Favorite Lens???

[Ouch]

What lens do you prefer to shoot with, and why?? I guess I'll go first:

I like my Tokina 19-35 f/3.5-4.5. I can't afford pro-type lenses but this thing is just a blast to carry around, and I love the sweet 99 degree angle of view and internal focusing.

 

[Piano Player]

What lens do you prefer to shoot with, and why?? I guess I'll go first:

I like my Tokina 19-35 f/3.5-4.5. I can't afford pro-type lenses but this thing is just a blast to carry around, and I love the sweet 99 degree angle of view and internal focusing.

I have different favorite lenses for different situations. When I was on my son's cub scout campouts, I liked an old Vivitar 24mm f2.8 (Canon FD mount). Put that on my old Canon F-1N, and you could take it along in the mud, snow, or whatever the hike brought. For portraits, I loved the Canon 85mm f1.2. For my kid's school plays, portraits, weddings, and where ever I can, I currently love the Nikon 135mm DC f2.0. For soccer or outside sports I like the Nikon 80-400 VR f4.5-5.6. For my bicycle trips, I like the Nikon 28-105mm f 3.5-4.5.

 

[Southern Cross]

I have a bunch of "favorite" lenses, but it all depends on what I'm shooting. When I've got an image that counts and I'm being paid for my work, I'll push aside several thousand dollars worth of lenses and grab my $125 Nikon 50mm f1.8 AF-D lens. For some reason, images just pop off the screen or paper. It's so sharp.

For tight action shots and portraits, I use my Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 AF-S VR. The lens works as advertised, it really does allow me to shoot sharper images in low light.

My favorite lens for the money is the Tamron 28-75mm f2.8 Di. A great lens that can pretty much take care of any image.

I have a ton of other lenses, but the above lenses are the ones that make my life and my job easier, and they offer the image quality that helps me to earn a living in the photography business.

Some of my lenses are very expensive. BUt like most of you will agree, it's not the equipment that makes the image, it's the photographer. Some of the most beautiful nature shots I've ever seen at an art show were made with an old Minolta SRT-101 and a 50mm f1.4 lens. The whole setup was worth maybe $200. But the photographer used the mirror lock up feature on the camera and got very sharp images that he could blow up to 16X20, and he sold lots of framed images.