[Leica] 50mm lenses should be compulsory.

[SonC at aol.com (SonC@aol.com)]

Hmm,a fine line of definitions here but in practice, I hold with Buzz. I 
usually work with just three lenses, on the M6;  a 15c/v, a 35 summi, and a 135 
elmarit (woof)  I have a 90, but somehow it is not extreme enough fo me most 
times, and if  traveling light, it stays behind.
--
My favorite thing to do when I have a lens new to me is to go out with that 
lens alone and try to find shots that suit it.  As Buzz says, the discipline 
enforced by having one lens will bring you to the point that you don't have to 
think when using it.  You pay attention only to the picture.
--
I was just thinking about how I use the Lika Leica, and I realized that I 
pretty much use the default on the zoom which is about 40mm, I think, or I use it 
zoomed in all the way.  Two lenses, in effect.
--
Regards, 

SonC
http://www.sonc.com



In a message dated 5/19/2004 6:32:47 AM Central Daylight Time, 
nbeddoe@lehman.com writes:
" Lenses of different focal lengths do have
characteristics, based on their focal lengths, other than getting more
or less in the frame."

I disagree.  Take a picture with a 50mm lens (or even a 21mm lens) and crop
to the middle of the picture and you've got the same shot you would have got
from the same spot with a 90mm lens(grain and DOF excluded).  You are right
about my choice of lens though ( at least it made for  a provocative subject
line).  I'm sure that if my M6 had come with a 35mm I'd be raving about
that.  The point is that the lens you use is usually much less important
than where you stand.

Neil



I am pleased that the 50mm lens worked for you, especially when it was
your only lens.  However, I submit for your consideration that its being
a 50mm lens had far less to do with your success than the discipline
enforced by using only one lens.  It could have been a 35mm, it could
have been a 90mm, but it is the fact of having only one lens that made
you work harder at each picture you took.

    Buzz Hausner