What is your favourite lens?

Monday 22 April 2024, 20:40 by Elja Trum | 3,080 views | 12 comments

This article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.

Do you ever wonder which lens you actually use most? What your favourite focal length is? You can go by feel, but Lightroom Classic makes it easy to find out.

Finding your favourite lens in Lightroom Classic

I would probably say that my 85mm f/1.2L is my favourite lens. But that feeling does not necessarily match reality.

So how do you find out which lens you use to take your favourite photos? To do this, start Lightroom Classic, if you use that programme, of course. Then select the folders you want information about.

I selected all of 2023 and 2024 together. Press CRTL/Command to select multiple folders in the folder overview on the left in the Library module.

At the top, first click on 'Attribute' and then on 'Metadata'. This opens the panels you can also see in the screenshot above. By clicking a 'rating' (star) under rating, you get a subset of all the photos you gave a 1-star rating to in 2023 and 2024.

For me, these are my favourite photos from the past year and four months. You may need to make a slightly different selection if you use another method to mark your favourites in Lightroom Classic.

The results

What does it show? Of the 18,234 photos I took during that period, I marked 269 as my favourites. A large majority of those photos, 173, were taken with the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM.

The Canon 70-200 f/2.8 L IS USM

Apparently, I take my favourite photos with my 70-200mm. So I can genuinely call it my favourite lens.

On the one hand, this is a reason to use this lens more often. On the other hand, it would be smart to photograph more with my other lenses for a change. To challenge myself a little.

What is your favourite lens?
Let us know in the comments!

Share: WhatsApp Facebook

About the author

Elja Trum is the founder of Photofacts and online photography course website Photofacts Academy. He has been writing about photography since 2006. Elja is also the author of (Dutch) books on composition, black-and-white photography, flash photography and portrait photography.

What is your favourite lens?
by Nando Harmsen
Effect of focal length in portraits
by Nando Harmsen
What are your favourite props?
by Elja Trum
Composition tip: Choose the right focal length
by Elja Trum
Converting focal length to full-frame is pointless
by Nando Harmsen
Let your focal length ranges overlap
by Nando Harmsen

Show every article in Other

home

12 comments

Donald Willemsen wrote on Monday 22 April 2024 at 22:38 | reply
My most used lens so far is the EF-S 55-250. The most used camera so far is the Canon Eos 70D. I no longer have this camera. Now I only use the Canon Eos R7.
Translated from Dutch.

Mario wrote on Tuesday 23 April 2024 at 11:56 | reply
My favorite lens is the NIKKOR 17-55 1.28
Super and super sharp
Translated from Dutch.

Tom van Weerd wrote on Tuesday 23 April 2024 at 12:41 | reply
23 mm f2 Fujinon. Super sharp, zoom lens unnecessary.
Translated from Dutch.

ErikvanRosmalen wrote on Tuesday 23 April 2024 at 12:46 | reply
My favorite?

'Unknown lens'. Unfortunately, the lenses of my Mamiya C330 aren't in Lightroom yet, haha. As for the digital part, it's still my 70-200/2.8, I take most of my portraits with that, followed by the 50/1.4 for the somewhat wider framing.
Translated from Dutch.

M.P.M. Verschuren. (Rene) wrote on Tuesday 23 April 2024 at 12:56 | reply
My favorite lens is Canon 24-70mm
Translated from Dutch.

Marcel de Bruin wrote on Tuesday 23 April 2024 at 13:18 | reply
My EF 600 f4.0 closely followed by my EF 300 f2.8 with or without converters
Translated from Dutch.

E.Bakker wrote on Tuesday 23 April 2024 at 14:23 | reply
My favorite lens is the Viltrox RF 85mm f/1.8. I managed to snag one just in time after Canon prohibited Viltrox from making it anymore. Fast and super sharp, this lens, and a very reasonable price.
Translated from Dutch.

Hochzeitsfotograf wrote on Tuesday 23 April 2024 at 14:38 | reply
My favorite lens is the Canon 85mm f/1.4L + Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L III USM
Translated from Dutch.

Mac wrote on Wednesday 24 April 2024 at 08:40 | reply
No favorite lens. Because it depends on what I photograph (sports, people, landscape etc) which lens is my favorite lens then.
Translated from Dutch.

Rob Dikkers wrote on Wednesday 24 April 2024 at 10:08 | reply
My most used lens is the Canon zoom EF 24 - 105mm 1:3.5-5.6 IS STM. I use this lens on my favorite Canon EOS 7D MarkII.
Translated from Dutch.

Frits Haaze wrote on Wednesday 24 April 2024 at 12:23 | reply
My most used lens: The Olympus M. Zuiko 12-40 PRO.
A super lens!
Translated from Dutch.

Jacre wrote on Wednesday 24 April 2024 at 17:37 | reply
My favorite lens is the Sony 24-77mm2 - f2.8
Translated from Dutch.

Have your say

Please note: Articles older than a week can only be commented on by signed-in visitors.
Would you still like to comment? sign in or create a free account.

Become a better photographer every week

A practical photography tip in your inbox every week.
39,218 photography enthusiasts already receive the tips! More about the weekly mail. Or keep up to date via Facebook. Sign-up secured with Google reCaptcha.

Elja Trum

Photofacts; everything to do with photography!

Would you like to take better photos and keep up with what is happening in photography? Photofacts publishes articles that teach you something about photography — from a product announcement to a practical shooting tip or a look at a website. Photofacts covers photography every day and is a hobby project of Elja Trum's that got out of hand. The articles are written by a team of volunteer authors. If you would enjoy writing one or more articles for Photofacts, do get in touch.More about Photofacts

Photofacts is made possible in part by