What is the best lens for ....( landscape, portraits, birds and whatnot)

Interesting questions on camera Facebook sites lately. As in "wWhat is the best lens for portraits with micro four thirds cameras?" The answers I believe

have remained the same since the early days of the last century. Or before. And some have recently discovered hyperfocal distance as though it were a new subatomic thingie... I applaud manufacturers for

giving more attention to lens design. Aided by computers, they have gotten faster, more resistant to the elements

and zooms at fixed f stop are really a great achievement. Maybe we should expect that the innocents abroad who

used to ask " nice shot, what camera are you using" will now ask " nice shot, what lens did you use for that? "

I use a zoom and if winds up being whatever setting that looks good in the finder. Am I missing a truth in this

somewhere. What do you think?

<p>The learning process is a gradual one, although modern cameras, through technological innovation, shortcut the circuit pretty dramatically. Add to that the millenials who want instant gratification absent the long road to learning, and you have my take on it. Oh, one other thing, brought home by my 11 yr old granddaughter, who shows up with her rather good Iphone shots and it sort of cements my thinking, as it seems everybody but me has a smart phone which takes good (enough) shots, zooms in and out, sends them to their pc/tablet, as well as their friends. It's a whole new world, and I applaud it for garnering interest in photography.</p>

I am still dazzled by what I can do with modern digital cameras and lenses. What would I call the most prominent asset? I say the relatively I say relatvely instant production of a reliable satisfying image. Feedback for my short attention span but heck.. " Hey, catch this rainbow while the clouds are just so." No problem. I can zoom and see the result in the finder and play with the EC dial until it looks just so. Instant gratification means gratification that was lost unless you took a long road to learning and then the road gets bumpy. Granted that for craftsmen the bumpy road was part of the fun, as skiers prefer the winding slope to the straight one. I will applaud the new world to a degree. But somehow, some way there is a tingly feeling that the bland and purposeless has become acceptable and comfortable. When I got comfortable I tried to get uncomfortable again. Anecdote: A professional wildlife photographer was giving a seminar. He complained out loud about a photo that was filched or stolen..." I risked my life to get that shot!" An ice floe I think. Me, well I did get up yawningly early some times- even before my coffee. That 'itch 'still is there. And my GX and OMD w zooms make it easier to scratch. So it goes.

I interpret the "best lens" as the most-used lens. That said, I believe, for most people, it would be a mid-range zoom, such as the Olympus 12-40mm f/2.8 lens.

 

While I always have a range of lenses, I use the 12-40mm lens 90% of the time - unless I am on a wildlife or macro project.

 

Using my recent trip to Iceland as an illustration, I used the mid-range 12-40mm lens 85% of the time.

 

Here is the breakdown:

• 5% - 7-12mm wide-amgle zoom for nightsky and aurora shots.
  
• 10% - 100-400mm telephoto zoom to reach out to the far-end of the Gullfoss waterfall and sometimes to shoot out of the bus window and airplane window.
  
• 85% - 12-40mm zoom for everything else: scenaries, street photography, shoot out of car and plane window...
  
• 0% - fisheye lens
  
• 0% - 40-150mm lens.
  
• 0% - macro lens - in fact it did not make it to the trip.
  

Edited February 8, 2017 by Mary Doo

I have a new "most used" lens going forward. The new 12-100mm f4. The dual lens/body IS system is just crazy good on my E-M1.

Read this is a terrific lens. The only misgiving I have is that it's not f/2.8.

Depends upon what you want your landscape image to depict.

For instance I shoot with a 25/1.7, 14-80 and a 100-300 depending upon my landscape subject.

Any lens can be used for shooting landscapes, not just wide angle lens.

Find a lens you enjoy that offers the quality you want from it and enjoy your landscape images.

GR