[Leica]Why a 35mm lens?

[Peter Klein <pklein@2alpha.net>]

>Alan Hull wrote:
>
> >I find it interesting that so many luggers seem to prefer the 35mm lens.
> >SNIP
> >For me, I find that anything less than 50mm is an "in your face "style.

I think that for of the "up-close and personal" people pictures 
indoors--something at which the Leica excels, a 35mm is often better.  It 
naturally shows a bit of the surroundings as well as the subject.  On the 
other hand, the 50mm can force you to make the part stand for the whole, 
which can make a stronger picture.  If there's room to back up enough.

As Donal mentioned, the choice can be very personal.  I used to prefer a 
50mm hands-down.  Now I'm not so sure.  My reasons for preferring the 50mm:

- - I wear glasses.  I can see the entire 50mm frame easily.  I miss a bit on 
one end or other of the 35mm frame unless I shift my eye.  This sometimes 
leads to distractions in the final picture that I didn't see.

- - I am quite tall:  6 feet, 3 inches.  At the short distances needed to 
fill the 35mm frame with a subject, I sometimes get a "looking down" 
perspective that seems odd.  When I drop to one knee, I'm too short.  So I 
have to bend my knees drastically for a happy medium, which can be awkward 
and unstable.

- - 50mm lenses have generally been of higher quality and more economical 
than other focal lengths.

But now, Leica has turned the latter around with the aspherics (which I 
don't own), and even the 35/2.0 pre-aspheric (which I have) is pretty 
incredible.  And the 35 is a bit more forgiving of focus and framing in 
tight quarters.

I do think that one of the main reasons for the 35's popularity is that 
over the last 50 years, better and faster wider lenses have come 
about.  People searching for a different "look" have gone to wide angles en 
masse, and the 50mm perspective seems flat by comparison.  The enhanced 
three-dimensionality of the close-in wide angle view has become "normal" to 
many people.  The 35 gives you some of that perspective, but not in the 
tricky, quasi-fun-house mirror way that wider lenses do.

Lately, I've been preferring the 35 indoors and the 50 outdoors.  However, 
I have a 35/2 and both a 50/2 and 50/1.4.  So in really wretched light, the 
50 wins.  And sometimes whichever lens happens to be on the camera wins.

All this said, it boils down to how *you* see.  Use whichever focal length 
fits your vision.  Or use both!

- --Peter Klein
Seattle, WA