how often do you use the middle of your zoom range?

[Calzinger]

I'm just curious to see how many people effectively use the versatility of zoom lenses for available focal lengths. I've heard many find themselves always going to the long end on a certain lens (ie. 70-200 since 200mm isn't long enough for "in-your-face" telephoto).

I've found that plenty of my shots are found in between 70mm and 200mm with my 70-200 f/4L. I guess that's because I tend to shoot closer subjects rather than for very distant ones. I'd say I put the zoom capability on my lens to good use. If that wasn't the case, my mind would be set on primes.

Sure it depends upon the distance of your subject and what you generally shoot, just curious to see if people really take advantage of zoom or just get the lens to either shoot really wide or really far out rather than going in between.

[Jon]

Never really studied the settings, but I'd guess I'm all over the park, depending on what I'm shooting.

[blue_max]

My only zoom is a 17-40 and it rarely strays past 17. I have a 50 1.4 to do anything more portrait. I don't think that lens is particularly rated at the zoom end.

Graham

[SuzyView]

I usually do the middle range. Only when I have my 28-135 IS and have to do group shots do I go all the way to 28.

[Calzinger]

So would you guys say that you're putting your zoom lens(es) to use? Or do you find that you use one end far to often to warrant the benefit of primes?

I don't think I could every to go primes, even if I think that I'll be using that one particular lens on the long end for most of the time. I hold the versatility of zoom lenses pretty high on my needs.

[::John::]

It depends on what I am trying to fit in the frame.

The current toy is the 70-200 and I find I am using most of it while I play around getting the feel for tripod and non-tripod shots.

I tend to swap to the 85mm when my arm gets tired :)

[MrChad]

I definately find myself on the long end of my tele's alot, but they get used in the middle wide end plenty.

For my other zooms I'm all over the place.

[Jon]

I have (counts) 3 primes. 35 f/2, 50 f/1.8 and Tamron 90 f/2.8 macro. I think I might have even used one of them in the past 3 months. I have Sigma's 15-30, Tamron's 19-35, the 24-70 L, the 70-200 IS L, and the 100-400 IS L. I've used every one but the 19-35 in the past 2 weeks, and I used that in December.

[fWord]

Good question, however I tend to shoot at just about all focal lengths. However, I seem to find that shots at the extreme ends provide the most pop. That is, I seemed to gain greater satisfaction out of the wide shots from the kit lens and also the long shots at 200mm from the 70-200mm lens, and hence use these focal lengths more often.

As such, if I were to be free enough to plot the focal lengths out in the form of a graph, it'd probably look like a high contrast histogram...high at the extreme ends and middle to low all the way through otherwise.

[BigBlueDodge]

for me, the range between 30-70 accounts for about 99% of my pictures. I had a 70-200 but hardly ever used it.

[Calzinger]

As such, if I were to be free enough to plot the focal lengths out in the form of a graph, it'd probably look like a high contrast histogram...high at the extreme ends and middle to low all the way through otherwise.
I see, that's actually pretty similar to my use of my 70-200 f/4L. Often I will use the widest or the longest end, though I still have plenty of shots in between. Does this mean I'm putting the 70-200 range to its best use? Many say to evaluate what kind of range you shoot in before buying a lens. I didn't really do that but I think it worked out fine anyway ,eh?

[fWord]

I see, that's actually pretty similar to my use of my 70-200 f/4L. Often I will use the widest or the longest end, though I still have plenty of shots in between. Does this mean I'm putting the 70-200 range to its best use? Many say to evaluate what kind of range you shoot in before buying a lens. I didn't really do that but I think it worked out fine anyway ,eh?

If you live by the philosophy that getting the shot is everything, then it's still good to have a zoom lens even if you primarily shoot at 200mm.

With the 70-200mm, the effect might not be so pronounced, but when we start getting to the longer lenses, I find that the angle of view is too narrow. I'll put the camera to my eye and wonder exactly what I'm aiming at. In cases like this it's also nice to have a zoom...'lock on' to the subject of interest before zooming the lens out. :)

[mbze430]

Very often. specially the 24-70. Always using the middle of the range.

[elTwitcho]

So would you guys say that you're putting your zoom lens(es) to use? Or do you find that you use one end far to often to warrant the benefit of primes?

I don't think I could every to go primes, even if I think that I'll be using that one particular lens on the long end for most of the time. I hold the versatility of zoom lenses pretty high on my needs.

Probably half my shots on my 28-105 are in the 40-50mm range. Doesn't mean I am or am not using the full utility of my lense, truth be told even though I shoot static subjects I can't be bothered taking primes on and off the camera constantly if I want to go wide for a shot or get in close for another. At one point I had only my 50mm 1.8 and I hated being stuck with one focal length

[mrklaw]

I haven't done much yet, but I spent a day with my new 28-135IS yesterday and found I tended to use wide(r) and long(er) focal lengths. But not just full wide and full zoom.

Maybe not mid-range, but plenty of 110-135, and 28-50. Just to be able to adjust the framing slightly when my location prevents me from getting further away/closer.

I think thats where they will be of use to me.

[jjonsalt]

Never really studied the settings, but I'd guess I'm all over the park, depending on what I'm shooting.

Me too. I think my 24-70L has been used as much at one setting as another.

[ffureel]

When I had the kit lens I always only ever had it at one extreme of the zoom or the other never in between. I mean, say I had the lens set at 17mm and I needed to be a bit closer I would physically move closer, this is why I am using prime lenses. I think using prime lenses forces you to "look" for photos instead of "zooming" for photos. This is my opinion and obv everyones needs are different.

[Music to my eyes]

I frequently use the full range of my 24-70, mainly in framing kids indoors.
When outdoors I tend to use the 70-200, and probably lean a little more to the 200 end
as I stand far away and shoot. If I stand too close with the 70-200, the kids end up running up to me to see the shot on the back of the camera, and I run out of space to focus....
For the stuff I currently shoot, I can't imagine a prime being a better tool for what I need to do. But things may change, and I hope to have an excuse to tell my wife I 'need' a prime or three.

[SkipD]

I use the full range of all of my zooms (presently 16-35, 24-70, and 70-200 and future 100-400).

I like to move to a place where I will get the perspective and foreground/background size ratio that I like and then choose the best focal length for that setup.

[Mike6158]

I use my zoom lens as a composition tool. I doubt if there is a focal length that I haven't used. That's why I bought it. If anything I sometimes over define the compostion with the zoom. By that I mean that I have used the zoom for composition and boxed myself into a corner where I don't have any room to crop the photo. Over the years I've become more aware of what is inside the entire rectangular box of my viewfinder and not just the subject so it's gotten better. But... to the point of your question... I use all of my zoom(s) range.

[nadtz]

hrmm, this makes me wonder how hard it would be to write a little program that would pull focal length data from exif and make a pretty little graph. I bet if it were easy to collect the data a lot of people would be suprised by what they do/dont use.

I seem to be the other side of the coin here, I have a sigma 18-50 (which I use through a good portion of its range) a 28-105 which I almost never use, but it come in handy when I need something longer than 50, and the 35/2 and 50/1.8. The 35 has pretty much lived on my camera for several months now, with the 18-50 being swapped on for events where I cant zoom with my feet as easily. Im thinking the 35 may soon be replaced by the sigma 30, but i'll have to gt it and make sure its a good one first.

[Scottes]

Cheap excuse to play with iMatch, so...

I have 4 zooms (well 3 after selling the 70-200). I calculated using all the pictures that I have kept, but apparently I delete about 2/3 or 3/4 of my images. Anyway, I calculated using a 10% variance, so for my 100-400 I considered anything up to 110mm as "min" and anything above 360mm as "max" lengths. Finally, the last number is anything in between 111mm and 359mm. I used the same "10% rule" for each of my 4 zooms.

100-400, 2794 images: 6% min, 66% max, 28% in between.
70-200, 505 images: 17% min, 51% max, 32% in between.
17-40, 1270 images: 29% min, 30% max, 41% in between.
28-75, 482 images: 18% min, 44% max, 38% in between.

For the long lenses I tend towards max zoom, and this makes sense for me since I mostly do wildlife. The 17-40 is evenly balanced and is surely a "zoom for composition" thing. The 28-75 is relatively new and the low end is covered by the 17-40 so I'd say that this is also zoomed for composition.

I also own the 400mm L with 867 images. Adding that into the 100-400 range really shows that I shoot at 400mm 75% of the time it's possible. (Time for the 600mm....) I mostly do birds, secondly wildlife, and last comes land/cityscapes, so this all makes sense for me.

However, this brought me to think how useful a 300mm lens might be, and the answer is: 183 images, or about 6% of my shots with the 100-400. Looks like a 300mm is not very useful to me, as much as I love the 300mm f/4. Considering something wider than 17mm, I shot 26% (330 out of 1270) at exactly 17mm so I might actually make use of a wider lens.