My new Zeiss 21mm, Canon 35L and 400L 5.6......

All my working life, I only bought the lenses that I felt would answer my needs. Now, I'm able to indulge myself and I can get the lenses I want. And, because I don't have demands or deadlines to worry about, I can play with them all and post the results on forums like this.

But if I had to go to work tomorrow, for some godawful reason, I'd be carrying three cameras and three lenses with a couple of teleconverters in my pocket. There is very little in this world that can't be covered with just the 16-35, 24-70 and 70-200 f2.8 L lenses.

BigBlueDodge wrote in post #9984450
I think that "WANT" is a much stronger pull than "NEED" and creates constant gear churn. Let's be honest, having a bag with lenses that you NEED can be boring. You know your lenses will perform exactly as needed, day in and day out. If you like to do landscapes, and your 17-40L does stellar for your needs, then you almost get bored with it. You almost get tired of using the 17-40LL because it works so well for what you do. So you start to think about a 24L or Zeiss 21, <insert other exotic lens here>, etc. You don't need them, but they are "sexy" and "interesting" and you want them. So you decide to sell your 17-40L and buy one of the "sexy wide lenses".

Wow, this is like going to a shrink. You just described the last year of my life (only in my life it involved much cheaper lenses.)

tkbslc wrote in post #9986752
Wow, this is like going to a shrink. You just described the last year of my life (only in my life it involved much cheaper lenses.)

It's funny how much time I used to spend reading reviews, looking at specs to try and determine what my next lens would be. I was buying based on "want", and it was enough to drive me crazy. I have found that when you are buying on "need", life is so much easier because you don't have to chose. You automatically know what you need.

mikekelley wrote in post #9984470
Focus less on gear and more on making great pictures. A thousand dollars can get you a plane ticket pretty much anywhere in the world these days. I'd rather have some amazing photos than another lens.

I want better photos more than I want another lens, let's put it that way.

Absolutely! I'm so with you on that! Gotta keep focus on what's important... quality, not quantity.

mikekelley wrote in post #9984432
Good points. I only have four lenses, 2 of them being specialty lenses. I had a bunch of lenses that I thought I needed, but didn't. Sold them and put the money into marketing and my business, etc. Haven't looked back.

I just have a tele, fisheye, fast 50mm, and ultrawide. this covers everything i need to do for my job, and i'm not feeling like i'm missing anything at all.

I did the same. Went down to 3 from 4 and I think that's the magic number for me. Only three but all of them are deadly. I feel liberated.

It's cause you're spending less time deciding what lens to use and more time deciding how to take the picture!

I think the 300 f/2.8 is the dream lens. I will get mine soon enough.