right lens for the job?

A few weeks ago, I bumped into this interesting piece by Scott Kelby, dealing with the known issue of camera gear weight, and the need to be selective when on the road.

For those of you who don’t know, I’m in Buenos Aires at the moment, and of course I took my entire camera bag with me, fully equipped. I knew there will be some family shoots, and since I was scheduled to visit a southern town I haven’t been to yet, and I hoped for some food photography opportunities, I just took everything with me (what do I have the gear for if not to have it handy when traveling).

This morning I was faced with a dilemma. I had to leave for the entire day, and I couldn’t take the bag with me. It was a day scheduled for some business meetings, and I had no option showing up with a business attire and my National Geographic Camera Backpack. However, I knew that during the day we were supposed to visit the wholesaler’s central market of Buenos Aires, and I just knew I couldn’t miss this opportunity.

I left pretty early in the morning, and didn’t give much thought to which of the glasses I’ll be taking with me. Finally I went for my 50mm 1.8, being light and small (no bag, remember?) and giving me some great low light with no flash performance. I knew I wouldn’t be able to get some wide angle shots of the entire market, but on the other hand, I had my ideal lens for portraits.

Eventually I didn’t really have time to shoot properly, and came up with practically one decent shot of a cheese refrigerator. It was a snap shot, becuase I had people waiting for me, and I was pretty much freezing inside the fridge. Back in the car I started thinking about whether I made the right choice in picking that lens out of the ones I brought to this trip (alternatives were Canon 70-200 2.8L which wasn’t even considered due to its size and weight, Canon EF-S 10-22 3.5-4.5 which was no good because I wanted some more versatility and DOF, and Sigma AF 17-70 2.8-4.5 DC Macro which was my next choice left behind due to its weight and disappointing aperture at over 40mm). Since no tripod was allowed, I had to go for the most open aperture in my range, and the Canon EF 50mm 1.8 definitely did the job. However, there were other shots I know I missed just because I couldn’t go wider or closer, and that’s a pity.

My conclusion is to always take the entire fleet with me when possible. I know it’s heavy and not so comfortable, and that it’s even more irritating when you come back at the end of the day without having taken the cam out of the bag even once the whole day, just because you didn’t have time to shoot. But for this one shot you might get out of it, you really don’t want to be cursing yourself for taking the wrong lens with you.

I really don’t know of any reasonably priced “walk around” that gives a good range (let’s say 17-105), good aperture all along (at least 2.8 or smaller), some macro (or near macro) abilities, with good glass quality (they say that once you’ve gone L there’s no way back…). I’d really love to hear some of your experiences regarding this subject. Did you happen to find yourself with the wrong lens for the job? Do you have a lens that answers most of your travel needs? Please share,

G.

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