[Leica] best all round 50 mm??

[ruben at rhodos.dk (Ruben)]

Thanks Mark - yes it is funny how the square and the 80 (in my case pt. a 75
on my Rollei) gets the job done.The more panoramic I go the less happy I am
with the result - I had the oppertunity to buy an X-pan real cheap and had a
try with it for 14 days - I thought I would love it but i ended up the
opposite way and found that I with my SWC/M had the X-pan built in both ways
not even having to turn my camera plus the benifit of large square shots.
Perhaps, against rules of  metaphysics, but something does seem to make the
square work wonders.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mark Rabiner" <mark@rabinergroup.com>
To: "Leica Users Group" <lug@leica-users.org>
Sent: Sunday, May 02, 2004 11:35 PM
Subject: Re: [Leica] best all round 50 mm??


> On 4/30/04 9:04 PM, "Ruben" <ruben@rhodos.dk> wrote:
>
> >
> > I use my 35 mm summicron (non asph, ca. 1990)  85% of the time and my 90
mm
> > 15% on my M6. I never used normal lenses much, but by using them in
> > medium-format I found that I am beginning to like them more and more.
Since
> > I never tried a normal 50 mm on my M6, and since I would probably not
use it
> > more them say 15-20 % of the time (time mostly taken by the amount I
would
> > have used the 35 mm) I do not want to use a fortune on a lens - I dont
need
> > the noctilux F 1.0, but I would like go for a lens of max F.2.0 like the
> > summicron. Question ?? some of you shooting a lot of 50 mm with
experience
> > of different optics - what would be the best 50 mm allround optics, with
an
> > image quality like my 35 mm summicron - would some of the olde optics be
as
> > good - and what about voigtl?nder? I shoot a lot of pictures with little
DOF
> > so i prefere not to have optics showing pantagon/hexagon shaped
highlights
> > in the background
> > ruben
>
> I have found that in medium format an 80 mm lens has the strange ability
to
> always get the shot.  Hence the long standing reign and reputation of the
> twin lens Rolleiflex. A camera which went out on many a job with no
thought
> as to wide angle or tele. Until those Rolleiflex wides and tele bodies
came
> around... To compete with that pesky burgeoning Hasselblad "system".
>
> The ability of the 80mm lens with a 6x6cm square format to be right for
the
> job 99.99 % of the time goes against of course all known rules of
> metaphysics*.
> In terms of horizontal angle of view an 80 matches up directly against a
> 50mm lens in 35mm photography. Only an 80 on a square gives you that 40
> degree angle up and down as well as left to right. IN 35mm photography you
> get a third less filling from top to bottom. It's photography Lite.
> Just means you can shoot more without the filling.
> Don?t ask me about carbs.
>
> An 80 is also seemingly more useful in medium format because in medium
> format we are less compunctious about putting the thing on a tripod. Thus
we
> get our foregrounds in focus and make the whole thing just more doable.
> People dance around inside the frame and we just let it happen.
> In 2 over 3 we want to follow them.
>
> Also in some way a square is though of being less formal. Less of a
format.
> It's freely chopped into horizontals or verticals or trapezoids down to
the
> smallest chip of image in that square. Half frame say. 18x24mm. I'd not be
> at all surprised if Avedon took a half frame sized image out of one of his
> Rolleiflex negs and had them blow it up 10 feet high to hang up in the
> metropolitan museum of art. Loren Hutton. A little grainy a little soft
but
> what the hey!? Those Zeiss optics on Plus X hold up pretty well to
scrutiny.
>
> My first lens was the 50 Summicron new 11 years ago just before the built
in
> shade. It was my only lens for quite a while.
> The Summilux 11 years ago had a close focusing issue. I liked the way it
> looked but it cost a little more than I had to spend. Also for years it
was
> drilled into my head the catch phase. "Summicron"!
> Summicron, Summicron, Summicron!
> And then more Summicron.
> And when you're done with that Summicron give me more Summicron!
> Kind of like "Julie Andrews" in Bedazzled.
> Kodachrome, Kleenex, Sony, Summicron, Hellmann's.
> A MARK to be recoded with.
> "Summilux" sounded to much like something they came up later.
>
> The "mystique" of Leica and it's main mark IMO "Summicron" can not be
> compared in any way to the wonderfull products coming out of Cosina with
the
> Voigtl?nder label. I'll admit I also got into Leica because of the
mystique
> of the whole thing. Zeiss I can also get into and am into. Get the old
Zeiss
> lens HCB used can you get those? Or another old classic like the dual
range.
>
> If you are a night person get a Noctilux. Great for shooting the nights of
> Canada. I used mine extensively there last week and those negs were the
ones
> that grab me on the light table over the other 4 lenses I used. Those will
> be Photoshoped first.
>
>
>
>
> Mark Rabiner
> Photography
> Portland Oregon
>
> *metaphysics
> 1. The branch of philosophy that examines the nature of reality, including
> the relationship between mind and matter, substance and attribute, fact
and
> value.
> 2. The theoretical or first principles of a particular discipline: the
> metaphysics of law.
> 3. A priori speculation upon questions that are unanswerable to scientific
> observation, analysis, or experiment.
> 4. Excessively subtle or recondite reasoning.
>
>
> New-improved
> http://rabinergroup.com/
>
>
>
>
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