I have a good selection of lenses on hand, even after i sold off the ones I bought as 'collectables' a few year ago. In reality, many go unused for months at a time (or longer.) I last used my A* 300 f4 on vacation in July, 2005. I can't remember when I last used the Sigma 14mm f 3.5 or the A* 400 f 2.8.
I set aside serious time for photography and try to take a disciplined approach to actively producing images. At the end of the day, a handful of lenses does most of the work, and aside from specialized macro work, a normal prime and standard zoom are the real workhorses. I do a lot of Medium Format shooting with 3 lenses - 55mm to 170. The same focal length range is covered by a 28-80 mm lens in 35mm format, or 18-55mm lens in APS-C format. I'd suspect that for a more casual shooters good normal zoom would fill the bill for 99% of their shooting needs, and the cost / benefit ratio doesn't justify the purchase of a new lens for that 1%. I wouldn't expect the typical DSLR buyer to pony up for more lenses. (Unless they subscribe to this list and get the bug...) IMO - the smart marketing money would be to put a good lens in the kit - sharp, minimal distortion and light falloff, good close focusing - and realize that many people will just use that. Better to have people happy with the results of their kit lens, and giving good feedback about their camera, than giving them a junk lens and hoping they will upgrade. FWIW - I haven't tested the 18-55mm but it seems like a reasonably good lens. Noticeable light fall off and softness in the in the corners wide open, but not bad stopped down to f8 or 11. But that's just a casual observation. - MCC Gonz wrote: > Just as I suspected. I'll bet its the same pretty much everywhere. I > know of at least 7 people personally in my area with DSLRs, only 1 of > them has more than two lenses and one has two. The rest all have 1 > lens. The person with more than two is a pdml subscriber so I met him > through the list, therefore he almost doesnt count in this quick survey. > > Most of these people I know bought the camera with a kit lens or bought > their own higher end zoom. > > rg > > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: >> ----- Original Message ----- >> From: "Adam Maas" >> Subject: Re: Luminous Landscape: Reichmann tries out a K10D >> >> >> >>> That's certainly the case with most buyers of base-model DSLR's, just >>> like it was for base model SLR's back in the days of film. I doubt its >>> 90%, but 70% is probably close. >> >> I just talked to the one knowledgable sales person at Don's Photo. >> She say that 75-80% buy the camera and kit lens and at some point buy a >> longer zoom , and perhaps 15-20% will eventually buy a second lens, with >> very a few buying more than that, generally because they have decided >> they have a specific need or want. >> This may not be an accurate market indication, just a local snapshot. >> >> William Robb >> >> >> > -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Mark Cassino Photography Kalamazoo www.markcassino.com - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
