Which RF lens do you use most?

This is not a very scientific experiment; but I made a list of what I consider my best shots during the first six months of last year. There were 24 of them (out of about 3500 total shots taken on walks around the centre of Vienna), and I was interested to see what lenses I used.

The most used was the RF24-240mm -- at 240mm five times, 24mm three times, and at intermediate focal lengths four times (twice at 50mm, and at 130mm and 140mm), a total of 12 times.
Second was RF85 f/2 with 6 entries.
RF35mm f/1.8 had 3 entries
RF16 was last with 2 entries.
RF50 was not used at all during the period, nor were my two EF lenses (17-40 f/4, and 70-300 f/4-5.6).

I usually limit myself to one or two lenses when I go out on foot. Yesterday, I went out in the Prater with only the 85mm lens and realised that I would often have had better results with the 50 or 35mm. You live and learn!

I have attached one of the best of the 240mm shots -- taken around 8pm in late June 2022. It's not technically perfect; but I think interesting!

Which lens do you most commonly use?

David

In our case:
My better half uses the 24-240 the most and the 35mm macro is her second most used RF lens
In my case it's the RF 24-105L and the RF16mm and also use her 24-240 sometimes
The less used lenses in our case are the RF 50mm 85mm and recently got the 24mm but haven't used it much, have to find time to test the 24mm a bit more

RF50, 1.8 , it's the only RF lens I own , lol .

First of all I need to say my RP gets far less use than my M6II these days as I usually need an inconspicuous kit where I live.
I own 2 RF lenses only - 24-105f4 and 35 - and when I shoot family or our cat around the house or go to a more serious landscape photography outing the 24-105 is my go-to lens. I am considering the lighter STM version of that lens so that my RP gets used a bit more everyday use in the future.

I also always use the same RF lens as well but in my case it is the 100-500 L. However, the 100-300 2.8 looks compelling.

The 24-240 is a nice and versatile lens, so it makes sense that it can come out on top.

Your question turned interesting as I queried my Lightroom library. Many ways to look at the data...

The simple answer turns out to be RF 28-70, by far.

The top 3 lenses I apparently use, by picture count:

RF 28-70 - 42%
RF 800 f/11 - 17%
Tamron EF 150-600 - 15%

As far as keeper rates (out of all keepers) go:

RF 28-70 - 51% - so 51% of my keepers are with this lens
RF 24-240 - 11%
RF 800 f/11 - 10%

But as far as keeper rates out of pictures from each lens, top three were all pretty close:

RF-S 18-150- 11.7% - used just with the R50
RF 24-240 - 11.1%
RF 28-70 - 10.7%

And as far as my "top" keepers, by count:

4 with RF 800 f/11
3 with RF 28-70
2 with Tamron EF 150-600
1 with RF 24-240

Interesting thought experiment to see if money was properly allocated, and to evaluate lenses that are actually in use.

I took the last ~30 months of usage. Here’s the list of my RF lenses sorted descending by photos taken (video obviously excluded, so that the result is skewed towards photography):

1. RF 28-70mm 2.0 L - 31.7% (12.4%)
2. RF 85mm 1.2 L DS - 30.3% (11.9%)
3. RF 50mm 1.2 L - 16.6% (6.5%)
4. RF 15-35mm 2.8 L - 7.8% (3.1%)
5. RF 35mm 1.8 Macro - 5.8% (2.3%)
6. RF 100mm 2.8 L Macro - 4.4% (1.7%)
7. RF 50mm 1.8 - 1.8% (0.7%)
8. RF 70-200mm 2.8 L - 1.5% (0.6%)

As I use multiple systems I added two percentage values. The first one is across all RF lenses, the second emphasized percentage is across all of my lenses.

And here’s the “Top 10” list for all of my lenses used in the last ~30 months:

1. Ricoh GR IIIx - 13.2%
2. RF 28-70mm 2.0 L - 12.4%
3. RF 85mm 1.2 L DS - 11.9%
4. Fujifilm XF 16-55mm 2.8 - 6.9%
5. Olympus MZ 17mm 1.2 - 6.5%
6. Voigtländer APO-Lanthar 50mm 2.0 (M mount) - 6.0%
7. RF 15-35mm 2.8 L - 3.1%
8. EF-M 32mm 1.4 - 2.8%
9. Fujifilm XF 23mm 2.0 - 2.8%
10. Fujifilm XF 27mm 2.8 - 2.5%

3 out of my Top 10 lenses are RF lenses, 4 out of 10 are Canon lenses.

The question that comes to mind is whether you use the 24-240 in the wide angle range, or whether you only use it in the telephoto range.

David

It’s soccer and rowing and vacation season. My RF 100-400 and my RF 24-240 are both seeing action. 100-400 for events and 24-240 for travel.

I have the 35, 85, and 16 primes. They see action probably in that order. 35 is my go to birthday, holiday, around the house. When I want to be intentional about a portrait or semi-macro the 85 comes out. The 16 is strictly ultrawide on vacation. Where we stayed interior shots. If I see an interesting landscape that warrants it.

Of all my 24-240mm shots:
- 57% at 240mm (and in fact 82% are 100mm or longer)
- 5% at 24mm

Of the keepers:
- 67% are at 240mm
- 7% at 24mm

So I seem to heavily prefer to the telephoto end, and prefer to keep the longest and widest shots.

For me it's the 24-105 f4 L. Just an excellent lens. But the recently acquired 24-240 might be catching up. ;-)

35mm all the way. The system does´t matter. :-)