first lens advice needed

[venchka]

One thing is certain: You live in a great part of the world to put a LF camera and lenses to good advantage!

[h2oman]

When I look in the classifieds for this forum, I keep seeing PM sent. What does that mean?!?

Wayne,

That's what I'm thinking! I love landscape photography, and have reasonable access to the coast, lush forests and waterfalls, mountains and high desert. Here's what I've been doing with my DSLR for the past year:

www.greggwaterman.com

For whatever it is worth, my total sales of images so far has totalled about $70. Fortunately I have a "real" job. (Actually, I teach at a college, which some of my friends are not convinced is a real job! It gives me some time to get outside...)

[venchka]

PM sent: Send a Personal Message (another feature of these forums) to confirm interest in purchase. Click on a persons name beside a thread and one of the options is sending a personal message. First come, first served. The good stuff at good prices goes in minutes. Like single digit minutes.

Oh, to have a college teachers sechedule! I would have killed for that schedule ages ago. I'd kill for it now.

[Keith]

Well I'll go the other way, I recently brought a Shen Hao and a Rodenstock 90mm f8 lens, my favorite 35mm lens was a 24mm so the rough 28ish of the 90mm suites me fine. I must admit it took a little to get used to the shortish lens but I have already played around with a 150mm for a while. Good thing with the wide is you really don't need a great deal of movements to get everything sharp and with the Shen Hao a standard lens board is fine.

My next lens will be a 210 then 150 then 300 then 75mm. I'm glad I went the 90 first as it's wide vistas I like best

[mrladewig]

I'm along the same lines as Keith. In 35mm format my favorite focal lengths are 24 to 60mm with my personal favorites being around 40-50mm. The 150 fits right in here. The only reason I have a S-A 65/8 is that it came with the camera I bought. I would never have made this a priority purchase. With landscape photography, you can't always backup or step closer, so I'll need a variety of focal lengths.

Right now I've already got a 150 and a 65. I plan to also have a 135 and 210 soon, and then a 90 and 180 a little ways down the road. I'll keep the 65, but I see no reason to venture down the path of 47, 72, 80 or 240, 300, etc because I wouldn't use them as much as the 90-210 range. That is just my style.

And of course when I'm out hiking or backpacking, I'm going to be really selective as to which ones I'll carry, so that will come into play also. Unless there is a specific need for a lens, I always limit myself to 2 lenses.

And as to f5.6 versus f8, its easier to focus the 5.6 lenses, but the f8 weight savings are nice. You might find that the f6.8 lenses are a good compromise in some lengths (like 90mm).