Lens Addict

Like all addictions, it started innocently – taking pictures on our family holidays. Back then it wasn’t that important to get the best image. It was just a way of doing something with a sighting  – a proof of what we had seen. But gradually it all started to change. Our family blossomed into very serious amateur photographers, and we found ourselves chasing around in game reserves, our quite small car bulging with parents, kids, cameras and lenses. We were hooked. Obsessed. We had gone over the edge. And I think I was even further than the others.

I found myself trying to figure out what lenses were sticking out of the car windows of other similar addicts. And when I saw something that looked bigger or whiter than ours, I would obsess about it, waking up in the middle of the night with a cold sweat dreaming about it. And the next morning first thing I would phone my dealer (these days it is Hedrus from Outdoorphoto) and order the lens.

The lenses I have owned (or that I have forced my parents to buy) include:

• Novoflex: 600mm f/8, 400mm f/5.6, 240mm f/6.7
• Hasselblad: 85mm f/4
• Olympus: 28mm f/2.8, 50mm f/1.8, 80mm macro f/4, 80-200mm f/4, 300mm f/4.5
• Canon FD: 28mm f/2.8, 35mm f/2.8, 50mm f/1.8, 135mm f/2, 100-300mm f/5.6, 300mm f/4, 400mm f/4.5, 500mm f/4.5
• Canon EF: 15mm f/2.8, 16-35mm f/2.8, 17-35mm f/2.8, 24mm f/1.4, 24mm f/2.8 Tilt Shift, 24-105mm f/4, 50mm f/1.2, 100mm macro f/2.8, 180mm macro f/3.5, 100-400mm f/5.6, 70-200mm f/2.8, 100-300mm f/5.6, 300mm f/4, 300mm f/2.8, 600mm f/4.

So, all in all, we have owned about 30 lenses, worth much more than a million rands. The only way we could afford them was to sell the old ones as we bought new ones. We lost a lot of money. All addictions are expensive.

Over the years I have come to terms with my disease, but didn’t want to admit that I had a problem. I surrounded myself with people like me. We lived for photography and it was all we spoke about. As Oscar Wilde said: ‘The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it’.

But I was not compatible with the world around me. I could not go on holiday without a camera and a bag full of lenses, because seeing something photogenic when you don’t have a camera with you is like going on hunger strike in a chocolate shop. It’s truly terrible. Those images you couldn’t photograph get stuck in your mind and haunt you till you die.

In the end, I managed to sell most of my lenses, and kept just the essential ones, which I use extensively. I have looked at my image library and tried to figure out which lenses are the most suitable for my job. To do this, I have looked at which lenses I used to take my decent photographs, and looked at percentages. The result is as follows:

• 16-35mm f/2.8 – 36%
• 70-200mm f/2.8 – 17%
• 300mm f/2.8 – 13%
• 600mm f/4 – 9%
• 180mm f/3.5 macro – 9%
• 50mm f/1.2 – 8%
• 24mm f/1.4 – 7%
• 15mm f/2.8 fisheye – 1%

So according to these stats I use the wide angle successfully twice as often as any other lens. The 70-200mm is the second most successful lens, and so on, down to the fisheye at a mere 1%. But the problem when deciding on what lens to buy, is that you cannot only look at the success rate of the lens. You must also take its cost into consideration.

So, taking the cost of the lens into consideration, I looked at what the cost would be per successful image, if I had to take 1000 of my top images and divide them according to the lenses used. The results are as follows:

• 16-35mm f/2.8 – R44
• 70-200mm f/2.8 – R123
• 180mm f/3.5 macro – R189
• 50mm f/1.2 – R225
• 24mm f/1.4 – R283
• 300mm f/2.8 – R384
• 15mm f/2.8 fisheye – R800
• 600mm f/4 – R977

So this means that of my 1000 top images, 36% (360 images) would have been taken with the 16-35mm and so each image would cost R44. This means the 16-35mm is still my most valuable lens, followed by the 70-200, but the 600mm now drops all the way to the bottom of the list. This lens is very expensive, so although I get a reasonable number of good images with it, each one still costs me a lot of money.

If I had had these stats 15 years ago, we probably would not have bought the 600mm lens, because it is not cost effective. But looking back, if I hadn’t bought it 15 years ago, I would not have been where I am today in my photography. Although very expensive, it was the one piece of equipment that enabled me to become a professional photographer.

This costing exercise was for me like psychological therapy, for it meant that I can justify the lenses I have bought, as well as my addiction. The only problem now is that I am starting to wonder what other lenses that I don’t yet own would have meant to me!

100mm macro f/2.8 I prefer a longer macro. I have a 180mm f/3.5 macro and a 100mm f/2.8 20-35mm f/2.8 Zoom out. One tends to always try and  zoom in too much, and cutting out the environment. But the environment often contribute to the subject. 16-35mm f/2.8 Again my favorite lens. It is a great lens to give perspective to an image. 24mm f/1.4By using the lens at f/1.4 I can blur the background and have the subject ‘pop’ out. 24mm f/1.4 This lens is great for indoor photography. At f1,4 with iso 800 one can get very far.

^{300mm f/2.8
For this kind of shoot this fast lens is perfect, for it is light enough to hand hold, and fast enough to freeze the action.}

^{15mm fish eye lens
If you are bored with the ways to photograph flowers, lay down between them and look at the sky with a fish eye lens.}

15mm fish eye lens
^{This lens is specialized, but sometimes,  unexpectedly, it is a very useful lens. Here I put the lens in the mask of the fencer.}

^{17-35mm f/2.8
This lens is the lens I use most often. I  always have it mounted on one of my cameras.}

^{70-200mm f/2.8 IS
My second camera always have this lens mounted. If I had to buy one lens for wildlife, this lens would be it. You can use it with a 1.4x converter, but be careful of using it with a 2x}

^{16-35mm f/2.8
Invest in a good wide angle, and test it so see if the quality is good enough. Zoom it in and look at the edges to see if it is agood lens.}

^{50mm f/1.2
Recently I have moved towards the fixed  short lenses. This lens is amazing with portraits. The quality is excellent, and byusing a standard lens, the photographs looks classic.}

^{24mm f/1.4
Another fixed lens that I love using. By  using a fixed lens, it forces you to be creative. You can’t zoom so you have to move around to create the image, which takes the cliche’s out of your photography.}

^{600mm f/4 with 2* converter
By using a 1200mm lens, I managed to flatten the perspective of the patterned  portrait. The long lens make  the image seem flat, enhancing the pattern.}

^{70-200mm f/2.8
A zoom telephoto lens is very handy, for you can be creative with the framing of the image. And with a telephoto lens you almost always can’t move around, so a zoom is handy.}

^{50mm f/1.2
I love using this lens for portraits. The narrow field of focus brings out the eyes of this model.}