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No, not which lenses do you want for Christmas, which lenses will you use for Christmas?
I'll be traveling to two different households over four days, and have enough stuff to carry without adding mountains of camera gear. I'm also a bit of a gearhead, and am terrified that I won't have what I need, or won't have the best equipment for the occasion. While I advocate simplicity, my personal list of things to bring keeps getting longer and longer as I go through the "what if" situations. I'm new to large family gatherings, and am starting to stress out.
What focal lengths do you find yourself using at family gatherings and celebrations? What lenses are your favourites for the holidays, and why? What have you had available but not used?
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Hi Matthew intereseting question.
After giving it some thought i came to this conclusion:
Sigma 30mm/1,4
Great prime with fairly good bokeh, but most importantly it performs great wide open and focus pretty fast aswell.
28-70/2,8 performs great wide open aswell, and for some informal snaps you can get a little closer.
Those are the two ill probebly use the most (indoors anyway)
/Paul L.
Strives to make photos instead of taking them...
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I have a 24-105mm... I would take this one.. I think it is great for indoors and also outdoors if you had the chance to take some landscapes.
A work of art which did not begin in emotion is not art.
Paul Cezanne
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24-70 2.8 on a full frame body.
Canon stuff.
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Probably my trusty 18-70 because indoors that will give the best flexibility, especially when you have to go wide for group shots and then also zoom in for portraits.
Yesterday at church I was using my 55-200 for shooting the Kids Christmas Service, and that worked really well as it allowed me to stand back and zoom into the action. Being indoors, I had my share of blurry shots though - I had to bump up the ISO to 800 to compensate. 
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Thanks for the feedback. I'm also leaning toward my "normal" lens, which is an equivalent of 28-108mm, and reasonably fast at f2.8-3.5.
What I would really like is to bring my two favourites, which give me 22-44mm at the same f-stop range, and my 100mm f/2 prime. Both are very good, and the f/2 is the fastest lens I have. The problem is that I'm bound to have the wrong lens on the camera, and even bringing two bodies means that I'll miss a lot of "the moments".
If I'm going to bring two bodies, then I'm tempted to make one of them be my Sony F828, with its 28-200 f2-2.8 lens, laser focusing, a powerful accessory flash, and true zero-light photography. It can by my "moment" camera with my E-1 playing backup with its two specialist lenses.
I just don't want to be the person who has more camera gear than presents... but since the presents are almost exclusively photos, I guess that would make sense.
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Got all the lenses I need - too many maybe. Changing lenses all the time cramps my creativity...
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Toad Wrote:Got all the lenses I need - too many maybe. Changing lenses all the time cramps my creativity... Too right... I'm seriously considering trading all my lenses in for a 18-200 VR...
p.s. good to see the christmas toad is back
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Cheers,
Pat
Canon 400D plus assorted lenses
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Pat Wrote:Over the hols the only glass I will be looking through will be the bottom of a glass that had been full of Xmas spirit Not a bad plan, either -- but sometimes it's hard to focus through all that glass... it has something to do with the number of elements, and their grouping...
Toad, I know what you mean. I'm thinking about doing a month-long trip to Australia and California with only my 11-22 and 50f/2. (double the focal lengths for 4/3 system.) I'm trying to get used to them before that, but whenever I have one mounted, I want the other.
... I have six different lenses (seven in total -- one's a duplicate) and they all overlap part of my standard zoom's range of 28-108. My two primes are 70mm and 100mm, my WA is 22-44, my tele is 80-300; I also have a second standard zoom (never used) that covers 28-90mm. I must be a complete nut.
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Most likely I'd use my 17-85, it covers a sufficient range, wide enough for group shots, and tele enough for some portraits, with image stabiliser. ah! but I'm lending it to my friend for a few weeks starting on Christmas day! haha
My next most used lens would be the 12-24, wide for many many groupshots
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Well, the presents are all unwrapped and the photos are all taken. I packed my Sony F828 and Olympus E-1, the later including the 22-44 f/2.8-3.5 WA Zoom, 28-108 f/2.8-3.5 Standard Zoom, and the 100mm F/2 prime. The Sony has an on-board flash, the Olympus does not but I used a powerful external flash as needed.
And I used everything.
The Sony was great, with its fast 28-200 lens, but was seriously limited by its poor high-iso performance. When I wanted to be able to get anyone in the room, and didn't mind using flash, this was the one to use. The swivel-body and preview LCD also let me get shots that my SLR wouldn't. It's a pity that Sony dropped this design.
Of the three lenses that I brought for the SLR, the standard zoom was the one I used least. I found it was no trouble at all to switch between my WA and fast prime as the action changed. When I had the "wrong" lens on the camera I had to adapt my seeing, but I never "missed" a shot that I would have preferred to take with a different view.
I hope everyone had a good holiday, and took lots and lots of photos. I know I did.
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i had an opportunity to rent a 35L a few months back...
i will say that is a gd lens to have for low-light photography....
must buy! 
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Good stuff matthew....
My 18-70 stayed on the whole time, pretty much. Things were happening too quick (we had about 6 little babies and toddlers) for me to change lenses, and the zoom came in pretty handy.
My batteries for the flash died halfway through the night though, but that's a different story... 
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shuttertalk Wrote:My batteries for the flash died halfway through the night though, but that's a different story... Mine too -- that was why I used my 50 f/2 (100mm macro) for so much of the second half of the trip. I forgot to take my second set of batteries off of the recharger.
I will eventually have some photos to post...
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