Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/01/18

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Subject: Re: [Leica] 50mm lens
From: D Khong <dkhong@pacific.net.sg>
Date: Tue, 19 Jan 1999 07:29:31 +0000

At 07:22 AM 18/1/99 -0800, you wrote:
>
>[Eric wrote]
>
>> The pictures I have that are taken with 50mm or 55 or 60 mm lenses
>> have a classic look to them. Kind of like what pictures looked like in the
>past.
>
>Yes. Various LUGers seem to have eliminated the 50mm from their bags and I
>don't understand why. While I use the 35mm outdoors more than the 50mm, I
>find the 50mm an ideal short "portrait" lens. If I want to capture a person
>doing something or with some related items around him/her, a 50mm seems
>ideal to me. <snip>

In the contrary, I have more 50mm lenses in my possession than any other M
lenses.  I am most comfortable with the 50mm lens as I was introduced into
photography during the era when almost all cameras were sold with the 50 mm
lenses attached at "standard" lens.   The 50 was the cheapest, almost the
lightest, and certainly the fastest for that price and extremely versatile
in application.  Zooms were hardly available and those were either too
expensive or costly.  Even today, most zooms hardly have an aperture faster
than f2.8 and the average zoom at f3.4-4.5 makes the reflex VF such a dim
sight.  Personally, I advise all newbies to avoid a zoom as an initial
purchase and just use a 50mm for 1-2 years and shoot everything with it. I
find that those who do it this way are better at handling their cameras and
in judging perspective, lighting and composition.

When I travel with just one camera and lens it will be the M3 + 50 summilux.

Dan K.