Does anyone else do this before buying a new lens?

[pico]

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If your work is mostly paper media such as newspapers and magazine work, as your portfolio suggests, it makes no sense to me to schlep three or four Leicas when it would suffice to carry one DSLR with wide-range zoom, and another in the car as backup.

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I rarely had (or have) time to change lenses in the kind of action situations shown in your portfolio.

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[Manolo Laguillo]

I really can´t understand your question. Looking at your web page it seems to me that you know perfectly well how to do things in our profession, being the choosing of the focal length one very important part of it.

 

This said, and knowing what focal lengths are available for the Leica M cameras, it should be very easy to build a logical sequence of them:

 

21, 28, 50, 90

18, 24, 35, 75

 

I agree with pico, and therefore add this suggestion: buy a second M body, and have 2 focal lengths ready (35 + 75, or 50 + 90, or 28 + 75, whatever...), if working with Leica M is what you want.

[jip]

I've done what you did, I checked out different focal lengths with my Canon 17-40mm F4 L before I bought my M8 with 28mm lens. So yes I did!

[satureyes]

Thanks for these replies. I know it's not an exact science what I do but it's more a case of seeing if I can keep shooting in my style with primes and at what settings.

 

For instance if I'm shooting at f4 and at ISO 3200 to get a half decent shutter speed I know that even fully open I'm going to struggle to get the shot on the M9 even with a fully open Lux.

 

Its really just a rough and ready way for me to see if it would work. For instance- a group of people at an event. Sometimes it's not practical to be close to them with a 35mm FOV, so I'd naturally use a longer lens and stand back. I'm always assessing whether I can get this shot by standing a lot closer and what the reaction of the subjects may be.

[thighslapper]

I looked through all my Nikon EXIF data to decide which lenses to initially buy for my M9.

 

Needless to say, the lenses I now find I prefer bear no relationship to this original plan......

 

These days I tend to use my TriElmar, Noctilux 50/.95 and 90/4 macro for just about everything .... with the new 21/3.4 nudging the TriElmar out increasingly often.

 

I could never have conceived I would end up with this bizarre combo if I had stuck to rational decision making.....

[MarkP]

I just use a cv12mm and crop as needed...

 

to 135mm equivalent?

[IWC Doppel]

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I have tried using the viewfinder lines as a guide to see, but that doesn't seem to help. If you are really concerned buy an old summicron 35 secondhand, you won't lose any money if you buy right.

 

Who wouldn't bond with the most used focal length on the M ?

[MikeD700]

Deciding what focal length is best is a tiring, futile, repetitive exercise, into which I engage on an almost permanent basis.

 

24, 28, 35, 50? I have no idea. 85? That seems to have a stable place in my photography in that it gets used least often, but always for a distinct purpose.

 

I bought some inexpensive 50mm's for my Nikon (Nikkor) and Contax (Yashica and Zeiss) analogue slr's just to have something compact and versatile on the bodies, almost like a glass body cap. At that price level (50 to 150 euros) it's relatively easy to do.

 

Using each focal length teaches you the advantages (and disadvantages) intimately. In the end, I gravitate towards the 35mm angle of view. Or the 50

 

So not a stupid question at all.

[brill64]

it makes a lot of sense to me to test things out if you are making a living out of your equipment. many dslr users i know, including myself, use a zoom lens of some sort and rarely fix on a prime for reason of convenience, versatility and speed. building total confidence in a rangefinder system takes time coming from this discipline, however for me, a 35 is an essential part of my everyday kit

[ismon]

Actually, the first thing I do is check my bank account to see if I can afford the lens. Previewing through a DSLR is no help if you are a rfdr user. Start memorizing DOF tables for your likely apertures and working distances.

[pico]

Actually, the first thing I do is check my bank account to see if I can afford the lens. Previewing through a DSLR is no help if you are a rfdr user. Start memorizing DOF tables for your likely apertures and working distances.

 

The M2 had a DOF visualizer in the viewfinder. Wonder if such could work in modern M cameras.

[leicafan!]

The other thing I do is look for a Flickr group for the particular lens I am interested in, or camera for that matter, and then view the most 'interesting' pics in flickriver. Gives you an idea of what people are getting from the gear which is nice, and occasionally humbling!

 

Here's a stream the 35 summicron as an example:

Flickriver: Most interesting photos from Leica Summicron-M 35mm pool

[MikeD700]

On a not totally different tack: using zooms (only) makes one not only lazy, but also unaware of the possibilities of distinct prime focal lengths.

 

I can see the usefulness in professional life (I had a 24-70 Nikkor once), but good photography always takes a keen and immediate understanding what a particular focal length/angle of view is all about.

 

Which I learnt once again this afternoon, going out with the RTS II and Plus-X and a variety of lenses, but left the 2.8/25 at home ) did take the Olympia Sonnar though+ and used it.

 

Maybe I should have taken a zoom lens+ 24/200 or something. Always works, doesn´t it