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Would the masters of yesterday embrace the super wide lenses of today.


tappan

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Guest Ornello

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I have read that Henri Cartier-Bresson's most used lens was a 50mm and that Robert Capa's choice was also a 50mm. When I think of the Leica m system historically, throughout the years, I think of a system that seems to want to shy away from distortion, a system that seems to be born for a more traditional view of a 35mm or 50mm. I enjoy shooting with my 35mm summicron and 24 elmarit. The Leica super wides of today, the 18mm and the 21mm appear to be masterpiece lenses. I was just wondering what some of the masters of yesterday would think about the 18mm and 21mm of today.

Mark

 

Honestly, I don't know or care. Why should we care what anyone else thinks? The era they lived in...such lenses were not available, so they evolved their style with what was available. So do we.

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The era they lived in...such lenses were not available, so they evolved their style with what was available. So do we.

 

Exactly. Why wold one assume that they would have done anything but embrace and explore these as they did with the available technology of their time?

 

Any comments that they may have made towards the end of their careers regarding preferred lens focal lengths would probably also have reflected their style developed with experience of the technology available during their formative years.

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Guest Ornello
Exactly. Why wold one assume that they would have done anything but embrace and explore these as they did with the available technology of their time?

 

Any comments that they may have made towards the end of their careers regarding preferred lens focal lengths would probably also have reflected their style developed with experience of the technology available during their formative years.

 

I am rather fond of long lenses, even more so as I get older. I have 8 Leicaflex lenses, 5 of them are long (90, 180, 250, 350, 560).

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The argument to be made for the 50mm is the old one that claims the focal length is the one which most approximates human visual POV. Like many other posters here, I see the virtue in the use of lenses both wider and longer. Having said that, if I end up not selling my M6, my intention is to use that solely with a 50mm attached.

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The argument to be made for the 50mm is the old one that claims the focal length is the one which most approximates human visual POV.

 

I've never quite understood this one. My field of view (what I see while keeping my head still and not deliberately moving my eyes) seems to vary between the equivalents of about 18mm and 90mm depending on what I'm looking at and how hard I'm concentrating.

 

And if there is actually something special about the field of view of a 50mm lens on a 36x24 frame, why is it that the "standard" lenses of other formats invariably have a wider field than that?

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