what was necessary for the work I do most, which is events, portraits, landscapes (for personal use) and some product work. Then I began thinking back to when I used to shoot film in my studio. I had two view cameras (8×10 and 4×5) for some product and fashion work, a medium format Hasselblad that created images on 2.25″ square negatives and transparencies, and a 35mm Nikon kit for more candid shots. I wound up using the medium format camera just about all the time, but it was heavy to carry, the lenses for it were expensive and also heavy and it really wasn’t practical for travel. (I did take it on a trip to Rio de Janeiro on my honeymoon in 1983-1984, however, and got some really great shots of that city.)

I wouldn’t say that I was overly burdened by equipment during that trip, but it could have easily been so. The medium format gear consisted of a camera body, a couple of film magazines and three lenses. Plus, I usually carried my Nikon with a wide angle lens attached for general street shots and views of the city. I believe I wound up shooting more 35mm slides than I did medium format images, just because it was easier. My 35mm kit consisted of two Nikon F bodies and six lenses.

So, over the years I have been narrowing down the equipment that I need to take on trips in general and for most jobs. So for portraits, I need basically two long lenses. One is my typical portrait lens, an 85mm f/1.8 and the other is my 135mm f/2. The longer one can be used to really soften up the background, as I have said before. The next is the 60mm f/2.8Macro that I use for products and some landscape shots where I want the image a bit bigger. It stops down to f/32 and can focus as close as a 1:1 enlargement. The last one I carry is the wide angle 20mm f/2.8 for overall landscape, building, interior and large group shots.

Here’s a visual representation of what each of the lenses I carry can do:

You can see the relative coverages of each lens. I don’t think I need more than this for the kinds of jobs I have. Every once in a while I might need a special lens for one type of job. I might have mentioned that back in the 1980s I was shooting various LPGA golf tournaments for a variety of sponsors. When I needed it, I would borrow or rent a 600mm telephoto to cover the individual golfers. The lens was heavy to carry and I often really didn’t need it. It came in handy a couple of times, but certainly wasn’t worth my laying out the money to own it. Those lenses were very expensive then and are many times more expensive now, probably running in the thousands of dollars. One of my pieces of advice to other photographers is not to invest in any equipment that a you wouldn’t use many times over. Using it once for a job probably won’t cover the cost of owning it.

The other thing that I do is to carry a small fanny pack with me when I am traveling on vacation. I usually carry one extra lens (the 85mm) plus the one on my camera. This way I am prepared for almost any eventuality I might encounter while walking around or touring. I have my 20mm mounted on the camera and the slight telephoto for any close-ups I might want to make. And, I don’t have to carry the whole camera bag with me. Occasionally, if I want to make a portrait outdoors, I will set the people up with their backs to the sun and pop up the flash on my camera to use as a fill-in light. If I am lugging the whole kit with me, I usually have a portable flash with a bounce card that I can use as the fill-in. It’s much better than the built-in flash, but that can work in a pinch if needed.

So, talking about lenses I would use most when traveling, this is the small fanny pack I sometimes carry when I’m just walking around:

This pack has room for one or maybe two extra lenses and a few accessories like filters. I usually have the camera fitted with my 20mm lens at the ready and can switch lenses and or filters quickly. It is also easier than carrying my whole kit with me. With that said, I recently purchased a new camera backpack that can be used as a “tabletop” when I am on a location, should I need to carry more gear with me. I will write about this bag in a subsequent blog article.