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As usual, so many posts here I can identify with. The usual Sagittarian disclaimer ("it depends") fits this thread so well.
Like the OP, I shoot mostly inanimate subjects - as a retired architect, I think in grids and tend to gravitate to architectural images. Unlike Anton, 28mm is my 50mm. My Nikon 50s and 55 micros (I own several) live mostly in camera bags and sometimes are loaned out or used by me for portraits of family, friends, pets. The 28mm proportions enlarge things (heads, bodies) shot in the foreground, and distance the background. If this is the intention, well and good. For realistic people shots, with the 28mm it's best to be at least one meter from the sitter's nose...
Like cholentpot (#5), I used a Nikon 28/3.5 as my widest wide 20 years, it was the best I could afford. My everyday lens was a 35mm f/2, I had to save for a year to buy it and I still have it on a Nikkormat. As my finances improved, a good used 24mm came along and I bought it. It improved my photography in some ways, but the distortion annoyed me, especially in the verticals. I had two Nikon zooms, a 24-85 and later a 28-95 (both sold), but disliked the distorted effects at the 28 setting.
So 24mm is my wide angle, and 28mm my 'for everything'. My 35mm f/2 and 50/1.4 lenses are little used and a 20mm f/2.8 I picked up for a song some years ago is now gathering dust, ditto a 180mm f/2.8 ED, a wonderful lens, but not my eye view of the world.
Like Mick Fagan (#4), when I travel for the joy of going to and being somewhere new, with photography an incidental pursuit, I often use only one prime lens, in my case the 28mm as a first choice and 24mm as a second. Not long ago I was in Malaysia with only the 24mm and found I was shooting lovely scenic panoramas but little else, very few people images. But that's me. During a three month sojourn in Indonesia in the '90s, I used a Nikkormat FTN with a 50/2 and shot many the best images I have ever made. So go figure, I!
Old shooting habits die hard. My ideal kit, for what I see and photograph, is (in order of preference) the 28, 24, 60 macro, and 85. I will never sell my 180 and I keep it handy in the bag, for those occasional long shots.
We have so many choices in this great day and age - to use only one lens or the entire range, as we please. And so affordable.
Like the OP, I shoot mostly inanimate subjects - as a retired architect, I think in grids and tend to gravitate to architectural images. Unlike Anton, 28mm is my 50mm. My Nikon 50s and 55 micros (I own several) live mostly in camera bags and sometimes are loaned out or used by me for portraits of family, friends, pets. The 28mm proportions enlarge things (heads, bodies) shot in the foreground, and distance the background. If this is the intention, well and good. For realistic people shots, with the 28mm it's best to be at least one meter from the sitter's nose...
Like cholentpot (#5), I used a Nikon 28/3.5 as my widest wide 20 years, it was the best I could afford. My everyday lens was a 35mm f/2, I had to save for a year to buy it and I still have it on a Nikkormat. As my finances improved, a good used 24mm came along and I bought it. It improved my photography in some ways, but the distortion annoyed me, especially in the verticals. I had two Nikon zooms, a 24-85 and later a 28-95 (both sold), but disliked the distorted effects at the 28 setting.
So 24mm is my wide angle, and 28mm my 'for everything'. My 35mm f/2 and 50/1.4 lenses are little used and a 20mm f/2.8 I picked up for a song some years ago is now gathering dust, ditto a 180mm f/2.8 ED, a wonderful lens, but not my eye view of the world.
Like Mick Fagan (#4), when I travel for the joy of going to and being somewhere new, with photography an incidental pursuit, I often use only one prime lens, in my case the 28mm as a first choice and 24mm as a second. Not long ago I was in Malaysia with only the 24mm and found I was shooting lovely scenic panoramas but little else, very few people images. But that's me. During a three month sojourn in Indonesia in the '90s, I used a Nikkormat FTN with a 50/2 and shot many the best images I have ever made. So go figure, I!
Old shooting habits die hard. My ideal kit, for what I see and photograph, is (in order of preference) the 28, 24, 60 macro, and 85. I will never sell my 180 and I keep it handy in the bag, for those occasional long shots.
We have so many choices in this great day and age - to use only one lens or the entire range, as we please. And so affordable.
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