Most used focal lengths

[jonnen]

Hi!
Just tested my most used focal lengths by using ExposurePlot programme and the most used were very clearly these:

12, 18, 24, 50, 55, and 135 mm

So quite nicely at the most wide and tele postions of my zooms plus 50 mm prime. Maybe I have to get more primes and get rid of zooms...

Jonne

[dvdowns]

It all depends whether you have an Olympus with dust reduction . You don't want to change lenses too often otherwise ...

[Wilt]

Although I have done many weddings professionally, about 2 weeks ago I attended one as a guest of the bride's parents, and shot the wedding as a guest (not the pro). I went thru all the shots taken and noted the focal lengths in the EXIF data, then put it all into Excel, as I was curious about the focal length ditribution in 'event shooting' (vs.landscapes and other) after having read threads about 'all at the extreme ends' of a zoom lens' range.

Interestingly, I found my shots tended to cluster about certain focal lengths that are equivalent to traditional prime focal length lenses in 35mm photography. Peaks of shots clustered around 28mm, 50mm, 70mm, 100mm, 125-135mm, and 210mm, even though I was using a zoom that easily permitted the in-between focal lengths! There was also a less significant, but still elevated, use clustered around 35mm. ( I've been around 35mm SLR for 40+ years now, so the temptation is to think that my eye has been trained for those focal lengths. But I don't own a 28mm or 100mm lens!)

[dvdowns]

It might be worth trying a full range of test shots and see if the data mentions anything like "23mm" or "37mm" . Possibly it rounds off to the nearest 'common' size and you guys are shooting at in -between sizes ...

[scoundrel1728]

Originally Posted by Wilt

Although I have done many weddings professionally, about 2 weeks ago I attended one as a guest of the bride's parents, and shot the wedding as a guest (not the pro). I went thru all the shots taken and noted the focal lengths in the EXIF data, then put it all into Excel, as I was curious about the focal length ditribution in 'event shooting' (vs.landscapes and other) after having read threads about 'all at the extreme ends' of a zoom lens' range.

Interestingly, I found my shots tended to cluster about certain focal lengths that are equivalent to traditional prime focal length lenses in 35mm photography. Peaks of shots clustered around 28mm, 50mm, 70mm, 100mm, 125-135mm, and 210mm, even though I was using a zoom that easily permitted the in-between focal lengths! There was also a less significant, but still elevated, use clustered around 35mm. ( I've been around 35mm SLR for 40+ years now, so the temptation is to think that my eye has been trained for those focal lengths. But I don't own a 28mm or 100mm lens!)

Except for certain very special-purpose lenses like macros, finding a prime in the 60-80 mm focal length range for 35 mm cameras has always been a difficult no man's land between normal and short telephoto. However, with the advent of smaller format digitals, 70 mm or thereabouts started becoming popular as one end of a zoom's focal length range and the common 50 mm f/1.8 has taken on the role of a short bright telephoto.

[dougjgreen]

My biggest problem with my DSLR is the lack of a good fast prime in the 60-70mm range, which would be the ideal portrait range for most non-FF digital sensors.

[Wilt]

>>It might be worth trying a full range of test shots and see if the data mentions anything like "23mm" or "37mm" .<<

My 20D did report focal lengths like 17, 19, 20,22, so I know that rounding was not being done in the lens report to body. In plotting the range of focal lengths, and how many photos were taken at each focal length, I coverted the reported focal length to 35mm film equivalents, then looked for peaks in the plot. In the case of the 'normal' peak, I counted 11% of shots at 48mm and 5% at 56mm, so that got interpreted as 'normal'. Similarly the 33-35-38-41 group got clustered together. I reported another peak 'at 100mm' but it was really 98mm. But my point was that commonly found 35mm film prime focal lengths were reflected in my randomly chose zoom focal length distribution.