short lenses and the wide angle

[Helge]

I have both the Rokkor-X 35mm f1.8 (my favorite lens) and the f2.8 -- I'm just not sure I would have gotten them if I knew that they were "tainted".

Exactly, we need to de-taint 35mm.
Focal lengths has a certain overall look, and you are not likely to lust for one that looks like what everyone else is shooting. 45 - 55mm will always be faster and more numerous. Various short teles are for the classic bokeh freak. and very wides are mostly for showing off to most people. "Scream" as HCB so aptly said.
35mm seems boring to most.

 

[MattKing]

Sorry, It's my fault, I wasn't paying attention to the date on the post. Why these old posts (zombie threads) miraculously reappear is beyond me.

It is a good thing, actually.
It usually means new people are joining, searching through the archives, and trying to contribute to a discussion.
It is probably accentuated by the fact that many are now using phones to access Photrio - the post date isn't exactly prominent on those little screens.
The real question is, why aren't you paying attention?

 

[Moose22]

Exactly, we need to de-taint 35mm.
Focal lengths has a certain overall look, and you are not likely to lust for one that looks like what everyone else is shooting. 45 - 55mm will always be faster and more numerous. Various short teles are for the classic bokeh freak. and very wides are mostly for showing off to most people. "Scream" as HCB so aptly said.
35mm seems boring to most.

There is no taint to 35mm.

Or, of there is, then there definitely is one on 50mm since it's the standard, normal lens every 35mm camera has come with for twice my lifetime. And I use the crap out of my 50mms, they're almost always on my rangefinders and SLRs. Every snapshot of every family posing in front of everything from the 40s up to the cell phone era was probably at 50mm. And I still love my 50s.

35mm is only boring because it's a perfect view. A wide-but-almost-normal view. I have a 35 for my leica and it's really fun for street work when compared to the 28 I normally use on my F6 or F100 because I can get people larger in frame, but not have to get so close to the people, and still see the scene around them. I can sit in the corner of a room and see enough of the room to get a sense of space without feeling distorted.

 

[ciniframe]

Good points about the 50mm Moose. Back in the day (early 70’s for me) when purchasing any camera gear on my income was a scrimp and save affair the 50 f1.9 Soligor on my Miranda D had to do for a long time as my only lens. You just made do and didn’t worry about what lens to select because you only had one choice.

 

[ant!]

50mm since it's the standard, normal lens every 35mm camera has come with for twice my lifetime

This might be true for cameras with interchangeable lenses, but fixed lens cameras were often 35-45mm, but 28mm or 50mm did of course exist as well. And then came the zooms...

Anyways, I like 50mm and 35mm, even though I use the 50mm more often. Same with the medium format equivalents...

 

[benjiboy]

It is a good thing, actually.
It usually means new people are joining, searching through the archives, and trying to contribute to a discussion.
It is probably accentuated by the fact that many are now using phones to access Photrio - the post date isn't exactly prominent on those little screens.
The real question is, why aren't you paying attention?

I did reply to the post on my smartphone Matt, I'm not very well at the moment and was up most of the previous night coughing, so I failed to notice the date.

 

[MattKing]

My 35mm f/2 lives on my OM body of the day.
The 24mm f/2.8 and 85 mm f/2 wait patiently in the bag, knowing that they will be called upon when required.
The 50mm lenses (50mm f/1.8, 50mm f/1.4 and 50mm f/3.5 macro) are OK about this - sometimes they too are called upon. They spend quality time with the 200mm f/5, the 75-150mm f/4 and the new to me 35-70mm f/3.5~f/4.5.
All Zuikos, of course.

 

[ciniframe]

Hi Matt, just south of you in Lacey, Wa. Your OM kit sounds very much like mine. Except I had the 35 f2 but sold it and settled on the f2.8 version because of the size and then all my lenses used the same 49mm filter size. I have the 200 f5 also, but no zooms. I foolishly sold my 28-48 f4 Zuiko, dumb decision I regret, it is a great walking around lens with a constant aperture.

 

[wiltw]

There is no taint to 35mm.

Or, of there is, then there definitely is one on 50mm since it's the standard, normal lens every 35mm camera has come with for twice my lifetime. And I use the crap out of my 50mms, they're almost always on my rangefinders and SLRs. Every snapshot of every family posing in front of everything from the 40s up to the cell phone era was probably at 50mm. And I still love my 50s.

35mm is only boring because it's a perfect view. A wide-but-almost-normal view. I have a 35 for my leica and it's really fun for street work when compared to the 28 I normally use on my F6 or F100 because I can get people larger in frame, but not have to get so close to the people, and still see the scene around them. I can sit in the corner of a room and see enough of the room to get a sense of space without feeling distorted.

And then there are cameras like those from Beseler nd Olympus, and the 'normal' FL was actually 'It depends'...50mm, 53mm, 55mm, 58mm all 'normals' simultaneously offered

 

[Helge]

There is no taint to 35mm.

Or, of there is, then there definitely is one on 50mm since it's the standard, normal lens every 35mm camera has come with for twice my lifetime. And I use the crap out of my 50mms, they're almost always on my rangefinders and SLRs. Every snapshot of every family posing in front of everything from the 40s up to the cell phone era was probably at 50mm. And I still love my 50s.

35mm is only boring because it's a perfect view. A wide-but-almost-normal view. I have a 35 for my leica and it's really fun for street work when compared to the 28 I normally use on my F6 or F100 because I can get people larger in frame, but not have to get so close to the people, and still see the scene around them. I can sit in the corner of a room and see enough of the room to get a sense of space without feeling distorted.

There is no such thing as a perfect FL.
There are impractical FLs for general photography like 200mm or 15mm but there is a whole range in between.

35 - 40mm was used on a tonne of cheap and small cameras from the sixties to the 90s. And most of them used in the usual “get it all in” shots of family documentarians.

 

[Moose22]

And then there are cameras like those from Beseler nd Olympus, and the 'normal' FL was actually 'It depends'...50mm, 53mm, 55mm, 58mm all 'normals' simultaneously offered

Absolutely.

I've also seen normals creeping down toward 40mm, which is where they start to get wide, and I have to admit that I like the 40mm view. Nothing perfectly matches the eye, but it's 50ish mm on an SLR. Not exactly 50.

Also, I think 50mm for me is because most of my published pictures from 30 years ago were on the cheap 50mm 1.8. I've used 50mm so much I can see 50mm frames.

Like Ciniframe says, in the old days we worked with what we could get, and I was pretty broke. I had no idea how wonderful a Nikon 50mm 1.8 was for sharpness and rendition, it was just the lens I had. I couldn't afford the very spendy professional glass my rich friends had.

I am still an advocate of trying out and seeing what works for you. You can generally flip a used lens for about what you paid if you take care of it, because we all want a slightly different thing out of "wide". Where we're at, what we like to shoot, even how we see things are personal.

 

[Sirius Glass]

There is no such thing as a perfect FL.
There are impractical FLs for general photography like 200mm or 15mm but there is a whole range in between.

35 - 40mm was used on a tonne of cheap and small cameras from the sixties to the 90s. And most of them used in the usual “get it all in” shots of family documentarians.

50mm lenses are a quasi standard normal for 35mm cameras and varies from 43mm to 58mm, generally.

 

[MattKing]

In the inimitable words of Bruce Cockburn, "The trouble with Normal is it always gets worse".