Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/08/02

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Subject: [Leica] Bon Mots in Mike Johnston's column
From: telyt at earthlink.net (Doug Herr)
Date: Mon Aug 2 21:59:45 2004

on 8/2/04 4:46 PM, Peter Klein at pklein@2alpha.net wrote:

> 
> Mike Johnston's "Sunday Morning Photographer" has a very witty guide to
> the uses of each focal length lens.  My favorite concerns the ubiquitous
> 70-200-ish zoom:
> 
> "Covers all the telephoto range most photographers ever need, at least
> until they become afflicted by the terrible urge to photograph birds."
> 
> (sorry, Doug Herr, Mark Bohrer et al. . .)
> 
> The whole article is here:
> 
> http://www.photo.net/mjohnston/column57/
> or here:
> http://www.luminous-landscape.com/columns/sm-august-04.shtml
> 
> --Peter Klein
> Seattle, WA
> 

I think Mark is on the 'other' list.. but for me the 70-ish to 200-ish zomm
is not particularly useful.  I've had a couple of 'em and I get the
occasional urge to see just how good the 80~200 f/4 Vario is but for the
most part the 35 - 50(60) - 90 combo does everything I want apart from
wildlife.

I know working styles differ, but for me the short end is better served by a
dedicated portrait lens (a Mike Johnston 'essential') like the 90mm
Summicron-R 'cuz of the 90's close focus and fast maximum aperture and small
portable size and bodaceous bokeh, and at the long end 200mm isn't long
enough for much of any wildlife and meanwhile there always seems to be some
"gotcha" with zooms - the bokeh's bad or there's distortion or flare.  For
me there's not enough benefit in changing focal lengths with a flick of the
wrist if I keep running into these quirks.

Now about that terrible affliction... I might be considered sane if not for
that.

Doug Herr
Birdman of Sacramento
http://www.wildlightphoto.com



In reply to: Message from pklein at 2alpha.net (Peter Klein) ([Leica] Bon Mots in Mike Johnston's column)