Mr. Jones, I am curious to know what you sold and what you kept, as I am going through this lens reduction process myself, and it is causing a lot of infantile angst. Thanks!
Hahahaha... boy, do I ever resemble that remark! I can well understand your frustrations trying to choose! I'd be happy to share my own kit choices with you in a minute, but first it is probably necessary to explain my own shooting style and preferences. Most all of my work with the M system is documentary style, and almost all involving people. I do very little landscape or architectural type photography with my M. So generally speaking, I am pretty close in on my subjects, if at all possible. I also love the look from the "older" lenses better than most of the latest and greatest designs, finding most of them either lack a distinctive drawing signature, or are far too sharp for the close in portraits of my wedding clients. And yes, I freely admit to being a "Look" junkie. I like edge falloff, color that is distinctive not necessarily completely "true to life." My kind of work as an artist gives me the latitude to change as I feel fit, when I want, and as I want the final crafted image to be. I'm not doing web still life or tabletop catalog work with my M, as I have other cameras much more suited to that task.
With all this qualification crap out of the way
, my present kit is the following:
21mm f/3.5 SA. This is my favorite lens, small, light, and just a great look all around. My workhorse. It gets probably over 50% of the work load.
28mm 'Cron. This was a relatively new addition, about two months ago. A real great lens in my opinion, and likely to rise higher in my percentage use as I get more familiar with it. Right now, maybe 15% used. This lens replaces my 24mm ASPH now for sale, as I don't need two lenses that close in focal length. I would rate both of these equally high, and do find the signature of them both very close.
35mm 'Cron. Mine is one of the older varieties, pre-asph, but sharp as a tack stopped down even a bit, but still wide open with a very nice look. Also small and lightweight, so it can travel in the bag "just in case I need it." It sees use when I can't get close enough for the 21, or am wanting something not quite as wide for isolation. Gotta love sharp with that Leica "glow."
50mm 'Cron. Again, one of the older models, same series as my 35mm 'Cron, with the E39 filter size. This one was a tough choice for me, as the 50mm focal length is usually either too long or too short for my work. I ended up choosing the 'Cron, and sold my 50mm pre-asph 'Lux. The look from the two lenses is very similar, but the 'Cron is much smaller and lighter, and also uses the same filters as my 35. Stopped down, it is also a razor, where the 'Lux was lower contrast and not as apparently sharp when viewing the images. This lens is a real "sleeper." Not nearly as popular as the 'Lux, but every bit as nice at a lower cost & size.
75mm 'Lux. What can I say? The 75 'Lux is a beautiful lens, though a bit large and sometimes awkward on the M. It replaced my 90mm APO, which was just too long and too sharp for me even wide open. Stylistically, the 'Lux just suits my style better.
The other lenses I sold were my 135, just too long as well as very difficult for me to nail focus since I wear glasses, my 21mm f/2.8, 35mm 'Lux, 50mm 'Lux, and now up for sale is my 24mm ASPH, the last of the lot to go.
Hope this helps, but I would caution you to really examine your past shots, and see which lenses you use the most. You may be surprised to learn a few things about which lenses are the ones you do need to keep. You may also come to find out that in reality, one of your babies just doesn't get much use, as I did.