I read somewhere once that the more stuff you bring, the less pictures you take.
This is very true.
Think about it – if you are going to be inside, there is no need for a 100-300mm lens. You won’t use it, but if you carry it around all day, you’ll want to find a reason to use it, and you will take up space in your bag that should otherwise be used for things you will use – possibly something for your flash which you will make good use of.
Likewise, if you are going to be outside at an airshow all day, the likelihood of you needing a flash, or a macro lens, or an f/1.8 35mm lens is unlikely. Ok, so the 35mm might be useful, but outside, with bright sunlight, you’ll gain next to nothing by using the fixed 35 over an 18-200mm lens.
You might be thinking to yourself, self, I just bought this $300 flash, I want to carry it around everywhere and I’ll use it.
After going to your first airshow, I guarantee you will leave the flash behind next time. Or after taking the big lens to the indoor event, you’ll leave it home next time.
Think about this for a minute: when you take underwater images, you plan your first dive for the day to get a feeling for what is down there. Then, you surface and set up your camera. You have two choices (as, for the most part, nothing else is worth while for taking images underwater), close up, or large and sweeping scenes.
You cannot change lenses underwater. Well, some can, but most cannot. Experience here will tell you how to judge what you can and cannot get. The same is true for above water. Once you learn how the various lenses take pictures, it becomes very clear which is the right one for the situation.
For me, I usually carry no more than 2 lenses with me when I go anywhere. On some level, it is an intentional way to ensure I use what I have correctly. On another level, it is for simplicity. My 400mm lens is heavy, and often not very practical.
I have 2 lenses that cover the short range – one is an 18-70mm, the other is 18-200mm. On some levels, the 18-200 is better in every way, but on others it isn’t. The main way it isn’t better is in how it is different. The 18-70 focuses to infinity at a shorter distance than the 18-200 does, which also means it has a very different depth of field, which means it is not the same.
-sdo
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