Local images against well known beauty spots

I adopt a similar policy, Rod. I do not like walking out with a bagful of lenses and only take one lens out for a walk at a time. I have a number of lenses, primes and zooms, and although they are elderly like their owner, I have come to know their strengths and weaknesses.

I also agree with your point that taking out a different focal length lens from time to time can be rewarding for getting that different view which might not otherwise occur.

Using a prime lens can require more leg-work, as Dave rightly says, and it does make you think more. The advantages are that a prime lens is often two or more stops faster than a zoom, and usually has better resolution and fewer aberrations.

Having said that, modern zooms are far better than the old zooms  I remember from 30 years ago. For general walk-about use, I would not be without a zoom. However, for best quality and low-light capability, I would use a prime.

Like Dave, I never had zoom lenses until my first digital camera. Prior to that I did not even own an auto focus lens, but I did have some very good prime lenses. Leg work yes, selective focus essential, but the lessons stuck and now I do switch to manual eposures and manual focus when I feel it is the best way. However, aperture priority gets a lot of use and modern zooms are rather good. 

I agree that modern amateur zooms are generally good, although some of the 'super-zooms' with a huge range of focal length need a lot of light and are not always sharp over their whole range. I have found that the zooms with a modest zoom ratio of around 3:1 seem to be the best.

Another feature of modern zooms is that many have image stabilisation built-in, which can make up to some extent for their need for lots of light (there are always the professional zooms, with wide apertures, which work well in low light without stabilisation, but they are beyond my reach financially).

More interesting points chaps. Still being fairly new to this game, I have gone (for now) down the single lens route to save time & I use mainly an 18-200mm lens for most of my shots, not 100% ideal I know but by & large I am happy with most of my results, but always looking to improve. Reading some of these threads , it is handy to see what others use & why, as most on here have far more experiance than me.I usually end up discarding about 30% of what I take once I view them on the monitor at home.

More good points. Discarding the poor results is good and I do bin a lot of my stuff, but taking Raw files does mean that you can keep the equivalent of an old fashioned negative, and can return to it as often as you want, but some pictures are beyond help. 

Gentlemen, enjoy pressing the shutter as it's great fun and we are all seeking that perfect exposure. Trouble us if we ever do it, what next?