50mm “lens” for landscape photography

[Anthony MD]

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Very experienced and well known photographers often agree that mastering one “Lens” can improve your photography adding they use a 50mm “lens” for all their work, even landscape photography!  That’s all I use and wonder if any in this forum agrees on this…🧐

Edited May 8 by Anthony MD

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[Anthony MD]

14 minutes ago, Anthony MD said:

 

Double post…🥸

Edited May 8 by Anthony MD

[Anthony MD]

3 minutes ago, Anthony MD said:

 

 

Edited May 8 by Anthony MD

[jakontil]

26 minutes ago, Anthony MD said:

Very experienced and well known photographers often agree that mastering one “Lens” can improve your photography adding they use a 50mm “lens” for all their work, even landscape photography!  That’s all I use and wonder if any in this forum agrees on this…🧐

I very much agreed .. i started with a 50 for some time i dare to say i called it home… though now i have variants but when i go on a walk only one lens attached and that’s what i would take landscape with

[Anthony MD]

57 minutes ago, jakontil said:

I very much agreed .. i started with a 50 for some time i dare to say i called it home… though now i have variants but when i go on a walk only one lens attached and that’s what i would take landscape with

These professional photographers have a good point.  Making it simple by mastering one lens, you actually don’t get confused with different focal lengths.  That applying your expertise on one glass can result in much better results…📷

[evikne]

When I'm out shooting with my 50mm, I rarely bother to change lens if I want to photograph something that requires more width. Instead, I often take a series of overlapping shots and stitch them together into a panoramic image in LR. It usually works very well. I even think that a stitched 50mm image gives a more natural perspective than one taken with a wide-angle lens.

I might add that landscape photography is not what I normally do.

[erl]

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I could not disagree more. Creating images is the realm of your brain, that is brought to fruition by the tools in your kit. The world does not exit in one (say 50mm) version. Nor does it exist in one defined format. ie. verical, horizontal, square, circular etc.

Sticking with one format, or one focal length is castrating your vision. You are letting the camera put a ring through your nose. Why would you do that, and deprive yourself of the creative possibilities that are thrusting themselves at you. Free you brain up and make your body do more work. Carry the gear and suffer for your craft.

Spend an hour or so, alone, walking around the block where you live, or anywhere else and note how many things you can see. What is their shape? What is their format? I guarantee they are not all the same. So if you photograph them and force them into the one 'container', through one stereotype 'entrance', you will end up with an homogeneous bunch of images with no variety and lacking in interest.

I don't believe for a moment the above referred to 'well known photographers' would argue with what I am saying, and I am sure they would be competent with more that just a 50mm lens.

[FrozenInTime]

With just a 50mm it can become more challenging to juxtapose objects into a background, so flat landscape images may predominate. Adding in a 35mm helps, but a 28mm opens up a different perspective.

I struggle when trying to use a 12-35 m43 zoom ( 24-70 mm ) - eyes open too wide scanning all day rather than pre-visualizing.

[Topsy]

1 hour ago, erl said:

I could not disagree more. Creating images is the realm of your brain, that is brought to fruition by the tools in your kit. The world does not exit in one (say 50mm) version. Nor does it exist in one defined format. ie. verical, horizontal, square, circular etc.

Sticking with one format, or one focal length is castrating your vision. You are letting the camera put a ring through your nose. Why would you do that, and deprive yourself of the creative possibilities that are thrusting themselves at you. Free you brain up and make your body do more work. Carry the gear and suffer for your craft.

Spend an hour or so, alone, walking around the block where you live, or anywhere else and note how many things you can see. What is their shape? What is their format? I guarantee they are not all the same. So if you photograph them and force them into the one 'container', through one stereotype 'entrance', you will end up with an homogeneous bunch of images with no variety and lacking in interest.

I don't believe for a moment the above referred to 'well known photographers' would argue with what I am saying, and I am sure they would be competent with more that just a 50mm lens.

I agree with Erl here, when I go out on a walk with my M9s I like to have the flexibility to frame subjects as I wish to see them in a photograph and I couldn't do that if I had just one focal length (whatever that was).

My normal walking setup are these;

 

I document my walk with "landscape photos" and I use all 4 lenses on every walk.

I couldn't even contemplate restricting myself to any one of them.

 

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Edited May 8 by Topsy
wrong photo attached, corrected now.

[rogxwhit]

Believe it or not, I used to document the land using a 35mm camera almost entirely with an 85mm lens.  But then I'm a stubborn eccentric.  I could have used a 50mm. 

[lct]

I do like what @erl said above but after half a century of (occasional) photography i feel that this is a matter of personal preference. People like me "see" in 50mm for instance, others in 35mm, others otherwise. For landscapes, you may need to have sharp edges and corners and 50mm lenses are well suited for that as they have generally less distortion and vignetting than wides, but there are exceptions.

[erl]

lct, I appreciate your POV and we do agree on some things. However, I do try to be extreme with my images and some of my best (my opinion only) landscapes are shot with the f1.0 Noctilux, wide open. So much for sharp corners and edges. LOL. I also favour tele lenses for landscapes. When asked by people, what do I photograph, I usually answer something like, anything other people can't or won't! 🤪

[raizans]

This is really about two things that have very little to do with 50mm lenses per se:

1) limitations to demand creative problem solving

2) pursuing a style or technical franchise to make your work marketable

[spydrxx]

50 is what most quality cameras came with in my early days of photography and they were used for everything, portrait, landscape, street, and anything else you might imagine - even macro with extension rings. These days offer a wide variety of focal lengths and some photographers have the "vision" to encompass their use, subject by subject. FWIW I preferred a 35 for many years after I moved to cameras allowing interchangeable lenses and eventually moving to a collection of 50s. In retrospect I think it has the potential to enhance one's photographic skills to try one focal length and stick with it for a year or so.

[Anthony MD]

4 hours ago, erl said:

I could not disagree more. Creating images is the realm of your brain, that is brought to fruition by the tools in your kit. The world does not exit in one (say 50mm) version. Nor does it exist in one defined format. ie. verical, horizontal, square, circular etc.

Sticking with one format, or one focal length is castrating your vision. You are letting the camera put a ring through your nose. Why would you do that, and deprive yourself of the creative possibilities that are thrusting themselves at you. Free you brain up and make your body do more work. Carry the gear and suffer for your craft.

Spend an hour or so, alone, walking around the block where you live, or anywhere else and note how many things you can see. What is their shape? What is their format? I guarantee they are not all the same. So if you photograph them and force them into the one 'container', through one stereotype 'entrance', you will end up with an homogeneous bunch of images with no variety and lacking in interest.

I don't believe for a moment the above referred to 'well known photographers' would argue with what I am saying, and I am sure they would be competent with more that just a 50mm lens.

Did you watch the video?

But using a 50mm lens exclusively eliminates the distortions found in the wider angle lenses.  I prefer the natural undistorted images from the 50mm.  Landscape’s are to be recognizable as natural as they can…⛰️

[Anthony MD]

4 hours ago, Topsy said:

I agree with Erl here, when I go out on a walk with my M9s I like to have the flexibility to frame subjects as I wish to see them in a photograph and I couldn't do that if I had just one focal length (whatever that was).

My normal walking setup are these;

 

I document my walk with "landscape photos" and I use all 4 lenses on every walk.

I couldn't even contemplate restricting myself to any one of them.

 

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

You do know that the M system has the advantage of interchangeable lenses so you don’t need to purchase 4 bodies…😂😂😂

[Topsy]

1 hour ago, Anthony MD said:

You do know that the M system has the advantage of interchangeable lenses so you don’t need to purchase 4 bodies…😂😂😂

🤣Yes thanks but I hate changing lenses in the field with digital cameras. To be honest when I am out and about I have a jacket with 4 large pockets (one for each body) so I just look at the scene decide which FoV I think will work best and get that body out for the shot. I find it an easier way of working almost like having a 21-75 (stepped) zoom lens.

[oldwino]

I love using a 50mm for landscape, but lately I am seeing the benefits of a 90mm. 

The 50 is pretty nice for street/city stuff, too. 

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[Al Brown]

I master one lens until it starts boring me, then I jump to mastering another. I am now a master of all 9 Leica M lenses I own (nine is the limit of pockets in my Tenba lens bag).

[pgk]

1 hour ago, Anthony MD said:

But using a 50mm lens exclusively eliminates the distortions found in the wider angle lenses.  I prefer the natural undistorted images from the 50mm.  Landscape’s are to be recognizable as natural as they can…⛰️

 I have a 50mm Summilux Asph which I am ashamed to say usually sits at home and gets little use (terrible waste of a great lens but I don't feel that I should get rid of it because on the occasions that Ido use it I like it). But my 35mm lens gets a great deal of use. The idea that any lens makes anything 'natural' is a myth, simply because our eye/brain system doesn't see things as a camera does as it interprets visually by adding in experience. If you want to limit yourself by using one lens that's fine, but justifying it on any grounds other than that you want to is going to be hard work.