What is your favourite focal length ?

[downstairs]

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On 5/25/2024 at 9:14 AM, hansvons said:

Like that. However, 35mm isn't really the "show off”. That's 28mm. 

50mm shows the same distance of objects as our eyes. 35mm stretches that a bit but fits better our field of view. Which of the two provides the "right" perspective is purely subjective.

For me, that's 35mm. But I can understand why others gravitate towards 50mm. Its subtle focal length matches our vision and works nicely with people. 

I’d love to try the 40mm Summicron. How do you frame it with the 35mm frame lines? Is there a rule of thumb? 

I use the visoflex finder. but the 35 frame-lines are easy to adjust to.  

[costa43]

My favourite for landscapes and street is 24mm

My favourite for headshot portraits and 2nd fave for landscape is 90mm

My favourite for people shots is 50mm

The 35mm is not my favourite for any of the above, yet it’s the one I grab the most so it’s my favourite overall. 

[RexGig0]

I closed that annoying survey page as soon as I saw what it was, before it had finished loading. (That site, in the past, has not allowed me to provide accurate answers. Rather than select annoyingly inaccurate choices, I have learned to simply decline to participate.) For the sake of this conversation, on this site, well, my “favourite” M-mount focal length has been 50mm, but, I have actually captured far more Leica M images with 35mm lenses, in the six years since I bought my first M camera. I tend to use 50mm lenses for deliberate images of people, and for urban “scapes,” whereas I am more likely to use 35mm lenses for general travel, which includes numerous day trips, for social occasions, and for much general walking-about. When walking-about with a 50mm lens, the necessity to be much more deliberate with range-finding means that I am more likely to miss opportunities, with living, moving subjects, compared to when I am walking-about with a 35mm or wider-angle lens.

Notably, in the time shortly before I started using Leica M cameras, I tended to prefer using 35mm, 40mm, 45mm, 58mm, and 60mm lenses, on SLRs/DSLRs, and had little interest in shooting with 50mm lenses. It was the character/rendering of images shot with the Summilux-M 50mm ASPH that drew me into seriously wanting to add the Leica M system. Had I managed to acquire a decently-preserved NOCT-Nikkor 58mm f/1.2 Nikon F-mount lens, I might never have started using the Leica M system. Fortuitously, it was a well-preserved, pre-owned Summilux-M 50mm ASPH, available at a large local camera store, that was (and, still is) a Leica dealer. I had been saving for a 600mm f/4 or 400mm f/2.8 “super-telephoto” lens, but, a left shoulder rotator cuff injury, still being rehabilitated*, would have prevented me from using a big, heavy lens, for the foreseeable future, so, being able to use a normal-focal-length lens, with such a beautiful rendering, of both subjects and background, seemed to be a sweet alternative.

Notably, the pre-owned Summilux/M 50mm ASPH, plus a new M10, combined, cost considerably less, than a Nikon Nikkor 600mm f/4 or 400mm f/2.8 “super-telephoto” lens, alone.

*My left shoulder finally did heal. By that time, my wife was far less interested in photographing birds, having shifted her attention to wee beasties, plants, and fungi. She is a very serious “citizen scientist,” have become a certified Texas Master Naturalist, a volunteer affiliation with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. Her favorite birds, by now, are Brown Pelicans, which are quite approachable, locally, here in SE Texas, if one knows where to find them at close range. Notably, it was my wife who guided my early start in interchangeable-lens camera photography; she is the more-senior photographer, by far.

Edited May 27, 2024 by RexGig0

[Peter H]

I spent the first 15 years or so of my photographic life from the age of 9 with nothing but a 50mm (equivalent) on my Rolleicord, then the next 5 or so with just a 50 on my Olympus OM1, which became an OM2, then an OM4ti, though I'd started to add other lenses by then.

But 50 has always remained my natural vision because of that early experience probably, and suits my view of the world best, though I do enjoy most other focal lengths depending on what I'm trying to do. 21 to 90 feels like a natural range and everything  beyond in either direction feels like a game. I've even dabbled with silly-long lenses on SLRs but that's such a different type of photography and I don't much enjoy it, other than the novelty of the experience.

But if I could only have one, it would have to be 50 even though 35 is doubtlessly more versatile, and others far better suited for a variety of specific purposes.

But 50 shows me the world as I feel I see it naturally. And that, in the end, is  by far the most important thing to me. 

Edited May 27, 2024 by Peter H

[IkarusJohn]

I have 4 50s in M mount, each different.

[lct]

If favorite means the focal length i use the more it is 50mm on full frame and 35mm on APS so i am definitely a 50mm FoV guy. As for how many 50's i don't count them anymore. Depending upon the light and the subject matter, my favorites are the Elmar-M 50/2.8, the Summilux 50/1.4 asph v1, the Sonnar 50/1.5, the Planar 50/2 and the Summicron 50/2 v4.

[GFW2-SCUSA]

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I find I use on my M10 R my  35mm the most and my macro-elmar 90mm is my favorite because it is so sharp and versatile. I don't seem to use 50mm a lot nor my 21mm.  I would like the new 35 Summicron! 

[m410]

On my M10R:

28mm f2.8 and my feet.

OR 21mm f3.4, 50mm f2and 135mm f4.

[hansvons]

@RexGig0, you must be a lucky man when reading your thoughts about your wife. Greetings to Texas. 

[costa43]

13 hours ago, RexGig0 said:

I have actually captured far more Leica M images with 35mm lenses, in the six years since I bought my first M camera. I tend to use 50mm lenses for deliberate images of people, and for urban “scapes,” whereas I am more likely to use 35mm lenses for general travel, which includes numerous day trips, for social occasions, and for much general walking-about.

Exactly this. I love the 50mm, I started with it and if I look through my favourite photos over the years, many were taken with a 50mm but as you say, the 35mm is the most used. It’s a tough one, a little like when somebody asks you what is your favourite film. Is it the one you have rewatched the most in your life (probably the Rocky series growing up for me) or is it a standout like the Godfather, Deer hunter etc..

For me this question and the ‘if you could have only one’ question are linked. What is for certain, I will always own both and use both. 

Edited May 28, 2024 by costa43

[Kiwimac]

35mm. 

[overexposed]

35, 21, 75......in that order

[timo01]

I spent my first 10 years with a nifty fifty. 
Now my favourite lens is 35mm (since 2 years). 

[PhoToad]

40 mm (VM Nokton 1.2 and Heliar 2.8).

[Ko.Fe.]

21 and 35.

[Tessar.]

I prefer a 28mm and the .68x VF magnification of my M-P 240 first and foremost.  Then ZM 25mm and external VF then 35/.68.  I find 50mm a bit like a telephoto and I always wish I carried something wider.

[audiophileguy]

My favorite is 35mm, but I find myself using my 24mm lens the most, as it is easiest to get a great shot and crop if necessary.

[Ernstk]

21mm, by a long way. On both my M-P 240 and M8.

Ernst

[Ernstk]

On 5/25/2024 at 8:16 AM, adan said:

My most "must have" lens is the 21. First focal length I have acquired in every new camera system since 1977. Just upgraded to an Elmarit ASPH, since I "wore out" my 1983 pre-ASPH after 23 years of use

My 'must have' lens too, also the 2.8/21 Elmarit M.

How do you find the ASPH Elmarit compares to the non asph?

Ernst

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Hallo,

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[patrickcolpron]

My favorite is a 35mm hands down. I could live with just one 35mm lens. 

I have 15 Leica M lenses, four 35mm and four 50 mil lenses, only two 28 mil, I don't like the 28 mm focal length, 24 mil is much better yet the 35 is more "versatile" a better all rounder. 

All of this said, I could also live with just a 24 mil lux on an M10-D... Favorite the 35 but there are other great focal length, I use a 50 when I want to have greater separation from my subject and background, than I can get with a 35 at similar apertures of f/4 to f/5.6 from about 2 meters distance. 

Edited June 1, 2024 by patrickcolpron
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