One M lens: Which one??

[evikne]

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I purchased my first Leica together with a new 50mm Summilux ASPH, and for a long time I had only this excellent lens. Had it not been for this forum, I wouldn't have been so confused (and tempted), and I'd probably still lived happily with only this lens. 🙄 😄

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[james.liam]

It really depends upon where you predominantly shoot.

Peter Kilmister (50mm) lives in a more rural/country setting IIRC, 'adan' showed a dramatic shot in an urban environment (21mm). Living in a large city/close spaces, 28mm has become a recent favorite. I viewed a video by Kai W where he's shooting in tight alleys of Hong Kong with the Hasselblad XPan using a 45mm lens (2 frames shot at a time) so it's the horizontal FOV of a 24mm equivalent in 35mm. Stunning images encompassing the context lost with a 35/50.

Edited August 8, 2019 by james.liam

[Guest]

Naughtlux. Period

[francesco calcagno]

28 elmarit 

[M11 for me]

The fact that there is a Q tells us what the most important focal lenght is.

I am a person who started with 50mm (in the years 60 and 70 many cameras had just a fixed 50mm attached). It took me a long time to come away from that focal length. When I stared with the Canon gear in the beginning of the 80ies then my first lens was a 50mm of course and then a zoom. The first 35mm I bought only with my digital Canons. Today I can not understand anymore why it took me so long to learn about the beauty of 35 or 28mm.

[farnz]

1 hour ago, M10 for me said:

The fact that there is a Q tells us what the most important focal lenght is.

50 mm? 😄

Pete.

[otto.f]

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The question doesn’t tell whether there are other camera’s around in the house or studio. But after serious thinking about the 35FLE, I’d go for the Summilux 75 anyway; the copy that I own now that is. Do I need to explain? See my zenfolio website, gallery Dickens festival. I use this lens quite often for street, but it’s also ideal for stills, portraits, children, duo-portraits. I would certainly miss a 35 indeed.

I don’t see the ‘one M one lens’ idea as a contribution to my creativity btw. Perhaps it can be good in a certain phase in one’s development as a photographer, but once grown-up and developed I see no surplus-value in such a restriction, on the contrary. Sounds more as an assignment of a teacher in an art class. 

Edited August 8, 2019 by otto.f

[farnz]

32 minutes ago, otto.f said:

See my zenfolio website, gallery Dickens festival.

Very nice and shows off the 75 Summilux's strengths beautifully.

Pete.

[Peter Kilmister]

5 hours ago, james.liam said:

It really depends upon where you predominantly shoot.

Peter Kilmister (50mm) lives in a more rural/country setting IIRC, 'adan' showed a dramatic shot in an urban environment (21mm). Living in a large city/close spaces, 28mm has become a recent favorite. I viewed a video by Kai W where he's shooting in tight alleys of Hong Kong with the Hasselblad XPan using a 45mm lens (2 frames shot at a time) so it's the horizontal FOV of a 24mm equivalent in 35mm. Stunning images encompassing the context lost with a 35/50.

@james.liam You are correct that I live in a rural and underpopulated part of southern England ... and I love it. However, I have lived in the UK's largest city. To the surprise of many it isn't London. London is a very small city (the square mile) and what is known as London is a metropolis which contains 2 cities and loads of Boroughs. I spent my teenage and twenties in the City of Birmingham which is huge. 

I love my 50mm in the rural environment of wide open spaces, and local towns that have old buildings. Few buildings are more than 400 years old. Fire and lack of foundations took away many ancient buildings long ago. Enemy bombers didn't help either.

If I had to go back to Birmingham and only take one lens, which would I choose? Well, when I lived there in the 1970s I had a Nikon with a 50mm lens. So for its wide open parks, its wide streets, its famed botanical gardens, for its slums, for its canals (more than Venice) I would again choose a 50mm lens. Second choice would be a 24mm lens, mainly for indoor shots.

HC-B used one lens I am told. He walked backward or walked forward to get the correct composition.

[adan]

3 hours ago, Peter Kilmister said:

HC-B used one lens I am told. He walked backward or walked forward to get the correct composition.

A bit of a myth.

One can look at his People of Moscow essay and see, from the "perspective" and framing across the collection of pictures, that he was willing to work with everything from 35 to 90/135-ish.

https://www.google.com/search?q=cartier+Bresson+Moscow&client=firefox-b-1&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi1vrSvyPTjAhUTXc0KHcoYD4EQ_AUIECgB&biw=1891&bih=1251

(The essay was done (1954) just after the M system came out, and no doubt Leitz presented him with a complete kit (M3, 35, 50, 90, 135) and he made full use of its possibilities.)

HC-B also directed a number of motion pictures - not only with a variety of cinema lenses (among which a 50mm would be a short telephoto), but some in color (horrors!). He was a lot more - diverse - than the hagiography would have us believe.

https://www.henricartierbresson.org/en/hcb/filmography/

Not to mention pix of him later in life shooting with a Minilux's 40mm Summarit.

I think it is fair to say he favored a 50mm - no doubt a taste acquired early on when he used Barnack-Leicas with a fixed 50mm finder.

[pico]

Yes, HBC certainly did use other lenses. 
Check out the compression and bokeh. Look like a 90mm lens. Albert Camus by HBC

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Edited August 9, 2019 by pico

[david strachan]

I wouldn't have picked it as a 90mm...more perhaps a 50mm.  But happily will defer to more expert Pico.

Certainly he used other lenses...what photographer wouldn't?  His favourite 50mm, even as he matured, was 50mm Summicron ltm...that's the screw thread variety...the first of the Summicrons.

 

Has anyone read "The Plague" by Camus?  Wonderful, i think.

 

...

[pico]

22 minutes ago, david strachan said:

I wouldn't have picked it as a 90mm...more perhaps a 50mm.  But happily will defer to more expert Pico.

Maybe a 50mm 1.5?

[david strachan]

5 minutes ago, pico said:

Maybe a 50mm 1.5?

😄😃🤣

Y're cheeky Pico, but that's why we like you. 

 

But I'd agree.  Could be just a bit too much face depth for a 90mm..big nose syndrome fits for close up 50mm.

 

I think it's his old screw-on...but who cares anyway.  

Hope health is good.

...

[Pyrogallol]

1 hour ago, pico said:

Maybe a 50mm 1.5?

I think he used a Zeiss Sonnar 50mm f1.5 in LTM, I think there is a picture of him with one on his camera.

[Mark II]

Strange discussion. If you want to use just one lens, pick the lens/focal-length/speed that you personally want to use for your photography.

There is no right or wrong answer, but whatever you choose will inevitably be right for some things but wrong for many others. Choosing a single lens is an exercise in learning to use that lens to its best, but also learning not to regret the images that you could not take. If I opted for OCOL I would probably choose the 21mm Summilux, precisely because it is a FL and speed that I am not familiar with yet which I know can deliver spectacular images - and it is a long way removed from my comfort zone of 35/50.

8 hours ago, Peter Kilmister said:

He walked backward or walked forward to get the correct composition.

Do that in Venice with a 50mm and you may be left wondering why you did not buy a water-proof camera and lens 😂

[helged]

10 hours ago, otto.f said:

The question doesn’t tell whether there are other camera’s around in the house or studio. But after serious thinking about the 35FLE, I’d go for the Summilux 75 anyway; the copy that I own now that is. Do I need to explain? See my zenfolio website, gallery Dickens festival. I use this lens quite often for street, but it’s also ideal for stills, portraits, children, duo-portraits. I would certainly miss a 35 indeed.

I don’t see the ‘one M one lens’ idea as a contribution to my creativity btw. Perhaps it can be good in a certain phase in one’s development as a photographer, but once grown-up and developed I see no surplus-value in such a restriction, on the contrary. Sounds more as an assignment of a teacher in an art class. 

+1. Of the Lux'es I have owned, the 28, 35 (FLE), and 50 (latest version) are sold, but the 75 f1.4 v2 I will keep forever. I particularly like the dual nature of this lens; a gentle mix of softness and sharpness and with a blue-/greenish tint wide open, and bitingly sharp and with fairly neutral colours stopped down a little. 

(The 35FLE I didn't like for it's tendency for double-contour oof rendering.)

If not 75mm, I would possibly pick 28mm as my fav focal length. So if I would limit my M-arsenal to two focal lengths 😉, it would be 28 and 75mm, the latest being the 75 Lux, and the first possibly Cron or Elmarit. 

[Jemke]

18 hours ago, Milan_S said:

Definitely the APO-Summicron-M 50mm f/2 ASPH

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Wow! Amazing picture, it reminds me of Henri Lartigue's color picture of his wife:)

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Hallo,

Look here: Leica M

[david strachan]

22 hours ago, Mark II said:

Strange discussion. If you want to use just one lens, pick the lens/focal-length/speed that you personally want to use for your photography.

 

That's right...but one has to learn how to use it.

Wide angles are great, but not as close portraiture..eg 28mm can look really bad, close up. So step back couple of steps and crop.

Even 35mm and 50mm too close looks uncomfortable...step back a little and crop.  Still get great picture. No-one like big noses and funny faces.

Close-up we can all get great bokeh...so why keep showing off this phenomenon. Even works for tiny sensor 'phone images.  

Of course one would always be cognicent of edge effects, with group photographs and wide angles...put your enemies on extreme edge. No, not realy...we aim to be kind to all.

A photograph may be forever.

...

[ChicagoMatthew]

On 8/8/2019 at 3:37 PM, otto.f said:

The question doesn’t tell whether there are other camera’s around in the house or studio. But after serious thinking about the 35FLE, I’d go for the Summilux 75 anyway; the copy that I own now that is. Do I need to explain? See my zenfolio website, gallery Dickens festival. I use this lens quite often for street, but it’s also ideal for stills, portraits, children, duo-portraits. I would certainly miss a 35 indeed.

Very nice images. I like the “Leica book” ones. 👏