If you could bring 1 lens...

KeyLehan · May 10, 2015

to the beach, what would you bring? (haven't been on in a while and of course couldn't remember my old e-mail) My whole family (extended as well) are taking a vacation to North Carolina next month. My uncle and I were discussing this earlier and I was just curious as to what others thought. He uses a Canon, I use a Nikon. We'll probably be focusing on family pics, but also landscape, architecture and possibly wildlife. Just curious

Derrel · May 10, 2015

ONE, single lens, for EVERYTHING, at the beach???? A wide-angle to short tele zoom would be my choice. Depending on FX or DX, 18-140mm DX, or 24-120 or the older 28mm-105mm AF-D on FX Nikon, Canon's 24-105 f/4 L IS USM for Canon FF.

Vtec44 · May 10, 2015

Nikon's 24-70 f2.8

tirediron · May 10, 2015

I wouldn't go.

SnappingShark · May 10, 2015

35mm for me. If I was on a family getaway, I'd just wanna spend time with them, not disappearing and spending time looking through glass

But yeah ... if I had my nikon and you gave me one lens to take, and I had a DX body, I'd take a cheap 55-300.
If I was FX, I'd probably take 70-200

Designer · May 10, 2015

KeyLehan said:
to the beach, what would you bring?

I would take my trusty 18-55.

bribrius · May 10, 2015

whatever is on my superzoom bridge camera and point and shoot. I couldn't bring a dslr or slr with just one lens. I would spend too much time wishing i had a different lens.

snowbear · May 10, 2015

I'll just use my phone or a P&S - I'm going to spend much more time with a surfcasting rod & reel.

Buckster · May 10, 2015

24-105

Solarflare · May 12, 2015

Ideally ? Well, that would be a Nikkor AW 11-27.5mm (IIRC is a 28-75mm equivalent) f/3.5-5.6 on a Nikon 1 AW1.

In reality ? I dont know. All my four lenses are possible and have their ups and downs in this scenario. I guess my AF-S 16-35mm f4 VR would be the most flexible choice. My camera is a Nikon D600.

P.s.: Really should have listed my lenses: 28mm f1.8, 50mm f1.8, 16-35mm f4 VR, 70-200mm f4 VR. So I dont have any normal zoom and I'm not a fan of those.

weepete · May 12, 2015

I'd take my Sigma 17-70mm f2.8-4

Dao · May 12, 2015

If only one lens, that will be the standard zoom lens. Range from 2x to 7xmm (35mm eqvt)
If 2 lens, I will bring an additional 85mm prime.

If really have to travel light, I will just take the Sony RX100III.

fjrabon · May 12, 2015

To the beach, I'd probably take the X100T and its "tele" conversion lens. If I was taking a dslr, I'd probably take the sigma 18-35 f/1.8. But I honestly wouldn't take a dslr with me if I was only taking one lens. To me the whole point of dragging around a dslr is to have an array of lenses, the body in and of itself is bulky for no reason if you're just taking one lens. If I was taking a dslr, I'd take my whole kit, everything from the 11-16 f/2.8 to the 300mm f/4. If I was going to travel light I would take the Fuji.

But as you're more asking us what you should tske, seeing as you already are taking a dslr, I'd probably go with the 18-55 VR kit lens or whatever you have that's similar.

It's versatile, VR will come in handy, it's light, filters for it are cheap (you probably want a circular polarizing lens for the beach, lots of glare). And if something happens to it, it's no great loss.

MRnats · May 12, 2015

Out of my 18-55, 35, 50, and 85 that I own I'd personally take (if it had to be just 1) my 18-55. Enough ranges to cover a bunch of stuff and i'll be outdoors enough to not care about losing the 1.8 my other lenses have. I will be taking all of mine when I go away for Memorial day weekend though.

Solarflare · May 12, 2015

Actually in the film days there have been quite a number of SLRs with a fixed lens. I think the earliest SLRs have all been fixed lens designs.

Its just that the invention of the EVF such a solution seems to be weird nowadays.

I would always say a single lens is the optimal number of lenses for any camera, including any system camera. A system camera just opens up the possibilities which lens it would be; but it doesnt force you to choose any specific one.

For example I would totally go for a single Canon EF 85mm f1.2 and mount it to a Canon EOS 5D. It would be a specialized camera just for portraits, obviously.

Or if I would get a D750 or a second D600, I would lower my number of lenses per system camera from 4 to 2; I would probably mount the wide angle lens permanently on the D600 and the telezoom on the D750, unless its bad light, at which point I would switch to my two prime lenses.