A philosophical question about the # of lenses in your pack

[Leigh]

what i am suggesting is that if someone brings 50 lenses with them on a photo-safari they will spend more time trying to find the perfect lens to make the perfect exposure &c instead of relying on their eyes to see what is infront of them

That's certainly true... if the photographer doesn't know what he's doing.

I carry ~ 15 lenses in my 4x5 kit, every FL from 75mm to 360mm in 15/30/60mm increments.
Since I'm never far from the van, I don't have to carry the kit, although I can do so easily.

It's all a question of understanding your equipment.

I use certain focal lengths much more often than others. But I shoot chromes as well as b&w.

Your framing options with chromes are much more limited, especially when you want a very specific shot.

The other advantage of that large selection is that if a problem arises (jammed shutter, damaged optics), I
have a very similar lens I can use to still get roughly the same image as I had envisioned.

All of my color work for over 50 years has been chromes. I've never shot a color negative that I recall.
Shooting chromes imposes a lens discipline that doesn't exist with negatives/prints.

- Leigh

[Kirk Gittings]

Agreed Leigh. While I think it is better to begin with just a few lenses, an experienced photographer looks at a scene and knows which lens to grab. I get a little rusty with my LF equipment as I shoot a DSLR daily for a living, but my "lens sense" comes back to me quickly after a day or so when I pick up the VC again. I have pared down my lens kit over the years as I dumped 6x9 and only do 4x5 now. I got rid of my 47 and 65. Also I got rid of my 450 as I never used it. Of course as soon as I did I started seeing long images it would have been perfect for. That leaves me with a 90,120,150, 210 and 305. I would like to add a 75 now.

That's certainly true... if the photographer doesn't know what he's doing.

I carry ~ 15 lenses in my 4x5 kit, every FL from 75mm to 360mm in 15/30/60mm increments.
Since I'm never far from the van, I don't have to carry the kit, although I can do so easily.

It's all a question of understanding your equipment.

I use certain focal lengths much more often than others. But I shoot chromes as well as b&w.

Your framing options with chromes are much more limited, especially when you want a very specific shot.

The other advantage of that large selection is that if a problem arises (jammed shutter, damaged optics), I
have a very similar lens I can use to still get roughly the same image as I had envisioned.

All of my color work for over 50 years has been chromes. I've never shot a color negative that I recall.
Shooting chromes imposes a lens discipline that doesn't exist with negatives/prints.

- Leigh

[Oren Grad]

So, as I understand it, the question that you are actually asking is: Why would anyone decide to arbitrarily restrict the number of available focal lengths (and, therefore, the number of theoretically possible compositions). Since art has everything to do with choosing limits, there are many good answers to this question.

I've often gone through periods when I work with just a single lens. But that's not because I'm trying to shape my seeing. It's the other way around - there are periods when I find that I'm seeing in a certain way, and a particular FL or lens type fits that exactly. When that's the frame of mind I'm in, there's no point dragging around other stuff I'm not going to use; I have an overall bias toward carrying as compact, lightweight and simple a kit as possible, growing out of past experience of lugging too much equipment "just in case".

Conversely, when something changes in how I'm seeing or what I am trying to do, my choice of equipment changes too. For example, for a very long time I did walkaround small-format snapshooting exclusively with a single prime lens, typically semi-wide. But when I recently stumbled into documenting a wave of redevelopment around my neighborhood, I found myself reaching for a wide-angle zoom, simply to solve the technical problem of recording construction sites under widely varying constraints of site and street layout and available places to stand. Similarly, for the once-in-a-while when I'm doing that documentation with LF rather than a small hand-held camera, I've found myself taking along a wide or ultra-wide along with my usual semi-wide. But six months from now I might be doing something else entirely.

[Jody_S]

In answer to the original question: I am firmly in the #2 camp. I feel there is an infinite number of possible compositions to be found with any lens/film/camera combo, and if you find yourself wishing you had a different lens in your bag in some circumstance, it's because you are not looking through the lens you have. This does not apply if you are shooting something specific as a project, for a client, etc. I mean those of us who wander around at times looking for something to shoot.

I usually limit myself to 2 lenses when I go out, 2 because what if something happens to one and I am left lensless. Sometimes 3, if I have something in mind. It's not because I don't have a shelf full of lenses behind me, or that I'm too lazy to carry them.

[Drew Wiley]

I was never happier than when I only owned one camera and one lens. And it was probably my most creative era. Now I typically carry three, and usually they are
all longer than "normal". That's just how I see things. ... wear the shoe that fits. But sometimes I still only carry just one lens, mostly for small camera applications,
however. View lenses are relatively compact, so a couple extra aren't that big a deal. Too much stuff just gets distracting. The point of any given trip is to come
back with one or two really good shots that you're going to actually print. But the idea of just carrying a wide and cropping is about as silly a comment as one
frequently encounters. Even worse is, "just walk up closer"... Not only does the perspective change when you do that, but what if (and it's a rather common "if" in
my experience)... what if there's a six-thousand foot deep canyon in between, or even a poison oak patch?

[Darin Boville]

I carry ~ 15 lenses in my 4x5 kit, every FL from 75mm to 360mm in 15/30/60mm increments.
Since I'm never far from the van,...

First good chuckle of the day...

--Darin

[Leigh]

First good chuckle of the day...

I didn't realize my handicap was cause for jocularity.

- Leigh

[Vaughn]

Vaughn...So the question, as I understand it, really is, why do we limit ourselves with one lens or few lenses? There are practical answers to this question; but there are also aesthetic answers that, to my way of thinking, are more interesting.

So, I guess what I have been trying to get to all along is that using just one lens does not limit one's creativity, more than one lens does not expand one's creativity. That is not the job of the equipment.

[Leigh]

So, I guess what I have been trying to get to all along is that using just one lens does not limit one's creativity, more than one lens does not expand one's creativity. That is not the job of the equipment.

That's absolute nonsense.

I challenge you (or anyone) to paint a nice miniature scene on a fingernail with a paint roller.

It applies paint, so what's the problem?

- Leigh

[Michael Alpert]

I've often gone through periods when I work with just a single lens. . . . Conversely, when something changes in how I'm seeing or what I am trying to do, my choice of equipment changes too. . . . But six months from now I might be doing something else entirely.

I agree. A photograph is always about something, and that particular something makes a difference as to how a photographer works. But the mindset of the photographer is also at play here, so the subject, the something, is, ina sense, a response to the photographer's intention.

I also agree with Vaughn's statement that artistic choice is "not the job of the equipment."

I think the original post was asking us to articulate why we choose the equipment that we do. My answer is that the choice is intuitive, and that's the way I want it to be. If my choice of lens or lenses seems irrational (even to me), that doesn't bother me at all. The choice just needs to feel correct. If I made a mistake and end up with nothing to show for my effort, so be it. The choice might still not be a "mistake."