Should I consolidate my lens collection?

Sell the 35L, 135L and 300/4L

Get a 100-400L and a 24-70L.

Samyang 14mm + 35L + 70-200mmMKII + 2x extender

I seldom get rid of lenses...

As you see from my gear list, I am not a minimalist. However the three lenses I got rid of were the 17-40L which I never liked, the Canon 20mm f/2.8 which my 17-55mm made totally redundant and the 400mm f/5.6 Tokina which had nice IQ but, slow autofocus which tended to hunt.

I will probably sell my 50mm f/1.8 Mark-I lens since I have seldom, if ever, used it after buying the 17-55mm f/2.8 IS which I consider a better low light lens.

I COULD sell my 24-70mm f/2.8L since the 17-55mm has pretty well replaced it for gneeral and travel use. However I do love the "brick" for studio work.

If I were a total minimalist, I could exist with my 17-55mm f/2.8L and 70-200mm f/4L IS lenses and 1.4x TC. But, I tend to be a packrat.

sierra trekker wrote in post #11357784
You need a 50 f1.2..............ever​yone with a ff camera should have a "normal" lens. I use mine for over 80% of my shots. Depending upon what you use the 35 and 135 for, I might think about dumping them and getting a 70-200 f2.8 IS II. The 50 can easily take the place of the 35 with a little bit of footwork and the 135, although a great lens is somewhat of a singular use lens. In the end its all about what you use the lenses for, not having an arsenal that covers all of the focal lengths.

Would you say (focal length aside) the 50 1.2 is a better lens than the 35L? I have heard the issues with softness and focus shift, but have never used one before. At this time the 300 will go for sure and the 135L is still questionable. This is kinda what I was thinking

17-40,)either keep the 35 or sell and get a 50 or an 85 for walk around/low light), 100-400 This would get me from 17-400 with just a few lens. My biggest issue is that I get lens envy and bam a new lens is on it's way and then I use it a few times and then it sits. At this point I think the 17-40 and 100-400 would get the most use as I spend my time either doing landscape or wildlife, then lastly would be either low light or my kids candid portraits. Thanks for all of the suggestions, they have been helpful and not so helpful (meaning just makes me want to buy more and not get rid of any. )

skater911 wrote in post #11356285
I am really starting to get into landscape, but I also really like wildlife as well.

maybe drop the 135L and 300 and get the new 70-300L


Thought about this one too, but since it was so new I hadn't heard much about it and it is just a tad too short I think.

The 300/4 has a short MFD making it great for butterflies, dragonflies etc. If you are getting more interested in wildlife you may find this option of shooting a perched bird then getting close on an insect for example, to be a great advantage of this lens.

17-40, 35L, 100 macro and 100-400 would be a nice consolidated kit for you.

Put it this way, I've had jsut one copy of a 50 1.2 whereas I've purchased and sold at least and maybe three copies of the 35L. To me it is just a better all around lens, particularly of a FF camera. I also don't think that the 85 would be a good walk-around lens. I have an 85L and it is more of a specialty lens...........and it is very special. On the 50 1.2, I never experienced the so called problems the various forums are full of. Then again I'm not much of a pixel peeper and all of the fucusing errors that I have experienced were user error.

I'm not sure what kind of wildlfe you pursue and the 100-400 would probably work out OK. One other option you might want to think about is to buy one of the new 70-200 f2.8 IS II and use one of the new extender IIIs on it to get that greater reach. It would give you more flexibility than just having a bigger slower 100-400.

Your list is not even long to consolidate, that is just me. But everyone is different and maybe you are lucky that you don't have the lens collecting obsession like many of us.

My opinion is:

Only keep what you need.

If you: " ... really don't know what to do about the 35L and 135L ...". Then just sell them and also sell the 300m to buy the 100-400 as you wish.

The extra money you get from selling the lenses you can use to take a nice vacation somewhere exotic to take photos.

Why do I not see anything in the way of a list of gear in his signature, do I have something set wrong,