CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

You've got the right idea, except you seem to have a camera problem: "During the time i have owned these lenses I have owned the Canon XT, the 60d, 70d and now the 90d bodies."

You have great lenses. Alas, many don't hit on the right ones the first time. Or, find a better model and then hold onto the old one without selling.

After a good deal of gas maybe six years ago, I've settled down myself. Now, I try to own only what I use. I review my shooting habits annually and kick any lens that hasn't been used in a calendar year. I also now try to travel and shoot lite, in that I pick one lens and body for the day, two if I have to. I have the luxury of selecting from a large stable where I tend to pick a prime unless I sense I'll need the flexibility of a zoom combining the focal length of multiple primes. I also try to shoot what I find with what I brought. If I didn't bring the right equipment, I just watch and enjoy or look for other subjects.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

It was, I wondering the same thing.
Just because someone asks a question, they are not intelligent?
Or do you have many lenses and cannot explain why?

In my previous life I had 6 to 7 lenses back when primes were primary, now I have two, one is a zoom.

MrBossHK Loc: The West Valley of Phoenix metro area

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Leitz Loc: Solms

Being an optimist, I was hoping the purpose was for more than idle chit-chat. No such luck!

jim quist Loc: Missouri

My wife and I do photography as a hobby together. If we go to a Wildlife reserve we both want a long lens. She has a 400 f4 DO and I have a 500 f4. If we are in a museum she has 17-40 f4 and I will be using a 16-35 2.8. For sports we will both be using a 70-200 2.8. and on my second camera I will have a 24-70 2.8. For macro she has a 100 2.8 and I use a Hasselblad bellows with a Hasselblad lens on my DSLR. We also have a 50 1.8 for low light pics.
When I had a photo business I only had a couple of lenses, and two cameras. But as a retirement hobby I have more cameras and lenses than I can keep track of.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

I could guess that since primes are usually better than zooms for clarity, one would like to have something like I used to: a 28, 35, 50, 135, and a 200, all fixed focal lengths yielding different views.
Then there are equipment collectors who like to have one of each focal length, maybe to cover all possible situations? (I used the 28 more than the 35.) Maybe because each focal length has different image characteristics? Usually fixed lenses have a wider aperture as opposed to zooms.

Since I'm not a professional or a perfectionist, I found that my zoom covers the gamut for me nicely. Also less equipment to carry. No worrying about changing lenses to get different renditions of a scene.

But everyone is different in their desires and requirements, therefore reasons.

Leitz Loc: Solms

The question "How many lenses do you own?" reads like another inane poll such as have appeared lately, but you've put it in an altogether different light. Thank you!

jdubu Loc: San Jose, CA

I have upwards of 20+ lenses of various types, TSe, zooms and prime. I have these lenses based on what I like and/or get paid to shoot.

Like Gene51, there is some redundancy in backup lenses and bodies. I Haven't upgraded from the 5DIII series and 5DS because they fulfill my needs for work and play. My last crop sensor was the 7DII for sports and as a last resort backup body for work.

Congratulations on having just the lenses you need without superfluous additions.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Yea, that question kinda does.

Bill_de Loc: US

I have 23 lenses. I bought 3 lenses when I bought my first Nikon, an F100. The lenses are, AF 24 F/2.8, AF 50 F/1.4, and AF 105 F/2.8 micro. I will never get rid of them even if I only use them as paper weights. They are like old friends that I still revisit from time to time, and they still work fine.

I have 4 Z lenses that I got to tip my toe into the mirrorless waters just to see if it would be a game changer for me. It wasn't, but I know in the future I will, if I live long enough, get more involved in with mirrorless. Some advancement will grab my attention.

When I first went to digital with a D1x I bought some DX lenses. The D1x was a heavy camera and the lighter lenses seemed to make sense. I do have a D7200 now that loves those lenses. Although I don't think they called it that, but the D1 and D2 were DX cameras.

The rest are full frame lenses ranging from 14 - 800 mm. I don't need them all, but I do use them all. I am not a serious photographer in that I don't have to get "That Picture". I do need to have fun, otherwise why bother. I often enjoy reaching into the cabinet, grabbing a lens and camera and shoot with it for a day or two. It could be in my yard, at the beach, or standing in traffic. Just kidding on the last one.

A friend and neighbor once asked me how I could spend so much money on a hobby. I pointed across the street to his $250,000 motor home. He smiled as he mumbled, "Nuff said".

And so I will end this by remembering my neighbor, "Nuff said"

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E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

Photography has changed, evolved and progressed over the years. As a professional photographer, there was a time when I owned 3 lenses for three different cameras. I shot press assignments and weddings with a 4x5 press that camera equipped with a 135mm lens. Well, I did have a spare camera in case of a malfunction but the lens was identical. I walked in close for closeups and stepped back for wide shots-SIMPLE! For commercial work, my 4x4 view camera had a 240mm lens to accommodate swings, tilts and shifts. For portraits, in the studio, my 5x7 camera had a 300mm Tailor, Hobson, and Cooke variable soft-focus lens! That was it!

Over the decades, formats, cameras, styles and customer demands all changed. Medium format and 35mm systems, came into more frequent and popular use in professional by advanced amateur photographers. Each system accommodates a vast array of interchangeable lenses. Nowadays, of course, full-frame and medium format digital cameras are the tools of choice among advanced workers and pros and of course, there are a plethora of lenses on the market and more being designed, manufactured and introduced all the time.

So...why HAVE all those lenses? If a photographer confines themself to one kind of work, three lenses or even less may accommodate all of their needs. A normal, medium-wide range and moderate telephoto focal lengths may do the trick or perhaps a few zooms that cover that range. A kit like this will accommodate landscape, some portraiture or people photography, maybe some sports or activities, and whatever. Suppose, however, you want to do some serious architectural or interior shooting maybe a perspective control lens would be in order or a super-wide for confined spaces. Maybe a macro for exceptionally sharp bugs and flowers.

Serious sports or wildlife shooting is your game? Tou can't walk or on a football field, a race track or a soccer pitch during a game or a race! Birds, ferocious wild animals? Time for a super-telephoto model. Have to shoot a black cat in a coal mine at midnight or get some exceptional cool "bokeh"? You may need a very fast lens- a nicef/1.0 or even a bizarre f/9.5? Big Bucks!

Remember too. different focal lengths don't only make things look closer or further away- they enable you to work at different distances and distance influences perspective. You can preserve, compress, expand perspective for creative purposes.

I guess you are getting the point by now. So, these are someof the practical and technical reasons for owning multiple lenses. Professional or avid travel shooters want to have some redundancy or overlapping glass in the event of a breakdown in the middle of an assignment or a trip. Then there are psychological reasons as well.

As you mentioned, some folks are obsessive and want to have every lens in existence- whether they need them or not. If they can afford that, why not? Everyone should enjoy their photography however they please! A more frugal or practical photograher may mock them and call them "gear-heads" which is actually a crank-operated tripod head.

Many years ago, Modern Photography Magazine published an article entitled "Are All Photographers Nuts"?! I found it very humorous. There was one psychologist that related long lenses to voyeurism and opined that some guys see them as a phallic symbol like sports cars with small cramped passenger compartments and extremely long engine compartments. Some photographers love extremely long telephoto lenses or superwide with enormous front elements just to impress other photographers. Different strokes!

WDCash Loc: Milford, Delaware, USA

I didn't know you bought a 90d. Good to know. What do you think of it?

IDguy Loc: Idaho

I’ll use the reply a friend of mine gave about his guns: “If you know how many you have it isn’t enough!”

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

But it ends quickly. . .