[Leica] Leica-Users List Digest V2 #323

[Mike Johnston <70007.3477@compuserve.com>]

 Jim Brick, nobody was saying you shouldn't express your opinion. If you think
my idea is lame, hey, I'm the last guy who's going to stuff a sock in your
mouth. I'm the one your dart was aimed at, and I have no objection. But when
people then proceed to disagree with _you_, well, as I always say, free
expression cuts both ways. <g>

 I think we're making too big a deal of this, but here's what I think: I know
_many_ photographers--I mean real, working, published photographers--who shoot
with very few lenses. In general, I would even venture the opinion that the use
of relatively fewer lenses is a hallmark of real photographers, and the use of
too many lenses is a hallmark of the amateur who is less tested and less tried
as a shooter. There aren't only "two photographers in all of history" who shot
with a 50mm exclusively; there are tons of examples of photographers using
limited means. Steiglitz and Weston used only one lens for long stretches of
time; most photographers who used press cameras (Speed Graphics etc.) used only
one lens; most photographers who did their work with Rollei TLRs had only one
lens choice (look at the production figures for 75mm- and 80mm-lensed TLRs vs.
the rare "tele" and "wide" versions that came out after the Mamiya TLR did). 
 Salgado uses a variety of kits but often works with only three lenses; many
news photographers carry no more than four. Josef Koudelka went for twenty
years without ever _removing_ his one lens from his camera. As I quoted
earlier, a large Leica dealer recently told me that most of his customers have
two lenses, a 35 and a 90. I know many shooters who use only one or two lenses
at a time, although they might own more. Evven most _professional_
photographers who own Hasselblads have only three lenses for them--a normal, a
wide, and a portrait tele, most commonly a 50, 80, and 150. 
 As a tendency (but not a rule, n.b.), the propensity to own numerous focal
lengths bespeaks, in my view, a _lack_ of committment to any real personal
vision. It's like people saying "I listen to all kinds of music"--a comment for
which I've never had anything but contempt! Anyone who could say such a thing
obviously has no real love for music. 
 The people who really must own every focal length are studio and assignment
profesionals who do jobs for hire. Why? Because when you're looking at a set
through a 35mm and the A.D. pretentiously says, "Hmm, let's see it with a 28,"
you'll risk not getting hired the next time if you say, "Sorry, 35mm is the
only wide I have before you get to 21." <g>

 All this doesn't argue against the photographer who effectively uses many
lenses or many zooms or whatever. I know those guys exist and I know _some_ of
them can handle the viual fragmentation inherent in using what would be, for
me, "too many" lenses. That's why I say "to each his own." I'm gonna tell Jay
Maisel what to use? No way. But I'll bet most real shooters who use the full
range of focal lengths are assignment professionals and stock shooters, whose
work is typically slick and generic, two qualities I least desire for my own
work and least admire in the work of others. 

 Here's an exercise for you to try (if you want): imagine that somebody came to
you tomorrow and said, okay, you're going into the lifeboat now, and you have
to choose the most basic, simplest lens kit you think you can live with, and
then you have to use nothing but that for the rest of your life. How far could
you pare down? Five lenses, four, three, two, one? Which lenses would those be?
Try it. Post your thoughts! And be ruthless!

 I'll start: for me, the ideal professional camera and lens kit would be an SLR
camera with a 28mm shift lens, a fast 40mm normal lens [I love 40's], and a
85mm lens with a 2X converter, giving me four focal lengths plus shift
capability. (Note that the system doesn't exist which could provide the above.)
But my "Lifeboat kit" would simply be a 35 and an 85. I could honestly use that
for the rest of my life and not be put out too much.

 What about you? Does your Lifeboat Kit look more like Jim's well-stuffed
travel bag, or my lone, monastic 50mm?

 --Mike