Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/07/12
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I tend to prefer wide angle lenses, and thus generally wander around with a 35 mounted on an M6. Of the 4 focal lengths I have, the 35's the one that sees the most use. The 50 has been languishing in my bag for a while now. I mention this because I recently had a bad 35mm day... A week or so ago I was out shooting in an architecturally interesting spot and wanted to get some shots of people moving through the monumental geometry of the space. I alternated between one M6 with a 35, and another M6 with a 90. Looking over the negs, I am really dissatisfied with the shots taken with the 35 - there's too much info and the people are too small to create what I would consider to be effective compositions. This was basically a miscalculation on my part. I was after the space and immediately thought "35," though I should have realized that I would have to move in closer for the people but in doing so would lose the space. Hanging back, I got the space (and too much of it), but the people are lost. My point is that the 35 has become a sort of default lens for me - I carry it everywhere and generally get good results with it. So much so that I'm losing touch with other favorite focal lengths, one of them being the 50. I'm rethinking my 35 strategy and am going start forcing myself to use the 50 instead. I'm hoping that it will allow me to hang back a bit, but still manage a relatively tight (in comparison with the 35) composition. Guy