How much do you really use a long zoom?

My experience is that I have owned long zooms but rarely used them except at the zoo. I'm not into birds or sports shooting (yet), and usually shoot landscapes and portraits.

My Sigma 17-70 is my everyday lens with a 50mm as a decent portrait lens. I'll eventually buy a nice longer zoom (like a Canon 70-200 f4 L or a 100-300) , but I'm not in any hurry to spend the bucks, because I just don't think I'll use it that much.

For those who own long telephoto lenses...What percentage of your shooting is done with a long telephoto lens at 150mm and longer?

Alot, I use my 100-400L, 400 F/5.6L and 300 F/2.8L IS alot. My most used lens is either my 24-105L or 24-70L though

i have the sigma 17-70 and 70-200 f4. i rarely used the 70-200...but it's just nice to have just in case you need the longer reach. i would say the 17-70 stay on my camera 95% of the time.

I use my Sigma 100-300 F4 with a Sigma 1.4TC all the time. I actually would love to have even more reach, but it gets a little expensive.

I mostly shoot birds and wildlife so that is why the Sigma is my most used lens. It all depends on what you shoot.

I agree. I keep hoping I'll use my new 7-2/4IS more, but I don't. Still not planning on selling it tho!

I don't own one, so I don't use one. I do have my eye on the sigma 50-150 tho.

My 70-200 gets a lot of use. It would not be my first choice if I could have only one lens, but I think everyone should have one.

When my 70-200 is on, i'd say I use it primarily at the long end.

it depends what your shooting, I like to shoot wildlife so I use my 75-300 at 300mm quite a bit

All my stuff is with the 100-400, usually at the 380 to 400 range. Might have something to do with most of my work being done in Yellowstone at a distance though...

I use my Sigma 50-500 for most of the time, it a very versatile lens IMO.

Turbowolf wrote in post #2479760
All my stuff is with the 100-400, usually at the 380 to 400 range. Might have something to do with most of my work being done in Yellowstone at a distance though...

I can see why, Dave. Nice work!

I think it all depends on the type of things you photograph, I also have the Sigma 17-70 & it stays on my camera all the time, its a superb lens.

I thought about getting the Sigma 70-300APO & for a moment I even considered the Canon 70-300IS, but when I actually thought about it a little more, I thought to myself "I don't have ANY use for one", so I decided to stick with just the 1 lens for now, even when I had my old Powershot Pro1 with its 28-200mm lens I rarely used 200mm.

My ideal lens would be the new Sigma 18-200 OS that is coming out god knows when, I emailed Sigma but they said they didnt know either, they have to wait for word from Japan apparently, providing its optically as good as the 17-70 I would definately be buying that & keeping my 17-70 for macro work, 18-200mm would be an ideal walkaround lens.

Nick

To echo what Nick_C said, it depends what you shoot.
Basically any sports require a longer focal length.

I chose 50%, as I shoot a lot of sports. The focal length depends on the sport.