[Leica] How did 50mm become the "normal" lens for 35mm cameras?

[Henning Wulff]

I agree with that, Mark. But I would also add that circumstances and what you see/are looking at changes your personal 'angle of view' significantly. When I'm shooting wildlife or something else that is generally small and at a distance, due to my concentration I see more 'long focus' at that point with 200-400mm being a likely range. Similarly, when I'm shooting architecture, my eyes scan a lot and my concentration on that make an 'angle of view' are definitely a lot wider, especially with interiors. In fact, one of the cameras I used to really like a lot because it 'saw' what I saw was the Noblex series, with a 24/28mm equivalent vertical and 130° horizontal view without the 3d to 2d distortion in the extreme corners. Then again, when I'm just walking down the street, 35mm matches my main area of concentration while 85-105mm matches my focus when I'm talking to people one on one. That's what makes that a good portrait lens, in conjunction with the ability to get rid of distractions when using appropriate apertures. 50mm works with a small (2 or 3) group of people or concentrating on a specific event on the street.

Henning Wulff
hjwulff at gmail.com




On 2016-09-21, at 3:03 PM, Mark Rabiner <mark at rabinergroup.com> wrote:

> Its just that the unaided eye does not really have a frame it looks through.
> Its sees the whole room but is only concentrated on a small object in it.
> Its a tele mounted in a super wide.
> So its darned hard to impossible to state what the angle of the unaided eye
> is.  Its a sharp 180mm in a bokeh infused 12mm. I don't think we can round
> these two numbers off and come up with something. As I understand it some
> people use their peripheral vision differently.
> 
> 
> On 9/21/16 4:58 PM, "Lew Schwartz" <lew1716 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> I believe that Bill C. is correct. It's relative to what you see with your
>> unaided eye.
>> 
>> 
>> -Lew Schwartz
>> 
>> On Sun, Sep 18, 2016 at 3:13 PM, Mark Rabiner <mark at rabinergroup.com> wrote:
>> 
>>> 
>>> The normal camera lens now if you want to define normal as "most used by
>>> the
>>> most photogs most often for most stuff" is the wide angle zoom. Which has
>>> come to be the 18 to 35 zoom. This for photojournalists as well as
>>> commercial photogs and probably fine art dudes too. It started out being a
>>> 20 to 35. But time flew.
>>> I had a 12-24 for my cropped Nikons which translates to that.
>>> Not sure if I'm going to get a 20mm 1.8 to go with my new 35 1.8 and 50 1.8
>>> and do some quick back and forth running or go with the zoom.
>>> 
>>> --
>>> Mark William Rabiner
>>> Photographer
>>> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/lugalrabs/
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
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>> 
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> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Mark William Rabiner
> Photographer
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/lugalrabs/
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
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>