Glass epiphany

[John Kasaian]

Just for fun I went on a multi-day outing, exploring the eastern Sierras with the ol' 'dorff V8. I took only one lens, a 250mm WF Ektar and had a blast! I never felt "lens challenged" and while I usually carry three lenses with me onay these types of outings it was, in a way, kind of liberating to rely on a single lens---in a simplified kind of way. For something terribly pressing, I'd carry a backup lens. Its kind of hard to put this into words---as anyone else had experienced the fun of leaving the lens kit behind and going forth with a single lens?

[CP Goerz]

Know the feeling only too well! One book I looked at many many years ago was from a French guy who only used a 50mm lens on his Canon and nothing else. The images looked so different in terms of angle, breadth that I was quite taken aback.


I still don't have the guts to go out with one lens(...unless its a convertible) ;-)

[cyrus]

Proof again that more stuff doesn't make you a better photographer

[Fotoguy20d]

My first camera was a 1946 Leica IIIc with 50mm Summitar. For the years I used that camera exclusively (before a Canon A-1 with 24, 35-105 & 100-300) I had only the one lens. I'm a better photographer now, but that has nothing to do with the lenses I use - it has to do with developing a better eye for composition, learning more about light, and learning to use a lightmeter (until the A-1 it was sunny 16 and a lot of guessing - good thing B&W and C-41 are forgiving). I don't know what I would do without enough lenses (zooms primarily) to go from super wide to tele. But, now I think I'm going to need to dust off the Leica and find out (or maybe the A-1 and 50mm f1.4)

Dan

[Mark Woods]

"Rosemary's Baby" was shot entirely with a 35mm lens. "Being There" was shot almost entirely with a 50mm lens. I've shot entire films using only two lenses, a 25mm & 35mm. I shoot most of my 8x10 work that is landscape with a 12" lens and my still lifes with a 210mm. I like the look. I have quite a few lenses that I use for the different formats, but I tend to use the same ones over and over for the same format. And of course the Cartier-Bresson with his 50mm lens.

[Ari]

Not only liberating, but I find it sharpens your skills.
I only had a 210 on my 4x5 for the first two years, and never needed anything else until I got interested in buildings.

[Vaughn]

A one lens kit was my SOP for 25 years or so. Never had a shortage of images, just an occasional shortage of vision.

I have a couple lenses I normally use on the 8x10 that are on different boards right now for the 11x14 (19") and the 5x7 (6.25") -- I don't seem to be missing them for the 8x10.

Put the 210mm on the 5x7 the other day, the 5x7 on the pod, and had the meter and holders in a shoulder bag (no other lens). Felt great walking around in the redwoods without a camera pack for a change. I had a stuff sack over the camera to protect it.

Vaughn

[DrTang]

Just for fun I went on a multi-day outing, exploring the eastern Sierras with the ol' 'dorff V8. I took only one lens, a 250mm WF Ektar and had a blast! I never felt "lens challenged" and while I usually carry three lenses with me onay these types of outings it was, in a way, kind of liberating to rely on a single lens---in a simplified kind of way. For something terribly pressing, I'd carry a backup lens. Its kind of hard to put this into words---as anyone else had experienced the fun of leaving the lens kit behind and going forth with a single lens?

leica Cl and the minolta 28 - used to force myself just to shoot that many times


I still do that with my TLR from time to time


had to do that - by default - with my 5x7 when the 'other' lens' flash synch wouldn't work

it's a good excercise and I rarely fell constrained

[Noah A]

It's very liberating to limit yourself to one lens. When I started in photography in high school I had a minolta af slr with some zoom lenses. When I decided to get serious I traded it all for a better Nikon SLR and the only lens I could afford was a 50mm f/1.8.

It was probably the best equipment choice I ever made.

Now, It's a pleasure to go out with a Technika and a 135mm lens, and frankly my normal kit is only three lenses so I rarely carry an extensive kit.

Too many choices can get in the way, sometimes.

[John NYC]

I shot for a year on 8x10 with only one lens. The only reason I have been creating and re-creating a lens kit for 8x10 (and huffing and puffing over the "right" lengths) is that I now know in my project what types of choices I am usually having to make. At first I thought I needed really wide, then I found out I don't. Now I am realizing I need normal and long mainly, and slightly wide.

When shooting in a style where I can move my own position more easily, I usually use only a normal lens (for instance, with a TLR, which is what I do 80 percent of my photography with). So, yeah, one lens, one camera. Always feels the best to me.

[Drew Wiley]

My first twenty years of LF in the Sierra involved only one lens. It's quite liberating to
operate that way and not worry about complications, though now I prefer three-lens outfits with either 4x5 or 8x10. But in my "whim" mode (35mm) I still carry only one lens (an 85/1.4). Think I'll head briefly to the East side myself late Oct. Right now I'm
still tied up dev film from the west slope high country (well, not exactly a "slope" in
many cases).

[Mark Sawyer]

Just for fun I went on a multi-day outing, exploring the eastern Sierras with the ol' 'dorff V8. I took only one lens...

OMG, that's like going to a Super Bowl party and only taking one beer...

[Mark Woods]

Or the one keg of beer. ;-)

[jeroldharter]

I suppose a better mistake is to have too few lenses and too much film than vice versa.

Sometimes lightening the load opens the mind; I can see photos better when I am less concerned about surviving the hike.

[Ari]

Less is more, but for some, more is more.

[paulr]

I had nothing but a 210 for several years. I finally got a 120 when I started getting more interested in exploring spacial qualities. Those are the only two LF lenses I ever had. My last project was done with medium format and a single lens.

It never feels like a handicap, because it gets me to see a particular way.

[Mark Sawyer]

Less is more, but for some, more is more.

Sometimes less is more, but more is always more.

I don't ask for much, I just ask for more...

:D

After all, a 12" Apo-Sironar S should cover all the 8x10 bases... but a 12" uncorked Velostigmat would keep it wonderful company. Not that a 12" Cooke Portric wouldn't make a nice third lens, and the 12" Kodak Portrait Lens a nice fifth. And a fast 12" Dallmeyer Portrait Petzval could come in handy in the woods. And there's this 12" f/2.5 Goerz aerial lens...

And that's all in the same focal length. I think I need to look into getting some sherpas...

[Tracy Storer]

Ha ! +1, Mark S ! I've got a couple pet 300mm-ish lenses I like to keep close.

[neil poulsen]

In my view, shooting large format and limiting oneself to a single lens are at cross-purposes with each other.

Two important elements of composition are camera position and framing. Once one has selected the best camera position, it's necessary to frame the image in a way that it fills the sheet of film. (Otherwise, one isn't getting the advantage of a large format.) It's having a selection of lenses that makes this possible.

[eddie]

Once one has selected the best camera position, it's necessary to frame the image in a way that it fills the sheet of film. (Otherwise, one isn't getting the advantage of a large format.) It's having a selection of lenses that makes this possible.

how does iot go? zoom with your feet?

anyway i shoot with friend that carry so much sh!t it is not even funny. AND they only end up using a lens or two.....:eek:

most LF shooters do not go far from the car....i keep telling don to bring one or two small lenses and 3 film holders. when/if he runs out he can go back to the car.

LF shooters that carry big cameras far into the field rarely carry multiple huge lenses anyway......

$.03

[Michael Graves]

John, this is an exercise I do all the time. (And oddly enough, it's almost always with my 250mm and 8x10 or 35mm on 35mm). It is kind of fun, isn't it.

[Two23]

My problem is a like to shoot a wide variety of subjects, and I seem to favor different lenses for each. My favorite simple camera to run around with is my 1914 Kodak Special No. 1, with its fixed Cooke triplet 105mm. Or, my 1937 Voigtlander Bessa with its 105mm Skopar. I've taken some nice shots between the two of them.


Kent in SD

[Michael Graves]

My problem is a like to shoot a wide variety of subjects, and I seem to favor different lenses for each. My favorite simple camera to run around with is my 1914 Kodak Special No. 1, with its fixed Cooke triplet 105mm. Or, my 1937 Voigtlander Bessa with its 105mm Skopar. I've taken some nice shots between the two of them.


Kent in SD

Don't we all? The challenge I like about only having one lens is the hunt. You are looking for the perfect subject matter that falls to the ammunition you have at hand.

[rdenney]

Finding vantage points and then fitting lenses to those vantage points is a skill, just like all the other skills we use to make photographs. We enjoy exercising our skills. The enjoyment you felt is, I suspect, in isolating your experience from this particular skill so that you could specifically exercise and enjoy other skills.

For me, it's occasionally fun, and I've certainly had sessions (and whole trips) where I've used a single lens and found subjects to fit it. There was one trip I made where the only camera I took was a Nikonos with a 35mm lens (for use above the waterline). Another one I took only a Rolleiflex. Many times I've taken only a little Canonet 28 (lovely, lovely 40mm lens on that camera). My first view camera had only the 8-1/2" lens for several years. But I still go back to carrying a variety of lenses in the end, because the skill to see subjects from various points of view, however imperfectly I exercise it, is still a fundamental part of my total enjoyment.

Rick "enjoying it, but not building a philosophy around it" Denney

[hmf]

how does iot go? zoom with your feet?

anyway i shoot with friend that carry so much sh!t it is not even funny. AND they only end up using a lens or two.....:eek:

most LF shooters do not go far from the car....i keep telling don to bring one or two small lenses and 3 film holders. when/if he runs out he can go back to the car.

LF shooters that carry big cameras far into the field rarely carry multiple huge lenses anyway......

$.03

"Zooming with your feet" does not get you the same photograph as standing in the same place and using two different lenses. As alluded to in an earlier post, relationships of objects in the frame are determined solely by where one stands, then field of view comes from the lens.

That's not to say that less can't be more; I completed a 2+ year project using one camera/lens/film/paper and print size - all printed full frame. It was a great exercise in seeing.

[jnantz]

hi john

i almost sold all my lenses but one for each format form 110-11x4 - i really only use one lens most of the time no matter what camera i use.

its kind of nice to be able to know how to look at something without having
to spend time going through all the lenses to find "the right one" ...
so more time is spent seeing, instead of looking for ...

[ashlee52]

With my 5x7 I find having a 8 1/4" and 300mm lens is about all I need. So a "broad normal" and a "closer cropped" option. I know that's two, not one. But it isn't 5.

[mdm]

Could'nt agree more. Sadly I suffered from 210 disease and have 4 of them now, a sironar, dagor, heliar and tessar. Like children, they are all different and I love them nearly equally. No room for any more.

[Ari]

Sometimes less is more, but more is always more.

I don't ask for much, I just ask for more...

:D



I salute you, sir!

[Mark Woods]

The correct camera placement also includes the spacial relationships, not just what's in the frame. I love the 12" lenses for 8x10. I recently used the 21" of the TR triple convertible, and like E Weston, I didn't like the flarey results. I did like the compression of the elements in the image. But each lens has a personality both in the spacial relationships and the light gathering capabilities. I really like the uncoated lenses, but still use the multi-coated lenses when they fit the concept of the shot. Fortunately I have both and use both -- but not that different focal length.

My $.02

[Frank Petronio]

Another one-lenser here, at least for the past 5-6 years.

[Brian Ellis]

For quite a few years John Sexton owned only one lens, a 210mm, and it worked out o.k. for him.

I've never quite gone to the extreme of owning only one lens, I've owned as many as four at once though usually three. But I'd guess that 80% of my photographs made with a 4x5 camera were made using a 210mm lens. I think that we tend to have a vision that suits a particular focal length lens (or vice versa) and when we do then we can work very well just using that one particular lens.

[Vaughn]

For quite a few years John Sexton owned only one lens, a 210mm, and it worked out o.k. for him.

Probably be true, but I saw his lens collection when I assisted him at a Friends of Photography workshop about 20 or more years ago. Must have been 9 or more new lenses in that pack! :eek:

[csant]

Another one-lenser here - albeit convertible (Verito 8 3/4")… Guess that makes it "two lenses", strictly speaking…

[Mark Woods]

I have at least 15 lenses. Many came with the package I bought and I can't bring myself to sell them. I guess I have a glass addiction, even if I don't use most of them. They're really beautiful.