My own well used lenses, from left to right: Tamron XR Di II 17-50mm f/2.8 -- Nikkor AF ED 80-200mm f/2.8D -- Nikkor AF 50mm f/1.8DMany people start out with just one lens. Then, if they are like me, they almost immediately start thinking about what lens to get next! In total, I have four lenses, the ones you see pictured above and the one I made the photograph with (Nikkor AF-S 105mm VR micro f/2.8G). When I go on a portrait job I often bring all four, though I usually only have time to use three of them. When I go to an event job, I usually only bring two (80-200mm & 17-50mm).
However, when I go out shooting just for myself, I almost always only bring one lens. Why only bring one lens when I could bring four??
- One lens helps me focus on making one type of photograph
- One lens let's me travel light using my small camera bag
- One lens means I have to be more creative
I think those are three pretty good reasons for going out sometimes with just one lens, especially to an area you frequent often and can go back and make a different kind of shot. Of course you can bring one lens that covers the focal length of all those lenses above (18-200mm lens), but that can lead to scatter shooting and lack of focus, the first benefit aobve. The first lens I actually ever owned was an 18-200mm lens. I sold it within two months for the two lenses you see pictured left & center.
Go out next time with just one lens, have a focus in mind, choose your lens based on that targeted focus, then in the comments below tell us about the experience.