Schmalz, you are right that the zooms are heavy, or just as heavy as ever. As somewhat of a beginner (well, I've been taking pictures for 30 years but only seriously for a year), I found that stripping down to a single prime lens for a while improved my photography a great deal. I see more and take more interesting pictures now than I did before when always carrying a zoom. Yes, I'm missing opportunities too, but I think on balance gaining more than I'm losing (I don't expect that this would be true for a more advanced photographer). I'll be adding 2 more primes for my upcoming JMT hike, but these are to add specific capability that I couldn't get from a zoom anyway (e.g., 24mm f/1.4 for astrophotography).
Some weight info from my spreadsheet below. This isn't complete but only what I considered based on weight and added capability (fast, long, macro, etc). Several of these are just released this month or next:
Sony FE 35mm f/2.8 ZA (4.2 oz.; fantastic carry-around lens!)
Sony FE 28mm f/2 (7.1 oz)
Sony FE 55mm f/1.8 ZA (9.9 oz)
Sony FE 90mm f/2.8 Macro G OSS (21.2 oz)
Zeiss Batis FE 25mm f/2 (11.8 oz)
Zeiss Batis FE 85mm f/1.8 (16.8 oz)
Rokinon FE 24mm f/1.4 (20.8 oz; recommended by a couple astrophotographers)
Rokinon FE 14mm f/2.8 (19.5 oz)
The zooms:
Sony FE 16-35mm f/4 ZA OSS (18.3)
Sony FE 24-70mm f/4 ZA OSS (15.2 oz)
Sony FE 24-240mm f/3.5-6.3 OSS (27.5 oz)
Sony FE 70-200mm f/4 G OSS (29.6)
I guess there are many arguments for zoom versus 2 or 3 primes. It does matter to me
where that weight is. The 4.2 oz 35mm f/2.8 basically lives on my camera, and I find the 22 oz total weight easy to carry around my neck (or in a small hip bag) for any length of time. It's not super wide, or super fast, or macro, but takes darn good pictures. If I need wider or faster or long or macro then I'll just carry that as one or more extra primes in my backpack where the weight is somewhat less noticeable. Basically, I'm adopting the UL philosophy of taking only what I need for what I'm doing.
schmalz wrote:Ideally, I'd like to have something like a full camera body/24-70 2.8/tripod equivalent combo weight less than 5 pounds.
If you can give up on the f/2.8, then the Sony FE 24-70mm f/4 ZA OSS plus a7rII plus Sirui T-025X CFTripod & ballhead gets you to just barely under 5 lbs. You'll have to give up
something to get to 5 lbs.