What's your favorite focal length and why?

[Peeb]

I like my extremes: 16mm and 500mm. Looking at a 1.4x TC to push to long end up to 700mm.

I also like to walk around with my nifty 50 and force myself to really think!

 

[Derrel]

I own a bunch of primes...but I mostly use a 70-200 or an 80-200 or a 70-300 or a 28-200, on full-frame. I do tend to like the longer focal lengths much,much more so than the shorter lenses.

 

[Derrel]

'Favorite' focal length is a metric I do not care to track. Any more than my 'favorite' ISO, 'favorite' white balance, 'favorite' focus distance, 'favorite' filter, 'favorite' pre-set, 'favorite' exposure method etc etc etc.

Some of my EXIF info data points from **one day** at the Oregon coast, Nikon FX camera...note that I carried the AF-Nikkor 180mm f/2.8 ED~IF, hence the high number of 180mm shots. I also had the Tamron AF-SP macro with me...so, 29 frames with it.

 

[480sparky]

'Favorite' focal length is a metric I do not care to track. Any more than my 'favorite' ISO, 'favorite' white balance, 'favorite' focus distance, 'favorite' filter, 'favorite' pre-set, 'favorite' exposure method etc etc etc.

Some of my EXIF info data points from **one day** at the Oregon coast, Nikon FX camera...

View attachment 144234

Which data set is your favorite?

 

[Derrel]

'Favorite' focal length is a metric I do not care to track. Any more than my 'favorite' ISO, 'favorite' white balance, 'favorite' focus distance, 'favorite' filter, 'favorite' pre-set, 'favorite' exposure method etc etc etc.

Some of my EXIF info data points from **one day** at the Oregon coast, Nikon FX camera...

View attachment 144234

Which data set is your favorite?

As most experienced shooters know, a zoom lens is often used at its widest and its shortest settings. Looking carefully at the above 894 shots, and 57 different focal lengths, considering the lenses I HAD WITH ME, it's easy to see that there are a few trends...I had the 28-200, 70-210,70-300,85/1.8 AF-S G prime,90 Tamron macro,180/2.8 prime, and a 50mm/1.8.

45,50,and 52mm: a total of 39 frames in that narrow zone.

120,122,124,135mm: A total of 3,7,13,and 24 frames, in that area....I've noticed this trend for years.

150,155,165, 170mm: Note the clustering of image here, in this focal length range. A total of 4,7,20,and 23 frames.

180mm: 82 frames or about 1 of 11 frames over the 894 pictures. Why? The 180/2.8 ED is a superb lens on the D610. SUPER-crisp!

200mm: the long end of the 28-200 zoom,most likely...116 frames at 200mm oput of 894 all day.

300mm: the loing end of the longest zoom, the 70-300...and at the Oregon Coast beaches, where "reach" and "whale watching at Boiler Bay" go hand in hand...132 frames.

The 7,800mm two shots?? Likely a mis-entered data from a non CPU lens...I have no idea...

 

[fmw]

Peg, I'm a wide angle fan. My 50-230 zoom is buried in the camera bag. I rarely use it. I like the perspective I get close to the subject. You can isolate a subject just as well as you can with a telephoto, you just need to get closer. Most of the images I post here are made with wide angle lenses. I'm new to the Fuji system and my 14 f2.8 is the one that I keep mounted on the camera. I use that and the 18-55 pretty regularly. My 60 stays in the studio for product shots.

It is all a matter of photographic styles. Most of the images you post seem to be landscapes and sports. The long zoom is ideal for the sports. You may want to try something shorter for the landscapes. You have 18mm in your zoom. Perhaps 14 or 16 would be something to try. If you don't have wide angle then there is no way to discover what you can do with it.

 

[SquarePeg]

Peg, I'm a wide angle fan. My 50-230 zoom is buried in the camera bag. I rarely use it. I like the perspective I get close to the subject. You can isolate a subject just as well as you can with a telephoto, you just need to get closer. Most of the images I post here are made with wide angle lenses. I'm new to the Fuji system and my 14 f2.8 is the one that I keep mounted on the camera. I use that and the 18-55 pretty regularly. My 60 stays in the studio for product shots.

It is all a matter of photographic styles. Most of the images you post seem to be landscapes and sports. The long zoom is ideal for the sports. You may want to try something shorter for the landscapes. You have 18mm in your zoom. Perhaps 14 or 16 would be something to try. If you don't have wide angle then there is no way to discover what you can do with it.

I've owned the Tokina 11-16 for about 3 years now and I just don't use it. I disliked it almost immediately and should have sold it long ago but a friend talked me into keeping it for a astro photography which I've still never attempted. I don't see myself spending money on a wide angle at this point but tastes change so you never know.

 

[benhasajeep]

I've owned the Tokina 11-16 for about 3 years now and I just don't use it. I disliked it almost immediately and should have sold it long ago but a friend talked me into keeping it for a astro photography which I've still never attempted. I don't see myself spending money on a wide angle at this point but tastes change so you never know.

I have the Tokina 11-16. Limited range but it's a good lens if you want wide on a crop sensor. Built like a tank. Feels like a Nikon. Always liked that lens. Kept 1 D300 just for it.

 

[vintagesnaps]

Figures Gary's anything but normal. I had to, you left that wide open.

135mm, 50mm. I suppose that's because of what I started out with and from doing sports and events. And taking pictures of whatever out and about. I think I like the way a telephoto can get you in closer than you really are.

 

[fmw]

Peg, I'm a wide angle fan. My 50-230 zoom is buried in the camera bag. I rarely use it. I like the perspective I get close to the subject. You can isolate a subject just as well as you can with a telephoto, you just need to get closer. Most of the images I post here are made with wide angle lenses. I'm new to the Fuji system and my 14 f2.8 is the one that I keep mounted on the camera. I use that and the 18-55 pretty regularly. My 60 stays in the studio for product shots.

It is all a matter of photographic styles. Most of the images you post seem to be landscapes and sports. The long zoom is ideal for the sports. You may want to try something shorter for the landscapes. You have 18mm in your zoom. Perhaps 14 or 16 would be something to try. If you don't have wide angle then there is no way to discover what you can do with it.

I've owned the Tokina 11-16 for about 3 years now and I just don't use it. I disliked it almost immediately and should have sold it long ago but a friend talked me into keeping it for a astro photography which I've still never attempted. I don't see myself spending money on a wide angle at this point but tastes change so you never know.

Then you're well enough equipped. I guess you and wide angle aren't made for each other.

 

[DanOstergren]

50mm, 85mm and 100mm.

 

[Derrel]

50mm, 85mm and 100mm.

But, doesn't every camera maker offer 50mm, 85mm, and 100mm lenses? I mean, aren't these the same focal lengths that have been used since the 1950's? I mean...aren't these like time-proven, dependable, reliable focal lengths for full-frame cameras, and also good on APS-C cameras too? Who wants that!

 

[chuasam]

90% of the time I use my 105mm f/1.4 now

 

[DanOstergren]

50mm, 85mm and 100mm.

But, doesn't every camera maker offer 50mm, 85mm, and 100mm lenses? I mean, aren't these the same focal lengths that have been used since the 1950's? I mean...aren't these like time-proven, dependable, reliable focal lengths for full-frame cameras, and also good on APS-C cameras too? Who wants that!

These are simply my preferred focal lengths. Has nothing to do with what anyone else thinks, it has everything to do with my personal preferences and experience. I used to love 135mm, but through experience found that it isn't a focal length that is sensible even on a full frame camera. 100mm gives an equally effective focal length while also being much more easy to use indoors and outdoors. Same goes for 85mm; I could post two images, one shot with an 85mm and one shot with a 135mm, and guarantee that you wouldn't be able to figure out which lens was used without looking at the exif. Better yet, the 85mm is $700 cheaper. Honestly I could probably take 100mm off of my list because the 85mm still does the exact same job for hundreds of dollars less. 50mm is wide enough to make a big difference from 85mm though, which is also why it's a favorite of mine that's separate from the 85mm.

So I guess I revise my list. 85mm and 50mm.

 

[Frank F.]

I just can't get into the wider lenses lately. Even 35mm is usually too short for me! Give me at least 50mm every time. In fact every time I put the 18-55 lens on, I end up quickly swapping it out for the 60 or the 50-230. I can't remember the last time I liked anything I shot at less than 50mm! I just love the way the longer focal lengths isolate a subject.

What's your current favorite focal length? Why?

For me it changed with age and experience. Wide Angle Photos are much more difficult to compose than Tele photos.

In a wide angle shot you have so many possibly conflicting elements and with a cheap wide angle you cannot really separate by blurring. At f/1.4 or f/1.8 you get some subject separation even at 20mm, but these lenses cost more than the whole bag of many amateurs.

What to do? Geometrical slow photography using a tripod and f/5.6 to f/22, depending on the diffraction limit of you camera.

Modern high pixel count cameras with small recording areas like 1/1.7 or 1 inch chips have their diffraction limit at f/4 or f/5.6.

With these it is much easier to get some separation on the long end of the usual zooms delivered with these cameras.

Tele means your frame will contain fewer elements so composition is much easier.

For beginners in film days a 1.8/50 was the lens delivered as a kit and I still recommend this on digital Crop sensors. Much less frustrating. Much easier to achieve a previsualised result.

In a film format body like the Nikon D3 or Nikon D600 which can today be bought very cheaply on eBay the 1.8/50 is more challenging but still a light Tele and you get loads of very good examples looking at the history of photography.

After that theoretical preface, I must say that my 1.4/105 Nikkor is my favourite lens at the moment, on crop as well as on film format (24*36 sqmm). Here the challenge is to use the razor blade thin focal plane to make your point. It is so easy to misfocus these shots. But: If you succeed it is all the more pleasing. Examples:

Having said that, after roughly one million photos taken in my life I feel confident to use all the lenses in my bag halways competently. All of them from 8mm to 300mm and the macros on crop or 24*36 and my monorail cameras.