Choosing a lens/system

[scooby70]

..the "expert" behind the counter was a previous window attendant at McDonalds.

I think it's nice to be a little less dismissive or condescending, even on an internet forum.

[BrownBear]

I think it's nice to be a little less dismissive or condescending, even on an internet forum.

That's neither dismissive nor condescending.  I'm reporting multiple first hand experiences, because I've known each of the clerks I reference in their successive uniforms. 

[Two23]

The shops that focused on service and expertise in their staff have thrived, to the point that Walmart even shut down their own competing departments.

I find that highly doubtful.  Since 1983 I've been in nearly 1,000 Walmarts and have never seen any close a department.  Walmart has never carried the more expensive camera gear--the volume just isn't there.  The real problem for local camera stores is online.  Even that is nothing new as B&H has been around since at least the 1980s (when I bought my first new camera,) and since then it's gotten far more competitive.  I do buy something from my local camera store every now and then, but I rarely buy new cameras or lenses.  I greatly prefer picking off used ones from ebay, especially in late January.


Kent in SD

[BrownBear]

Believe what you want.  I bought three bolts of fabric for some special needs when ours dumped their sewing department.  Meanwhile we have two sewing shops and one knitting shop in our town that thrive.  Similarly they cut their hunting and fishing department to two aisles and destaffed it while we have two independent fishing and hunting stores that are SRO and best of luck finding a parking spot.

A whole 1,000 Walmarts?  You've been a busy, busy man.   

[Two23]

  My small city has a nearby Cabelas, two thriving independent gun shops, and a well established large hunting/fishing regional chain.  Despite this our small city has gone from two Walmarts to four, and the hunting/fishing departments are expanded.  Walmarts in general have been closing out fabrics because they take up of a lot of space without providing much gross margin, i.e. the profit per square foot just isn't there.  The space was given to video games, cell phone, and accessories.  I'll add that at one time Walmart carried 24 feet of film skus!  Now they only stock about three Fuji 35mm items.


Kent in SD

[ErikKaffehr]

Hi,

Personally, I just want to use single system. I should say, I have two systems, a Sony A7 based and a Hasselblad 555/ELD/P45+ based.

I decided long ago that zooms were better for my kind of shooting, and I would mostly say that they are good enough. I have seldom seen the great advantage of primes. Why not?

• I am mostly shooting medium apertures, so I don't use the apertures well really great primes play really well.
• It is probably quiet true that maximum performance is superior for primes, but that performance is just possible in a single plane of focus.
• But I must admit I never had a really high end prime, or the primes I hav are not excellent samples.

On the Hassy system I obviously have primes, but most Hassy lenses I have are outperformed by the zooms I use with the A7rII.

So, I am actually selling off my 400/4.5G APO and 300/4G APO lenses for the Sony and possibly replace with a new 100-400/4-5.6LII from Canon. As a remark, I mostly use Canon lenses on my A7rII.

I was using Sony and Hasselblad in parallell for four years, with the Hasselblad claiming 1/3 of the exposures, but with the arrival of the A7rII I have seen no benefits in image quality from the Hasselblad, so my usage dwindled to nil.

If you print up to 16"x23", I think any of the cameras you mention will do a great job. Printing larger, I would suggest that more megapixels may be an advantage.

Best regards
Erik

I'm reaching a point where it takes me a very long time trying to decide which system and what lenses should a I bring for a particular outing. I usually have no specific projects, more like walk and shoot whatever I find appealing.
I have m43, Fuji APS-C and Nikon (full frame and rarely used these days APS-C).

The problem is two fold, first system and then what lenses. I find less and less exciting to take many lenses and to keep changing them. Yesterday I left with 4 lenses but I ended up using the zoom 24-120 for most of the trip despite knowing I'll be losing some iq.

Does anybody else has these kind of "problems" and how do you get around?


One option would be to decrease the number of systems but I'm also gravitating a lot towards using just zooms for landscape. How can I justify the primes when most of the times I'll be using F5.6 or less (equiv 35mm).