What lenses do you own?

[AudioGlenn]

Greetings everyone!  This is my first post on this forum although I've been a reader since the beginning of the year (2012).  I've always loved the concept of photography but never had the budget to really get started until I ordered my first DSLR (T3i) in December of last year.  I got my first camera on 01/04/2012 and have since "upgraded" to a 60D (for some of the features the T3i didn't have like Kelvin Temp WB, Small RAW file size, etc., and acquired a small collection of lenses.  I would like to know what lenses others out there own, why they love/hate them, and how long they've been into such a great hobby/ profession.  I realize it's a very broad forum topic and that everyone's lens needs are different. 

My work background is in Audio Engineering.  Music used to be my creative outlet but somewhere in the last 12 years, it has turned into more work than play and I am grateful to have found something just as fun in both a creative and technical way.   I eventually want to explore the full frame world but read somewhere that building a collection of good glass should be a priority over purchasing camera bodies.

My questions for you all are:
1) What lenses do you own and why do you love/hate each of them?
2) How long have you been into photography?
3) Any random tips for a noob like myself?

There's no big reason for my questions.  I'm just curious.  Just geeking out on gear from one gear head to another =)

Here is a list of my lenses in order of purchase date.  I know there is definitely some redundancy in my choices for purchases but sometimes you just wanna buy gear to buy gear.  My business is doing well so I can afford to play a little.

1) 50mm 1.4:  Thought i should get this after I purchased (and returned) the 50mm 1.8 (too loud when focusing, slow focus).  My first experiences with smooth bokeh.  I don't use this very much when I walk around but have used it for photo shoots with some of my artist.  It's too tight for general use (for me) but works well for portraits.
2) 24-105mm L: love it's versatility.  purchased after I realized how much I didn't like the 18-55mm kit lens.  Can't wait to see what this feels like on a bigger sensor.  I am starting to feel the low light limitations of my 60D at f/4 but by far my most used lens.  So far it fairs pretty well in somewhat low light coffee house gigs.  Owning this makes it hard to justify buying the 24-70 2.8 L II but I want one eventually.
3) 10-22mm: most of the "cool shot" comments I get are on pics taken from this lens @10mm.  I love the distortion.  It's fun to play with.  Sometimes I feel like it's not very sharp but that could just be my technique.  Overall, it's the lens I have the most FUN with but I can't wait to compare this to a 16-35 2.8L on a FF.  Any thoughts on this comparison?
4) 35L: my favorite lens for use when doing little music videos for youtube with friends.  First picture I took with it right out of the box BLEW me away.  The colors were awesome.  No flash needed.  Just amazing.  But for whatever reason, I don't use it as much as I expected myself to.  Though this will stay in my kit forever or until it dies.  I love the images I get.  I initially purchased the Sigma 30mm 1.4 but It was front focusing like crazy and didn't want to deal with it so I decided to just go with the L. 
5) 40mm pancake:  just had to have it.  My first "pre-ordered" lens.  It's cute.  Mainly purchased for long days of walking around Disneyland.  (We're annual pass holders.)  I strip my camera down to it's barebones minimum weight and it's like having a point and shoot (at least when compared to the weight of the body+grip+flash+24-105).  I don't use it otherwise but eventually would like to get a T4i "for the wife" and take advantage of the STM for use as a second camera angle on the videos I shoot.

That's my list.  I'd like to get a 100mm Macro IS or 180mm Macro, and a 70-200 f/2.8 IS II down the line but I think I want to purchase a 2nd flash first and play with multiple flash setups.  OCF is also very fun.  Looking forward to reading your replies!  =)  Good day to you all

[tvbvt]

1. 24-70mm f/2.8L
2. 85mm f/1.8
3. 100 f/2.8L IS Macro
4. 70-200mm f/4L Non-IS

I've been doing photography for about a year. Originally from Seattle, I relocated to LA in Feb and have been going out with other photographers on photo shoots ever since I got here.

I guess my advice would be to check out the meetup groups. I've met many amateur and advance photographers who are willing to give tips and advices. If you do go to meetup.com, check out LA Street Photography and Glendale Photography groups. A bunch of really great people.

[CharlieB]

1) What lenses do you own and why do you love/hate each of them?
2) How long have you been into photography?
3) Any random tips for a noob like myself?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In order of focal length -

20mm/2.8USM - folks poo-pooh this lens, both of mine are great.  They DO have falloff wide open, but newer bodies with falloff correction make it a non-issue.
24-105mm/4.0LUSM - I only got it because I was only able to get a 5d2 as a kit.  Got a great price, and the lens only added $400 to the price of the (sold out) body only.  I grabbed it.  Larger, heavier, but a good performer, and perhaps the best "travel" lens, unless you need a stop faster.  The IS is dated, but it works.
28mm/2.8 - very old, got it with an EOS-5 back in the early 90's.  Still works great.  Not gonna say its tack sharp, but for the few dollars it cost, its a very good performer.  Very light, very compact.
28mm/1.8USM - this one gets mixed reviews from a lot of folks, but I find mine ok for everyday work, and its a great normal lens on a 1.6 factor body.
50mm/1.4USM - Soft at 1.4, but cleans up great by 2.0.  Falloff, correctable in newer bodies... up to about 2.8.  Deadly sharp once you stop it down just a little bit.  Keep a shade on it, and you wont have focus mechanism failures.
85mm/1.8USM - deadly sharp as well.  Just a little falloff, good correction overall.  I ditched it.  I like longer portrait lenses, but it would have been great on a 1.6 factor body.  I'll probably get a 135mm/2.0LUSM one day.
100mm/2.8MacroUSM - another deadly sharp lens.  Hard to say, maybe the IS of the L version would have been nice.  I used it for more than macro.
300mm/4.0USM - first version, non IS, works great, deadly sharp right from 4.0  Fairly light for what it is.
1.4 converter - works with the 300mm/4.0USM and the combination is a good one, although... stopping down by about a half stop or more will clean it up, returning the image to a most excellent sharpness
~~
Also have a pair of old plastic mount 80-200 (or are they 70-200, I forget).  One got misted inside on a cold morning out in the swamps.  I use it exclusively for soft portraits!  Sometimes, I put a Zeiss Softar II on it, for extra softness.  The other copy is just held in reserve.  They're garbage lenses, holdovers from a RebelXS film kit I came by.   There's also a terrible 35-80 with plastic mount from the same kit. 
~~
And, there's a 16-35mm/2.8LUSM inbound as we speak.  Ouch that 82mm filter is pricey. 

I shoot a lot of things but tend to shoot a lot of social events, and a lot of birds.  The rest is garden variety snaps around the house - cats and the missus.

Been shooting since I was about six - first with some green body 620 box camera, then a 127 Brownie Reflex, then my dad's Argus C44, then a Nikkormat, F's, F2's, (and a boat load of lenses), then Canon A1's, and F1's (and similar boat load of lenses), then Hasselblad 500c/m's and 503ELX's (and boat load of lenses all of which I still have), Leica M4P, M42 and M6ttl and all the current Summicron lenses, and the Canon stuff which still includes a set of EOS-5's.  Chimera modifiers on a lot of Paul Buff "white lighting" units for setup shots.  Omega D2 in the darkroom.   Too much crap.... but I love it.

Worked photo retail for 10 years (pro-oriented specialty non-chain specialty camera store) right out of high school, then nearly 30 in my current career, not photo related.  Once you got the bug, it tends to not leave you.

[RLPhoto]

I Shoot all primes. (Exception of the 10-22mm. No wides for Crops really. )

24L II - If I can't back up anymore. 20% usage

50L - Everything lens. 50% usage.

135L - Portraits. 30% usage

10-22mm - Ultra-wide 1% usage.

-------------------------------------

5d3 - 60% usage

7D - 40% usage.

Done.

[Axilrod]

1: (Most of it is love, if there were things I hated about a lens I'd probably get rid of it)
•EF 14Lmm f/2.8L II - Ultra wide and very very sharp for being as wide as it is.  Excellent color rendition.  At times it's almost too wide, but it's a very fun lens and you can get some really epic pictures with it. 
•EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II - It's my only remaining zoom and very versatile.  Not as sharp wide open as I'd like and you get some vignetting on the wide end, but great lens overall.
•Zeiss ZE 21mm f/2.8 - Ridiculously sharp, built like a brick, focus ring is smooth as butter.  Color rendition is extremely accurate, micro contrast is excellent, and the bokeh is beautiful (when shooting close and wide open). 
•EF 50mm f/1.2L -Colors and bokeh are beautiful, build quality is excellent, and it's one of my favorite lenses.  Wide open sharpness falls off a bit and chromatic aberration is present, but at around f/2 it really shines.
•Zeiss ZE 50mm f/2 - Razor sharp even wide open, excellent build (like all Zeiss glass) and beautiful, accurate color rendition.
•EF 85mm f/1.2L II -  The king of bokeh and it's ridiculously sharp, even wide open.  AF speed is a little slow.
•Zeiss ZE 100mm f/2 Makro - This thing is a stunning piece of glass and the resolution is off the charts.  Excellent build, color rendition, micro contrast.  I had the 100L Macro before, and honestly I'm still not quite sure if this one is worth twice the money (with no IS or AF), but I love it so far.
•EF 135mm f/2 - Lens is a bargain for how sharp it is, and a favorite among Canon shooters.  I don't really have anything bad to say about this one (although IS would be nice). 

2) 2.5 years, but I've been into videography my whole life.  When I saw the video coming from DSLR's I knew I had to get one.  I picked up a T2i/kit lens in April 2010 and realized I would have to learn photography to use these things.  Used it for about 6 months, loved it and bought a 5DII and soaked up everything I could about them.  I've shot over 100 live bands all using DSLR's in the last year alone.

3) My advice, don't worry too much about gear.  Yes it helps, but initially I spent way too much time learning about the gear and not enough time shooting.  Get out there and shoot, regardless of what body/lens you're using, it will only make you better.  Read as much as you can on the subject, learn the rules and then break them.  Don't buy too many lenses at one time, you should spend a few months (at least) with each lens attached to the camera and learn it's quirks and what it's good at and what it's not.  I went crazy at first and bought a 24-70, 16-35, 35L, 50L, 100L, 135L all in a few months and it didn't do me any good.  You don't get enough quality time with each lens and it just makes things more complicated initially.  It sounds like you have some great lenses so far, although on a crop body I feel the 17-55 f/2.8 IS is a must.  Sounds like you're coming along just fine though, glad you're enjoying yourself.


 

[Menace]

Been shooting seriously for three years though got interested in photography in my mid teens - only film and dark room in those days. My school (in England though I moved to New Zealand 6 years ago) ran a short course in photography that got me hooked.

70-200 2.8 IS II - My favorite lens
24-105 - general purpose - my first L. Very versatile but I'll trade it for the new 24-70 for the extra stop
100 Macro - love it's sharpness. Used to have the L but traded it for a couple of studio lights
50 1.8 II - loud but light - will upgrade to the new 50 1.4 whenever it's released - I'm in no hurry for this one
EX580 II - with a generic battery pack - very useful for events
Bunch of Studio lights with softboxes, beauty dishes, reflectors etc

I'm glad you are enjoying photography. I'm a member of a couple of local photography clubs with monthly competetions for set subjects. Helps to try out different types of photography and improveoone's versatility. Hopefully you have some local clubs you can join if not why not start your own group with like minded people?

I'd suggest you add the 70-200 2.8 IS II and/or the 85 1.2 II to your kit.

Have fun

[dr croubie]

Canon:
EF-s 15-85
EF 40/2.8
EF 50/1.8
EF 85/1.8
EF 100/2.0
EF 70-300L
FL 55/1.2

Samyang:
35mm f/1.4

Sigma:
8-16mm DX

Tokina:
17mm f/3.5

Olympus:
50mm f/3.5 Macro

Pentax:
Takumar 50mm f/1.4 (m42)
Super Takumar 300mm f/4.0 (6x7, will probably be sold)

Lensbaby:
Muse with Double Glass
Control Freak with Double Glass
Single Glass
Plastic
Soft Focus
Pinhole/Zone Plate
SuperWide, Wide, Tele Converters

Skink:
Pinhole, Zone Plate, Zone Sieve (if they count as 'lenses')

Zeiss:
Flektogon 50mm f/4.0 (1 working, 1 in pieces, both waiting to be sold)
MC Flektogon 50mm f/4.0 (in the post)
Biometar 80mm f/2.8 (needs re-collimating)
MC Biometar 120mm f/2.8
Sonnar 180mm f/2.8 (bit fungal, waiting to be sold)
MC Sonnar 180mm f/2.8 (in the post)
MC Sonnar 300mm f/4.0

Soviet (arsenal, arax, kmz, etc):
MIR 20mm f/2.5 (K-mount)
Jupiter 80mm f/2.0
Zodiak 30mm f/3.5 (1 in the post, 1 to be sold)
MIR 65mm f/3.5
MC Volna 80mm f/2.8 (in the post)
Vega 90mm f/2.8
Jupiter 250mm f/3.5
MC Converter (2 of)
135mm Enlarger Lens (L39)

Other:
Helios 28mm f/2.8 (OM)
Super Ozeck II 28mm f/2.8 (OM)
Paragon 300mm f/5.6 (waiting to be sold)

I'm sure I've forgotten some in there.
You want the essay on performance of all of them too?

[DMITPHOTO]

100mm 2.8 Macro - incredibly sharp and light!
50mm 1.2 - great depth of field, but auto focus can be off sometimes
14mm 2.8 - super duper wide my fav lens, but hate the bubbled front end
24-70mm 2.8 - great work horse but no IS
70-200mm 2.8 - super sharp and fast but can get heavy after a while
500mm 4.5 - super sharp but old

Always loved photography and have been taking pictures seriously for about 2 years and always keep shooting but shoot what you like and enjoy, not what others want you to shoot !

[AmbientLight]

I'll list only what I use currently (I still own some old FD mount lenses and some other stuff):

14mm f2.8 - my favourite wide angle lens (I use it frequently on my 7d)
17mm f4 TS-E - great for architecture, if you have time for each shot
17-40mm f4 - cheap (for an L lens), but effective. It is a nice lens on full-frame, with a less useful zoom range on crop
24mm f1.4 Mark ii - I find myself shooting on 24mm focal length pretty often
24-105mm f4 - my favourite general purpose lens
50mm f1.2 - before I purchased the 85mm f1.2 my favourite portrait lens
85mm f1.2 Mark ii - my favourite portrait lens
70-200mm f2.8 IS Mark i - I still like this lens quite a lot (because of the nice bokeh)
100mm L f2.8 IS Macro - I must admit I bought it only, because I got it relatively cheap. Nice lens though
180mm f3.5 Macro - this is my favourite macro lens. It also works reasonably well with my 2x converter

I am currently using a 1D-X with a 5D Mark iii as a second camera and a 7D as backup.

I've been into photography for 27 years.

[candyman]

My cameras are 5D MK III and a Canon 7D
My lenses are:
- Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 - SOLD
- Canon 24-105mm f/4 L (general purpose, just recently purchased. Used it last weekend inside with flash Canon 580 EX II in an event. It is a great lens. Love it)
- Canon 70-300mm L (use for landscape but mainly sports, great AF and I love the flexibility of the zoom)
- Sigma 50mm f/1.4  - SOLD
- Canon 85mm f/1.8 - SOLD
- Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 MK II
- Canon 135mm f/2
- Canon 40mm f/2.8 STM


I am into photography since early 1990's. I am non-professional.

[M.ST]

All the latest L lenses without the 17-40, 24-105IS, the 70-200 4.0 and two tilt-shifts. The older EF 800 and EF 1200, the EF-S 17-55 IS and the old 70-300 IS.

[Hillsilly]

You should just buy a 1200mm when you're down at the shops next and try to complete the set.

[AudioGlenn]

cool stuff so far from all the folks who've replied! 

I like the idea of joining a photog club.  I'll look some up in my area. 

[brad]

20 2.8
24 TS-E IIL
35 1.4L
45 TS-E
50 Macro
90 TS-E
100 Macro w/tripod collar
24-70 2.8L
24-105 4L
70-200 2.8 IS L
70-200 2.8 IS II L
X1.4 III
X2
extension tubes 12 & 25

[rocket_scientist]

My wife and I purchased a 7D approximately 2 years ago and have put approximately 50,000-60,000 shots on it.  We own one lens, the 24-70.  The down side to this lens is its size and weight.  We do a lot of low-light event photography and anything slower than 2.8 would force us to use too high iso's.  We have rented the 50L and that lens is amazingly sharp: take the advice of lensrentals and do not focus and recompose (we use only the center autofocus point normally) and you will get tack sharp images.