Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/01/19
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Normals are my favorite. A shot made with a normal can fool the viewer into thinking they are looking at a shot taken with a wide or a tele. They can formalize or they can be close and intimate. They tend to be the cheapest, lightest, brightest, sharpest and most usable of any lens. I'm also very fond of an 80 with medium format square. Because the popularity of 35mm they are not even passé: people hardly use them for fear of doing the "normal". Very ironic to use one for a distinctive look! I have often gone out shooting for hours with the 50 mounted on the camera and on each side of my small fannypacktype bag is a 35 and a 90 and often not needed to reach into the bag and switch lenses. They are the most underrated lenses out there. I love the sly subtle variations of them: a 45, a 65 or 55 macro. Pancake lenses, blitz lenses, superfast lenses, super slow lenses (lightweight, collapsible). I'm a huge fan of HCB and he used them 99 percent of the time I think. Also Avedon with his Rolleiflex and Pen made great use of them and in sheet film. Mark Rabiner