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Which 3 primes combo is your ideal setup?


xherion

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On full frame it's always been 17-40, 35mm and 85mm... I know, 17-40mm is not a prime, but if Canon had a 20-ish mm f/2.8 prime with the build quality of the 17-40 for a similar price I'd have that instead.

 

On Fuji I think the 14mm, 23mm and 56mm would be my kit, although I rarely shoot long, so perhaps 14mm, 23mm and 35mm would be a better choice.

Eitherway, I now have the 18mm and the 35mm on an X-T1, the 23mm and a new body will follow, but perhaps I'll hold off on the 56mm.

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I have lenses from various brands 'cause I adapted previosly own lenses and purchased only the 35 from fuji, but if I had to build a combo from scratch I would have chosen 14, 35 and 90: the closest solution to my samyang 12, fuji 35 and samyang 85 current combo [emoji106]

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I don't really see how it makes sense to take a 90 over a 56 when you're restricted to 3 lenses only, it's surely not as versatile?

 

I see the most versatile packs as :

 

Cheap, compact and light : 18 - 27 - 35 (35 can make great portraits tbh and is very versatile)

 

High end, more heavy / bulky : 16 - 23 - 56

Why not? I shot with just the 35L and 135L for a couple of years with canon... Everybody has different needs...

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Hallo Everybody!

 

As long as I follow these kind of discussions, as far out of the most important questions about taking a picture ist seems to seduct.

 

Clearly any focal length has its own, BUT how to use it under which conditions and circumstances AND what should be told or explained with the picture to be made, THESE are at least for me the by far more interesting questions for my personal (and most) photographic goals.

 

Secondly and for my perspective as important as the above is, to really proof Yourself - BEFORE You start "shooting" - which is YOUR OWN inner approach to Your motive and are You shure and honest with the way to go  and as well Your REAL capability to handle this particular focal length properly, not to "zoom and fool arround".

 

If these aspects are not of any interest, I doubt she or he will feel a real difference between a zoom and a prime and a 23 or 27 or a 35.

 

This does not mean, there won't be taken good pictures by those photographing people, but my quite long experience with myself, my rather often quite shaky learning-curve and the people I teach once in a while, showed me more often than not: one good lens and two good hearted eys are by far better and more important for taking really good pictures than two or even more lenses and two or "even more blind eyes".

 

A good picture of what or whom or where ever one can only "smell", "feel", "sense" or however one will call that - and it will be mostly generated inside Yourself. The camera and lens "just do the job then".

 

So in my opinion one should let your inner eye tell You THE LENS and maybe one for the contrast scenarios .... and that´s it.

 

.... and in our times, especially with nowadays FUJI the quality of lenses is out of discussion - the quality of taken pictures not at all .... and the digital age has not improved that a single millimeter ......

 

Apart from that I myself do love the digital cameras I used (Nikon, Canon, Hasselblad, Mamiya-Leaf and Fuji) but far more important was how close I could come to my lens to frame my subject/object properly for my goal - not if to take it with a Leica or a Hasselblad (the question of MF vs. FX vs. APS-C is here not to be addressed)

 

So I´d like to state: We all have to get our "inner eye" honestly close an "in artistic love" at least to ONE prime lens before we even think and experiment to much around with anything more - if not so, the quality of our work and/or joy won't develop anyhow! :huh:

 

Loving Fuji, the lenses, the sensor, the colors, the size, the weight and the fun, joy and perfection I feel with these great tools  :D !!

 

Good Night 

Wolfbastien 

 

 

attached a pic (with just the banal 35/1.4 sooc on a sunday afternoon - just so .... and of course a bit cropped to square  ;) )

 

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23 F1.4 / 35 F2 WR / 56 F1.2

 

I already have the 23 and 56, just waiting for the new 35 to come out this fall. The 35mm focal length to me is less preferred most of the time to the 23mm, but would give me a weather resistant compact "normal" prime which I am very much in need of. If a 23mm f2 WR were to come out I may move to 16 F1.4, 23mm F2 WR, 56mm 1.2.

 

This is my plan too. I'm switching from Pentax, where I have 15mm, 40mm, 70mm.

 

At the wide end, I find the 15mm wider than fits my style most of the time, and so going with 23mm seems like a good choice.

 

My 40mm is my go-to lens, but I do feel like a little wider would be nicer (especially since I got it back with a 6mpix camera; now that we have a little more room to crop, I'd rather do that when necessary). And Pentax has never delivered on early rumors of a normal-range weathersealed prime, so this 35mm WR seems awesome. I'll make do with the 23mm as a wide-normal until that lens is available.

 

I'm really happy with the 70mm as a portrait lens, and kind of wish Fujiflm had an exact match. I know there's the 60mm, but from the reviews, I think the 56mm is more appealing.

 

I'm probably eventually going to also get the 90mm, and at that point I expect the 56mm will live at home next to my studio flash setup, and the 90mm will replace it in my camera bag most of the time. Rationale: sometimes it's nice to have a little more reach outdoors.

 

Just came from my daughter's kung fu class, though, and 56mm would have been just about the perfect focal length — 40mm was too wide and 70mm too narrow. (I guess there's a reason people use zooms.)

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Most people are coming up with the same sorts of combinations: wide (14 or 16), standard (23 or 35) and short telephoto (56 or 90). Interesting that Flysurfer has skipped the standard lens and gone for two telephotos: do you have an X100 to fill that gap?

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

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In my camera bag is space for 3 lenses. So I have to answear this question every time I go out for taking pictures.

 

Mostly I take the 16, rarely the 14 instead, always the 23 and mostly the 56, rarely the 35 instead.

But the decision is always hard, because I love all of them.

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Hallo Everybody!

 

As long as I follow these kind of discussions, as far out of the most important questions about taking a picture ist seems to seduct.

 

Clearly any focal length has its own, BUT how to use it under which conditions and circumstances AND what should be told or explained with the picture to be made, THESE are at least for me the by far more interesting questions for my personal (and most) photographic goals.

 

Secondly and for my perspective as important as the above is, to really proof Yourself - BEFORE You start "shooting" - which is YOUR OWN inner approach to Your motive and are You shure and honest with the way to go  and as well Your REAL capability to handle this particular focal length properly, not to "zoom and fool arround".

 

If these aspects are not of any interest, I doubt she or he will feel a real difference between a zoom and a prime and a 23 or 27 or a 35.

 

This does not mean, there won't be taken good pictures by those photographing people, but my quite long experience with myself, my rather often quite shaky learning-curve and the people I teach once in a while, showed me more often than not: one good lens and two good hearted eys are by far better and more important for taking really good pictures than two or even more lenses and two or "even more blind eyes".

 

A good picture of what or whom or where ever one can only "smell", "feel", "sense" or however one will call that - and it will be mostly generated inside Yourself. The camera and lens "just do the job then".

 

So in my opinion one should let your inner eye tell You THE LENS and maybe one for the contrast scenarios .... and that´s it.

 

.... and in our times, especially with nowadays FUJI the quality of lenses is out of discussion - the quality of taken pictures not at all .... and the digital age has not improved that a single millimeter ......

 

Apart from that I myself do love the digital cameras I used (Nikon, Canon, Hasselblad, Mamiya-Leaf and Fuji) but far more important was how close I could come to my lens to frame my subject/object properly for my goal - not if to take it with a Leica or a Hasselblad (the question of MF vs. FX vs. APS-C is here not to be addressed)

 

So I´d like to state: We all have to get our "inner eye" honestly close an "in artistic love" at least to ONE prime lens before we even think and experiment to much around with anything more - if not so, the quality of our work and/or joy won't develop anyhow! :huh:

 

Loving Fuji, the lenses, the sensor, the colors, the size, the weight and the fun, joy and perfection I feel with these great tools  :D !!

 

Good Night 

Wolfbastien 

 

 

attached a pic (with just the banal 35/1.4 sooc on a sunday afternoon - just so .... and of course a bit cropped to square  ;) )

 

 

Hello, I appreciate your view highly.

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My only 2 lenses are the 18 & 35mm. I shoot mostly street and portrait. I like the restriction, it forces me to be creative. 

The 18mm is optical not the best Fujinon lens, but light weight, small, fast, relatively inexpensive and for street photography more than good enough.

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Well finally I've ditched (sold) the 18-55mm, claimed before it's going nowhere but I simply can't see myself using it anymore. Don't like the out-of-focus rendering, weight, max aperture, variable aperture, meh don't want to use it even for "vacations" I'd rather have only the 35.

 

With the money I ordered a 18mm for those times I'm cornered with the 35. So I'm like you now, with 18 and 35.

 

I can't really see a third lens I'd want. The 27, is not a 23, it has no aperture ring also, I don't know it doesn't have much to it compared to the 35. Fuji needs to make a small and light 23mm really, not everybody wants an X100T.

 

Maybe I'll get the 27 while waiting but it feels a bit like lost money. At 200€ that'd be ok, but even 250€ doesn't feel really right.

 

Or maybe I just don't need anything else than 2 lenses and there's no reason to try so hard to find a third one haha

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Well finally I've ditched (sold) the 18-55mm, claimed before it's going nowhere but I simply can't see myself using it anymore. Don't like the out-of-focus rendering, weight, max aperture, variable aperture, meh don't want to use it even for "vacations" I'd rather have only the 35.

 

With the money I ordered a 18mm for those times I'm cornered with the 35. So I'm like you now, with 18 and 35.

 

I can't really see a third lens I'd want. The 27, is not a 23, it has no aperture ring also, I don't know it doesn't have much to it compared to the 35. Fuji needs to make a small and light 23mm really, not everybody wants an X100T.

 

Maybe I'll get the 27 while waiting but it feels a bit like lost money. At 200€ that'd be ok, but even 250€ doesn't feel really right.

 

Or maybe I just don't need anything else than 2 lenses and there's no reason to try so hard to find a third one haha

 

In der Beschränkung zeigt sich erst der Meister. (The master shows himself first in restriction)

                                                                                                     Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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Well I am in the same boat as you and Wolfbastien, I got the 18-55 really to see what focale I'd use the most with a plan to get a fixed one once that is clear to me. As many good photographers and schools teach (Lesson 1 : study, but also listen to the masters).

 

Toyed around for a few months, then I've been using the 18-55 1 month long almost exclusively fixed on 35mm, and a few times on 18 when I had no other choice.

 

Since I have the 35mm prime my rate of keepers skyrocketed, as did my ability to "see" a picture before taking it, and being totally immerged in my environment rather than wondering, hmm, so should I use 23 or 35 now, if on 23, f/4 is enough DOF but if I go to 35 shouldn't I use f/5.6, ah wait now my shutter speed has dropped too slow AH CRAP PICTURE GONE.

 

People say, sometimes you don't have time to move quickly enough, and "what if', well zooming in or out did not help either with those "what if" situations, never made really good pictures. Running with a fixed lens set on something sensible according to the available light did tho.

 

So yeah I'll probably stop there with lenses and spend money in travels and more photo books, and maybe spare to upgrade the X-E1 at some point.

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I do not mind to miss a shot just because I do not have the right lens.

 

I like Fuji cameras. Especially the X-Pro and the X100 series, but honestly, the camera brand, type & lens are not really important to make an interesting image. The latter is, of course, a matter of taste.

Digitale camera, pinhole, Polaroid, it's the emotion that counts.

 

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First post - Hi everyone!

 

One lens: 23mm (X100T) or 18mm on X-Pro1

Two lenses : 18 - 35

Three lenses: 12mm Samyang - 18 - 35

 

Got my third copy of the 18mm two days ago and this one is decently centered and significantly sharper in the center at f2 than my 1855 at f2.8 and not that bad at all in the corners. Can't tell you how glad I am that I persisted instead of listening to the naysayers and nitpicking armchair experts.

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If it has to be only Fuji lenses, it becomes difficult.

 

16 27 90

 

16, because it's nice and wide enough and not too wide. ;)

 

27, because you can do, er, everything with that lens.

 

90, because having used the 90mm for a wee bit I very much prefer it to the 56 (the latter being an awesome lens nonetheless).

 

My most used focal lengths are 25, 35, 50 and 70mm, but that doesn't match the op's question.

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