CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

If you filter and count your images with 2021 shooting dates in Lightroom, what surprises do you find? Do you use your own usage statistics to plan to sell unused lenses / cameras? Or maybe, to change the lenses you'll use more in 2022?

Personally, when I sort / filter my 2021 statistics in Lightroom, I see have still have a lot of culling to do from the November travel and multiple architecture boat tours in Chicago in August. Picking the exact total winner isn't possible yet. What I do note, though, is a better and more equal distribution of lens usage through 2021.

Usage, that's really the idea of this annual review of images and lenses used. I don't own any lenses, (nor cameras) that are not actively being used. Most, of course, are not every day / every month. But all are now being used to create 'keeper' images every year. It is this annual review of usage that helped me a few years ago to get rid of underused equipment and to push a few lenses off the shelf and back onto camera bodies for more active use.

Preliminary results say the 600mm extended configuration of the EF 300 f/2.8L IS II and the EF 2x III teleconverter have moved back to the top place in usage as I've had more time / opportunities with wildlife in 2021 as compared to 2020. Again, the incomplete culling skews actual results, but of my four bodies and 5921 images in 2021 currently remaining, I see the EOS 5DIII still being used most and the more frequently lenses with image counts in the 300 to 500 range.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

There's a free tool to help in the analysis. If you have a large catalog, consider their "converter" tool that can extract a portion of the LRCAT file to facilitate a quicker analysis. Special thanks to our departed member Don Gallagher for this tip / link in 2019.

http://www.lightroomdashboard.com/

Toment Loc: FL, IL

Tamron 28-200 E

AndyT Loc: Hampstead, New Hampshire

Fuji 18-135

DaveO Loc: Northeast CT

Nikon 200-500.

Warhorse Loc: SE Michigan

Nikon 18-300mm

john451 Loc: Lady's Island, SC/Columbia, SC

Nikon 18-200

47greyfox Loc: on the edge of the Colorado front range

Sigma 150-600 C

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

#1 Lumix 30mm f/2.8 macro, by far (I am copying thousands of slides and negatives for upcoming school reunion videos and other uses).

#2 Lumix 12-35mm f/2.8 pro zoom (although my kid swiped it for college and filmmaking projects)

#3 Lumix 35-100mm f/2.8 pro zoom (travel, landscapes, portraits)

Multiply the focal lengths above by 2X for full frame equivalent fields of view... For instance, the 30mm is similar in function and purpose to a 60mm Micro Nikkor, or the two 55mm Micro Nikkors I used decades ago. Except... it is better. It gets me much closer, is stabilized, works on mirrorless bodies with electronic vibrationless shutters, and has autofocus. It's at least as sharp as the 55s.

There are a few Micro 4/3 primes I would like to own, including the 15mm f/1.7, and the 42.5mm f/1.7. I'd love to have the 100-400mm Panny-Leica zoom, the 10-25mm f/1.7 Panny-Leica zoom, and the 25-50mm f/1.7 Panny-Leica zoom, too. But I have other priorities, and those fantasy lenses don't really serve them. So I'm agreeing with your sentiment to only own what you use. I do rent when needed, which isn't often.

PattyW60 Loc: Northwest Illinois

Canon 100-400II with 1.4III teleconverter

mcmama

Nikon 50mm 1.4

Jim Long Loc: Baroda, Michigan

Tamron 16-300mm F3.5-6.3.

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

24-105mm, 100-400mm not too far behind.

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

DJI f/2.8 24 mm equivalent for the last quarter of the year.

100-400mm Panny-Leica zoom for the summer quarter

DJI f/1.8 20 mm equivalent for the first half of the year

Golden Rule Loc: Washington State

Nikon 24-70mm