Three lenses along the Charles River
Why it pays to carry multiple objectives.
Whether to take one or seven lenses as part of your photo kit is the center of a fierce and never-ending debate. Many of us love to show off our favorite kit, but few admit how much each tool is used in the tool belt.
More is definitely not better since glass weighs a lot, and most locations require quite a bit of walking. Of course, you could take on an assistant like Albert Watson in this Phase One promo. Few of us have the funds or the nerves to trust a stranger with our most valuable possessions — our objectives. Hence, we must schlepp.
There is a happy intermediate that I tried out last week.
Take three objectives and leave two in the hotel room (or the back of the car). This approach fits shooting at an urban location, not the Sahara desert. In a city, you do not want to stand out. More importantly, street scenes appear and disappear faster than one can change an objective.
The best objective is the one you have mounted at the moment. Many of you may remember pictures of Vietnam-era photo reporters who carry two camera bodies around their necks. In the age of film, they had to have different focal lengths and different ISO films at the ready. Zoom lenses and digital sensors with auto-ISO changed that…
