28mm, 35mm, 50mm Lens Combination?

[erniethemilk]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

23 hours ago, cpclee said:

Here is a recent interview of William Albert Allard who shot many of National Geopgraphic's best images in their hey day.  You can see that he uses a Leica Q and an M mounted with a 35 'cron.  He also talks about using the 50mm focal length.
 

 

Haha, thanks a really interesting watch!  Now got me looking at used Q’s 😂

[Alan Zheng]

I'd carry my 35mm if I intend to carry only one lens, and if I want to cover all my needs, I'd take a 28mm and a 50mm. So here you go, one more excuse for your GAS 😀

 

[a.noctilux]

As I already have the three lengths in my MATE,  I think next time "short travel", I'd take as "emergency", two more lenses.

The only  criteria is strange, E55 size,

for Monochrom, I tend to use a lot colored filters, so this time I'll choose happily  ( yes 😇 ) Elmarit-M 21mm asph. and my newly bought Summicron-M  90mm asph.

[Camaro5]

I was mainly 28-50-75 for a long time but recently added a 35mm.  I liked it better for the many car shows I do.  28mm is still my go-to for landscapes and 50mm for street.  Don't use the 75mm too much but it's nice to have if you need it or want to do something a little different.  

[MrFriendly]

On 1/5/2022 at 2:11 AM, erniethemilk said:

I currently have the 35mm & 50mm Summicrons I use frequently - more so the 35mm on my M10P

I’m wondering if anyone uses this same focal length combination along with a 28mm. I’d quite like wider at some point than the 35mm offers. 
 

Unsure if the 28mm is ‘too close’ to the 35mm to really notice much difference or if something such as a 24mm would be a better option. 

Even though 28-35-50 is very popular, the 28 is an odd focal length, because it sits between 24mm and 35mm, so in reality it should be 24-35-50.  Here is my reasoning for this:  the vertical angle of view of a 75mm is roughly half of the horizontal angle of view of a 50mm; the vertical angle of view of a 50mm is roughly half of the horizontal angle of view of a 35mm; the vertical angle of view of a 35mm is roughly half of the horizontal angle of view of a 24mm (not 28mm).  If we use this pattern, then the natural progression of focal length is: 90->75->50->35->24.

[Dennis]

2 hours ago, MrFriendly said:

Even though 28-35-50 is very popular, the 28 is an odd focal length, because it sits between 24mm and 35mm, so in reality it should be 24-35-50.  Here is my reasoning for this:  the vertical angle of view of a 75mm is roughly half of the horizontal angle of view of a 50mm; the vertical angle of view of a 50mm is roughly half of the horizontal angle of view of a 35mm; the vertical angle of view of a 35mm is roughly half of the horizontal angle of view of a 24mm (not 28mm).  If we use this pattern, then the natural progression of focal length is: 90->75->50->35->24.

I like 28 focal length (FL). Especially because is the 'last' FL w/ full view, but w/o guesstimate and use external VF. But your reasoning makes sense.

 

[Lids]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

10 hours ago, MrFriendly said:

Even though 28-35-50 is very popular, the 28 is an odd focal length, because it sits between 24mm and 35mm, so in reality it should be 24-35-50.  Here is my reasoning for this:  the vertical angle of view ....

The fact that the 28 sits between 24 and 35 is why it is the perfect focal length for me.  I find it to be the best balance between depth-of-field, field of view, and distortion.  35 having too little of the first two and 24 having too much of the later two.   

[pippy]

On 3/5/2022 at 7:42 PM, MrFriendly said:

Even though 28-35-50 is very popular, the 28 is an odd focal length, because it sits between 24mm and 35mm, so in reality it should be 24-35-50...

Arithmetically? Perhaps. Aesthetically? Perhaps not.

If, however, you happen to find that a 24 has a more appealing field of view than does a 28 then, of course, go for it; there is not one 'correct' answer to the question implied.

Philip.

[Danner]

It would be nice if Leica would produce a nice little 24mm Elmarit, about the size of the 28mm Elmarit-M.  I would would buy that.

[Capuccino-Muffin]

On 3/5/2022 at 2:42 PM, MrFriendly said:

Even though 28-35-50 is very popular, the 28 is an odd focal length, because it sits between 24mm and 35mm, so in reality it should be 24-35-50.  Here is my reasoning for this:  the vertical angle of view of a 75mm is roughly half of the horizontal angle of view of a 50mm; the vertical angle of view of a 50mm is roughly half of the horizontal angle of view of a 35mm; the vertical angle of view of a 35mm is roughly half of the horizontal angle of view of a 24mm (not 28mm).  If we use this pattern, then the natural progression of focal length is: 90->75->50->35->24.

But then what about the perfect diagonal 43mm? Why use 50 and 35 when there’s 40... and so on...

[Jeff S]

38 minutes ago, Capuccino-Muffin said:

But then what about the perfect diagonal 43mm? Why use 50 and 35 when there’s 40... and so on...

No right answer regarding personal choices, but as far as 40 in particular…

1. No 40mm frame lines.

2. Not many 40mm lenses to choose

3. Smart marketing…Leica can sell both 35 and 50mm lenses to customers who might otherwise just buy a 40.

Jeff

[Dennis]

2 hours ago, Danner said:

It would be nice if Leica would produce a nice little 24mm Elmarit, about the size of the 28mm Elmarit-M.  I would would buy that.

+1

19 minutes ago, Jeff S said:

No right answer regarding personal choices, but as far as 40 in particular…

1. No 40mm frame lines.

This!

Maybe in the future (M13?) once will have the option choose any frame line (FL) 🤷‍♂️. Or even better, to choose single FL, and eliminate from my view the 75 and 135 ones... One day...

[Jeff S]

17 minutes ago, Dennis said:

Maybe in the future (M13?) once will have the option choose any frame line (FL) 🤷‍♂️. Or even better, to choose single FL, and eliminate from my view the 75 and 135 ones... One day...

Well, that might happen with electronically generated lines.  Currently, however, the frame lines in all M models are provided by mechanical, metal masks.

 

Jeff

Edited March 7, 2022 by Jeff S

[Capuccino-Muffin]

1 hour ago, Jeff S said:

No right answer regarding personal choices, but as far as 40 in particular…

1. No 40mm frame lines.

2. Not many 40mm lenses to choose

3. Smart marketing…Leica can sell both 35 and 50mm lenses to customers who might otherwise just buy a 40.

Jeff

Also Leica Q, smart move to make it 28. If it was 35, they’d lose on the Leica M market... So there, 28 is a smarter move than 24

[Jeff S]

16 minutes ago, Capuccino-Muffin said:

Also Leica Q, smart move to make it 28. If it was 35, they’d lose on the Leica M market... So there, 28 is a smarter move than 24

At the time, 28mm was also the prevailing focal length equivalent in the smartphone market, from which Leica surely attracted some new customers at a relatively (for Leica) lower price point than an M system, using ‘crop’ modes for marketing the alternative (even more so in the Q2).

Jeff

[RexGig0]

I just looked at my iPhone 12 images’ EXIF data. It shows 26mm, so, actually, somewhat wider than 28mm. Interesting.

[raizans]

The three most used and useful focal lengths for rangefinder / street / documentary / reportage photography. You can't go wrong with any one, two, or all three of them.

[idusidusi]

On 3/5/2022 at 4:11 AM, Camaro5 said:

I was mainly 28-50-75 for a long time but recently added a 35mm.  I liked it better for the many car shows I do.  28mm is still my go-to for landscapes and 50mm for street.  Don't use the 75mm too much but it's nice to have if you need it or want to do something a little different.  

Agreed I think 35mm is a good compromise for car shows. I usually take a 21mm/90mm with me too but mostly only use 2 lenses.

[davidmknoble]

I agree with @a.noctilux on the MATE.  For walkabout work especially on vacation, I love the MATE.  I had a great v1 copy but couldn’t stomach the sun shade and got too much flare.  I’ve had 2 copies of v2 and kept the second one ;).

I too like to keep filters to a minimum so the 24mm ASPH f/2.8 is also 55mm as is the APO 90. 

Since we talk about keeping separate lenses and switching them (if you carried a separate 28, 35, 50, etc), I also like to take the 28 ‘cron or the 35 ‘cron if shooting film or the 35 ‘Lux if digital.  And I carry the APO 50 for both.  I love the 90 elmarit 2.8 and the 90 f/4 macro as travel 90’s and for the most compact kit, take the MATE, the 50 f/2.8 Collapsable, the 90 f/4 macro Collapsable and then one other lens - either a 24 ‘lux or a 35 ‘lux.

The only issue I have with the MATE is that it is lower contrast, but software helps there.

If I’m shooting landscape, the whole kit changes because of the corners and I use the 21mm current version, the APO 50 and the APO 75 and APO 135.  Those lenses are sharp all across the field and for landscape at large sizes, bad corners show up.

Just my thoughts!

[Advertisement]

Hallo,

Look here: Leica M

[Guest]

On 1/5/2022 at 12:11 AM, erniethemilk said:

I currently have the 35mm & 50mm Summicrons I use frequently - more so the 35mm on my M10P

I’m wondering if anyone uses this same focal length combination along with a 28mm. I’d quite like wider at some point than the 35mm offers. 
 

Unsure if the 28mm is ‘too close’ to the 35mm to really notice much difference or if something such as a 24mm would be a better option. 

I would rationalize based on optimizing for different scenarios, and then spread those across different focal lengths to achieve greater variety/flexibility. My choices along those lines: I currently have the 28mm Summilux 1.4 (which will almost always work for everything), 50mm Noctilux 0.95 (portraits and "fun" shots) - I will buy a 35 APO in addition, as it will be smaller, more technically "perfect" (e.g. for landscapes and cityscapes), but different "character" and not as fast (subject isolation and low light scenarios) ... Depending on your preferred motives, might find a similar approach? Outside of the 28-(35)-50 I am madly in love with the 21mm Summilux (don't judge), which creates a challenge once I get the 35 as most of my smaller bags don't accommodate more than 2 spare lenses. I will likely split the work leaving either the 28 or 35 behind case by case, with 28 for cityscapes (more likely to include people/environmental portraiture) and 35 for landscapes (including macro).