Packing for a trip usually turns into a negotiation between the 35mm, the 50mm, and the zoom, and plenty of people settle it by bringing all three. Whether that extra glass earns its place in the bag affects how you shoot, how much you carry, and how many moments you actually catch.
Max Kent faced that exact choice before his first big trip abroad, packed everything, and then noticed he was reaching for the same lens almost every time. That lens was his Nikon 35mm f/1.8, though he's clear that the model itself isn't the lesson. What stuck with him was how differently he worked once the other two lenses stopped mattering. He doesn't claim one lens handles every job. If you're photographing birds from far away, you need a long telephoto, and working professionals often have good reasons to carry a full kit. His argument is aimed at everyone else, the people who pack options out of habit and rarely touch them.
The first benefit he points to is consistency of look. Open a photo book by someone whose work you admire, and you'll often find the same focal length showing up page after page. One celebrated New York color photographer leaned on long lenses for most of his career, while a large share of street shooters live somewhere between 35mm and 50mm. Kent is careful on this point. A focal length doesn't create a style by itself. It feeds into one, and viewers sense it even when they can't say why a set of images feels unified.
Camera makers have been building products around this idea for years. The Fujifilm X100VI, Ricoh GR III, and Leica Q3 all have fixed lenses, so the focal length decision is made at the moment of purchase. Demand for the X100VI after its 2024 launch outran supply for months, and a lot of buyers already owned interchangeable-lens systems. Some of that appeal comes from size. Much of it comes from having nothing to choose between. You can try the same discipline without spending anything. Pick a prime you already own and use it exclusively for a month, or set a zoom to one focal length and put a strip of gaffer tape across the ring. Expect the first week to feel restrictive. After that, you'll likely catch yourself framing scenes at that angle of view before the camera reaches your eye, and you'll start walking closer or stepping back without thinking about it.
The second benefit Kent describes is fewer decisions. He compares a bag full of lenses to pulling into a parking lot with dozens of open spaces and circling because you can't settle on one. Every second you spend weighing which lens suits a scene is a second you aren't watching the scene. Those hesitations are small, but he describes how they compound, pulling attention away from light, timing, and the person in front of you until they cost you shots you won't get back. Committing to a single lens before you leave the house removes that choice entirely. There's no wondering whether a frame would have worked better wider or tighter, since there's nothing else in the bag to switch to.
Kent's thoughts on carrying less gear and on the belief that every genre needs its own lens are waiting in the video above.
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2 Comments
On a trip to England in 1982, I only had a 50mm f1.7 for my Fujica ST801. Looking back at those images, they are some of my favorites. Sometimes when I think I need a new lens, I look at that trip and the feeling passes.
Travel with photography in mind and not a pro on assignment is maybe the hardest things to prepare for even with gear other than lenses, exp. how about a "LensSkirt" it folds and takes little space and for those times while traveling maybe on a bus, train or car to keep refection's off the glass that you are looking through that will not open. How about a panorama rig just for $100 and has its own carry bag but if you trave with the now very old Sony A7M1 or M2 cameras that have a built in as a selection on the top dial a little learning curve but works for any lens selection for far or near pano's. Or you can carry a small 10mm f/2.8 that gets the look of a pano, but far things really look far.
As Hobbyist's everything on a travel is what is seen or thought of on the fly during a walkabout or drive and stop time, more pass it up due to time to get to the next place. For us who lived through the digital Point and shoot days that had telephoto extending lenses or full size cameras with that stay in place telephoto lens those images where great with little to no noise and images went to a SD card and taken to a camera store to get processed before computer editing came to be. When the big camera's like Canon came out their two travel lens in all the Mags was the 50-500 and 60-600 big bazooka like when full out, but they sold a lot.
My point is the what to take on a travel mission with unknown things to capture is by far the hardest to get together. Today even with years of prime sales with the f/1.0 or what ever to get buyers is probably going away. The telephoto glass is almost the same as primes and no low f/# but can handle all day captures and most all night captures mainly because of todays editors, never forget it is the editor that makes the image and with todays cameras with ISO Invariance you can take a low ISO dark image and in post just increase exposure to brighten it up. I will had one more and that is most not all telephotos are IS/OSS and with cameras now having IBIS you can also do bracketing say 5 at +/- 2V even hand held even in the blue hour as long as you do not go below 1 sec. in the longest SS.
IF a Sony user the 2013 APS-C E 10-18mm (15-27mm in 35mm) f/4 OSS with front treads for filters can be used in full frame at 12-18mm mainly 12mm for that ultra wide and even night capture paired with the 2015 FE 24-240mm f3 5 6.3 OSS lens that in APC-C mode get a 36-360mm in camera cropping (center of sensor gets all pixels working and faster SS). Have both lenses in my bag all the time with what ever camera I plan to use.
I do suggest the little camera that can is is still sold FUJIFILM WP Z smaller than a cell phone and waterproof it has the telephoto function great no noise images keeping in car and charged ready when you forget your main gear.
1. A7RM2 bracketed 3 at +/- 2EV hand held with the FE 12-24mm f/4 G (no IS/OSS) just a test when I forgot my camera plate for my tripod while on a expensive tour only 10 spots for tripods.
2. 2015 A7SM1 with 2013 APS-C E 10-18mm (15-27mm in 35mm) f/4 OSS at 12mm.
3. A7RV with 2013 APS-C E 10-18mm (15-27mm in 35mm) f/4 OSS at 12mm. 09/2026.
4. A7RM2 panorama function with FE 12-24mm f/4 G at 24mm 2017.