Your favorite lens

I sort of brushed over this subject in another thread.

But what is your got too, used most often, glued to the front of your camera, or just outright favorite lens. I know that your style of photography changes over time and your favorite lens may change. So what is your favorite lens, and why?

At the moment, and for the last 18 months or so, my favorite lens that seems to get used the most often is the Canon EF 70-200mm f4 IS L. It is small and light. Has internal focusing so it doesn't change length when you are focusing or zooming. It produces sharp images, and has a constant f4 across the focal range. You loose a stop of light against a f2.8, but it is so much easy to carry around.

Comes highly recommended.

Gary

 

This is a tough one to answer, first thing i think i need to do is refrain from mentioning more than one lens or this could be a very long reply.
I think i have to give it to my Sigma 100-400 contemporary.
One of the main reasons i got into photography was for the wildlife and as that lens is the most useful for wildlife i have,
if i take other lenses out i miss not having it with me
I have faster lenses but not as long as 400mm and the reach makes more of a gain than the faster ƒ stop, of course it would be great to have both.
Its probably not my most used lens because i do alot of indoor and other close up or wider shots
which posses a question to others , is you fav lens your most used one?
asking me to pick a fav lens is like asking me to pick a fav pair or style of shoes.

 

Is my favorite lens my most used one?

Now you are opening a can of worms.

I am going to have to have a think about that one.

Gary

 

It's an easy choice for me - my favourite is the EF 28-135mm. A great zoom range for full frame.
In 2nd place is my EF 17-40mm L Series. A very sharp lens but it gets less use than the favourite because its 28-135mm zoom range better suits my style.

 

My most used lens is my 24 to 105 but I have a soft spot for my 50mm f1.8 plastic fantastic. for digital and 55mm F1.2 for film.

 

aside from my original answer to this, the 100-400mm sigma is still the lens i wouldn't give up but when i was recently contemplating my "only keep one lens" question the one that came in second to the 100-400mm may or may not surprise some,
the pentacon 50mm ƒ1.8 was neck and neck with my efm 32mm ƒ1.4 when i was pitting my prime lenses against each other, the pentacon is a £30 lens that i get the most smiles from when i use it and look at the images i got, nay, created, maybe thats part of its magic, with a vintage lens you feel like you have created an image rather than taken an image with a modern lens.
for the prime lenses i have and there are some high end monsters i would give them up for the little pentacon

 

Well, I thought the 17-40mm f/4 L was going to be just the ticket, but mine's quite soft at 17mm near the edges, especially on the left side, so I think I've got a bad copy. Good thing I didn't pay much. That leaves the RF 50mm f/1.8 and the EF 70-200 f/4 L IS to choose from, think I'll have to go with the 70-200, as it's good for both outside work & portraits, I prefer much longer than 50mm for portraits.

Johnsey - the EF 50 f/1.8 being a little softer might not be all bad, people pay big money for soft focus portrait lenses

 

Roscoe, all lenses have limitations, working within those limitations is how we get the best out of most lenses, we all have differing views on what is good and bad in a lens. It's what we want from a lens that matters and not some-one else's wants and needs.

 

I exclusively photograph aircraft, mostly airborne. Canon RF 100-500 absolute favorite though rarely exceed 400mm. A few close-up venues require swapping to kit RF 28-105 for longer wide-bodies. Not as sharp as 100-500 but acceptable tradeoff!

 

I've got a small collection that's grown, the EF-M 18-55 factory lens, a nifty fifty II model, recently purchased a Quantaray 19-35, and a Sigma 28-80 Macro, and I have a small collection of 60's Nikon lenses that were my dads, a 35 F2.8, a 50 F1.4, and a 135 F3.5.

Out of all of them, I'm thinking the Nikon 50MM F1.4 is my all star favorite. It has some flaws that add a lot of character. With the speed booster on my M3, it gets a super shallow depth of field and works well for video. On my 5D it really gets some razor sharp focus. I'm just impressed with it every time I take it out of the bag.

 

Arguably, the best lens is the one that's on the camera when you take your shot. I've had my Rebel T3i for a week, and the only lens I have for it is the 18-55mm kit lens that came on it, so by default, it's presently my favorite Canon lens.

Time and weather finally cooperated yesterday, so that I could go shooting with it for the first time. I was fairly pleased with the results, although there were times when I would have appreciated a little more reach. That said, I will soon have that extra reach, as I have a Quantaray (Ritz Camera house brand, made by Sigma) 55-200 f4-5.6 lens on the way, arriving in the next couple of days. Together, the two should provide the focal range I should need. I went overboard with Pentax gear a few years ago, most of which I never used, and I'm not looking for a repeat. Click the link below to see some highlights from yesterday's shooting expedition: https://www.canonforums.com/media/albums/first-shots.365/