Lens selection on a photo-trip. What lenses to carry? When to change?

[Alexander108]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

I looked at different parts of the forum but this topic did not really fit in any but this sub-forum. I hope that's OK.

I recently got in to M Photography with a preowned M10-M. Started with only a 35mm Summicron lenses and took this very light setup to our Italy vacation. Most of the pictures were taken with the M10-M and a few with my Q3. As I was so pleased with using my first Messsucher camera I traded my Q3 for a preowned M11 and also bought a few preowned lenses: Summicron 50, Elmarit 24/2.8, Summicron 90 APO and a new Voigtländer 15mm. With this equipment, M10-M, M11 and the five lenses in my bag I headed for a photo trip to Hamburg.

Out of those I kept were 80 with the 24mm, 11 with the 50mm, 11 with the 15mm, 5 with the 35mm and only 2 with the 90mm lenses.
On a short trip to a small village Ilsenburg I only used the 24mm 16 times and the 50mm 9 times.  

I was mostly happy with my 28mm on the Q3 that I sold and I bought the 24mm because I felt that 28mm was a bit too tight for what I wanted to capture. When I do street photography I felt most comfortable with the 24mm Elmarit. Also for the ability to crop. In Italy I had only the 35mm and sometimes felt limited. But I still was happy with results. The 15mm Voigtländer is a no-brainer: it is light and small and must be available if I want to shoot architecture. The 50mm is somewhere in the middle. Not really my focal length.

I am going to visit Barcelona again this year to attend a conference and I will stay a few more days after the conference. Did the same last year and was able to capture some nice pictures with the Q3. I am not going to bring my M11 but just the M10-M (my wife will bring the D-Lux 8 which is nice for some color pictures).

My Options are (the 90mm is too bulky for this trip):

• bring the 15mm, 24mm, and 50mm lenses.
• or bring the 15mm, 24mm, and 35mm lenses.
• or bring the 24mm only.

My question would be: what do others do when doing a walk through a city?

• Do you take a selection of lenses with you?
• If yes: what lenses?
• If you use one lenses only, which one? (That, of course is a matter of personal preference).
• How deliberately do you take pictures? Do you look at a composition and then select the lens that is appropriate?

I am aware that there is no right or wrong. But maybe I can learn from your experiences or get some inspiration from your approaches.

Thank you for contributing to this clear 1st world luxury problem 🤣

[pedaes]

12 minutes ago, Alexander108 said:

when doing a walk through a city?

•  

One camera, one lens.  Mostly 35 or 50 as with M11 at mid resolution  plenty of scope to crop. 15 is very  challenging to use, and 24mm is good for interiors etc - depends what you are out to photograph. There will be some advising 28mm although you have said you don't have one!  

Edited yesterday at 11:58 AM by pedaes

[spydrxx]

I took only a 35 for 9 months in southern Europe and only rarely did I wish for another focal length (a 90 or 135). On another trip to Greece, I used a 35 in northern Greece, a 35 and 90 in Athens. But each person has different concepts of what to capture, and how it should be captured.

[Stef63]

1 hour ago, pedaes said:

One camera, one lens.  Mostly 35 or 50 ....

+1

Only one camera and one lens for city walks. Mostly 35 mm (for me). The rest stays in the hotel. It keeps you focussed — both mentally and optically. 

Edited yesterday at 01:54 PM by Stef63

[Chris W]

Agree with all the above comments so far.

I think we had this discussion on the forum when you bought the M and was asking which lenses to buy for it.

Too many lenses are too many choices and can also hinder your ability to build body of similar looking work, or even a style.

Most of the great photographers were known for one lens, maybe two.

The first couple of years I owned my M6 I only had a 35mm F2 lens. I was permanently traveling and took some lovey lansdscapes, portraits etc.

In the modern age and as you've already purchased several lenses, I would restrict yourself to two - one for street and landscape and one for portraits.

As you seem to already favour the 24mm, take that and maybe the 50mm for portraits.

When I leave my hotel I've almost always only got one lens.

[Chris W]

2 hours ago, Alexander108 said:

 

• How deliberately do you take pictures? Do you look at a composition and then select the lens that is appropriate?

 

So much fiddling and too many decisions. Often the image has gone by the time you decide what lens you want.

I have my lens on the camera (often 35mm), camera in hand and I'm ready to go.

[jakontil]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

When on a trip, i’d carry a couple bodies, M digital and film and few lenses, like 35lux and 28 summaron reissue.. they are quite small, either a 15 heliar or 21 super elmarit for my super wide shoots and a 50

but when om the street, one lens each on digital and film.. a 28 is a must, and accompanied either a 35 or 50

bery rare occasions i do street with a 21mm

[Alexander108]

Thank you so much for your insights and comments. My key takeaway is: only one lens. Maybe have one additional in the bag but that's it.

For me that would be the 24mm on the camera. The 15mm is a bit of an outlier as I would only use it deliberately in very specific situations, like this:

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!

So I'd have it in the bag. I might as well use the 35mm one entire day as I did in Italy. And it served me rather well.

So Barcelona might be the place to figure out my preference between 24 and 35mm. So far the 24mm is my  but I need to shoot more with the M.

Again, thank you all. That was very helpful

 

[JoshuaR]

I own 21, 28, 35, 50, and 90. In day to day life, I use them all to capture various scenes. But on trips, I usually bring only 28 and 50. I use 28 almost all the time. I break out the 50 for portraits.

[BruceRH]

My most used lens is my Voigtlander 28mm f1.5 Nocton for city photography. I also usually have my Voigtlander 75mm f1.9 Ultron for when I want to get a little closer. With the cropping ability of my M11-P, 28mm covers most of my needs. I do occasionally bring a 21 or 24 but I try to keep it simple. I do have various 35's and 50's that I will throw in the mix sometimes but I tend to always go back to 28. I have debated the Voigtlander 15mm but have not picked one up, yet...

[M8X2]

I would not go with only one lens. I acquired a taste for wide angles in the city but I would not go lower than 21 mm. So if I were you, the 24 would be in my bag. Also, having something longer available for the occasional close-up. In my case that would be the 50.

[IkarusJohn]

It all depends on what you’re likely to encounter, and the sort of images you like to take.

If I’m going on a trip (like a cycling trip I’m planning), I’ll take a couple of cameras and 3 lenses, but I won’t venture out with more than one camera and one lens at a time.  Sounds like you enjoy wides, so the 24 will be your main lens.  It doesn’t sound like the 15 would get used much, so just add the 50, and you’re done!

For my cycling trip (there’s a wedding and a weekend in the Sounds thrown in), I’m planning on wearing my Insta, with wide Leica lens, for the cycling, and carrying my TL2 with the 28 Summaron; then I’ll have a bag in the car with my Monochrom, a 21 Summilux and 0.95 Noctilux (or 75 Summilux) for everything else.  I try to avoid fiddling about with lenses when I’m out and about.

[earleygallery]

There’s not much you can’t do with a 35/90 combo. From what you’ve said I would suggest 24/50. 

[kiwidad]

12 hours ago, Alexander108 said:

I looked at different parts of the forum but this topic did not really fit in any but this sub-forum. I hope that's OK.

I recently got in to M Photography with a preowned M10-M. Started with only a 35mm Summicron lenses and took this very light setup to our Italy vacation. Most of the pictures were taken with the M10-M and a few with my Q3. As I was so pleased with using my first Messsucher camera I traded my Q3 for a preowned M11 and also bought a few preowned lenses: Summicron 50, Elmarit 24/2.8, Summicron 90 APO and a new Voigtländer 15mm. With this equipment, M10-M, M11 and the five lenses in my bag I headed for a photo trip to Hamburg.

Out of those I kept were 80 with the 24mm, 11 with the 50mm, 11 with the 15mm, 5 with the 35mm and only 2 with the 90mm lenses.
On a short trip to a small village Ilsenburg I only used the 24mm 16 times and the 50mm 9 times.  

I was mostly happy with my 28mm on the Q3 that I sold and I bought the 24mm because I felt that 28mm was a bit too tight for what I wanted to capture. When I do street photography I felt most comfortable with the 24mm Elmarit. Also for the ability to crop. In Italy I had only the 35mm and sometimes felt limited. But I still was happy with results. The 15mm Voigtländer is a no-brainer: it is light and small and must be available if I want to shoot architecture. The 50mm is somewhere in the middle. Not really my focal length.

I am going to visit Barcelona again this year to attend a conference and I will stay a few more days after the conference. Did the same last year and was able to capture some nice pictures with the Q3. I am not going to bring my M11 but just the M10-M (my wife will bring the D-Lux 8 which is nice for some color pictures).

My Options are (the 90mm is too bulky for this trip):

• bring the 15mm, 24mm, and 50mm lenses.
• or bring the 15mm, 24mm, and 35mm lenses.
• or bring the 24mm only.

My question would be: what do others do when doing a walk through a city?

• Do you take a selection of lenses with you?
• If yes: what lenses?
• If you use one lenses only, which one? (That, of course is a matter of personal preference).
• How deliberately do you take pictures? Do you look at a composition and then select the lens that is appropriate?

I am aware that there is no right or wrong. But maybe I can learn from your experiences or get some inspiration from your approaches.

Thank you for contributing to this clear 1st world luxury problem 🤣

I travelled from Nashville tn to San Diego ca with just a Q2. If was quite refreshing to not have to choose a lens and never missed other focal lengths.

roll forward several years and now I find myself with an m11 and summilux 28 and 50 with me when travelling light. If I don’t see myself needing the 28 and might neeed some thing longer or if portraits might enter the zone it the summilux 35 and 75.

so I would most likely go with your first option or just the 24 and 50 if looking to minimize

 

[250swb]

The two obvious problems are that the 24mm should be a 28mm and the 90mm should be an Elmarit and not a Summicron. But with the lens options available I'd take the 24mm, 35mm, and 50mm but only put two in the camera bag on any particular day either the 24mm and 35mm or the 24mm and 50mm. 

Ideally you need to jump a focal length to make a three lens set, which is why so many people are recommending a 28mm because the jump is to 50mm, then the next jump is to 90mm (but only if the lens is light enough to carry all day) and that's three convenient lenses that work together. I suppose you could do it with 24mm, 35mm, but the next one would be 75mm and that you don't have. 

Edited 12 hours ago by 250swb

[Alexander108]

vor 19 Minuten schrieb 250swb:

The two obvious problems are that the 24mm should be a 28mm and the 90mm should be an Elmarit and not a Summicron. But with the lens options available I'd take the 24mm, 35mm, and 50mm but only put two in the camera bag on any particular day either the 24mm and 35mm or the 24mm and 50mm. 

Ideally you need to jump a focal length to make a three lens set, which is why so many people are recommending a 28mm because the jump is to 50mm, then the next jump is to 90mm (but only if the lens is light enough to carry all day) and that's three convenient lenses that work together. I suppose you could do it with 24mm, 35mm, but the next one would be 75mm and that you don't have. 

I used to have a Q3 for 1.5y and there were quite a few occasions where the 28 (where some claim its closer to a 26mm) wasn't wide enough. When I look at the images taken recently in Hamburg with the 24mm lens most of them were not cropped (besides from 2:3 to 4:3).

So, no problem for my photography (let alone an obvious one). My 90mm Summicron is not a problem either. I bought this for this for very special occasions, not to carry around in street photography. I only did this in Hamburg to do a few test shots . Maybe I wasn't clear enough on that.

Besides that, I came to the same conclusion: take the 24mm, 35mm, and 50mm but only put two in the camera bag on any particular day either the 24mm and 35mm or the 24mm and 50mm. However, I will bring the 15mm Voigtländer which is reasonably light (270g) and will have it in the bag. This all still fits in my small Oberwerth Q bag. I can make my wife carry the 200g 35mm lens, just in case 🤣.

I built a rather crude Excel sheet to calculate the resulting focal length when cropping in LR. The idea behind it: if you use a 35mm lens on an APS-C sensor the full frame equivalent would be  56mm (times 1.6 for Canon). This calculates the resulting focal length by dividing the new diagonal pixels by the original diagonal (Pythagorean theorem a²+b² = c²). I mainly did this to get a feeling what cropping means in terms of focal length and resulting MP. Of course, there is much more to different focal lengths*)

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!

That gives me a 35mm crop with almost 20MP on my M10-M when I use a 24mm lens. This is more than enough and 40mm with 15MP. Also good enough for what I do (mainly books and sometimes prints up to DIN A2 / 16"x24").

In street photography I found 50mm focal length often a bit too close. However I just tried it a few times and need to gather more experience with this focal length. On the other side Henri Cartier-Bresson used almost always 50mm (if I am not mistaken). Alan Schaller (who's work I admire) uses almost always a 24mm. I guess there is no right or wrong. Henri Cartier-Bresson supposedly said that he did not crop at all. The shot must be nailed in camera. I wonder if he would be that strict in these digital days.

So, this is my not so scientific approach.

 

*) see Leica Australia Perspective and Angle of View – the difference between Leica Q3 and Q3 43 

). 

[keeping_a_balance]

I like the approach of 250swbs post large gaps to cover several ranges. 

My go to is:  21 / 35 / 75.

for travel I usually take:

21: the smallest and lightest I have (voight skopar f3.5)

35: will take a bit more bulk in 35 summilux, but have gone with the summicron and it's quite nice over the course of long days.

75: only have the voigt nokton which is not too heavy.  I sometimes take a  90 elmarit instead.

Have done this on last few trips and don't really feel like I miss a beat.

Enjoy the trip!

 

 

 

 

[LocalHero1953]

I've never really carried more than two lenses at a time, though they have variously been 28+75 or 35+90. As I have got older I find I take only 35, sometimes with a 75 if I am deliberately going to take street portraits (i.e. people I've asked to take their photo). For travel and casual use I can't say that I have ever looked for a shot and then tried to match it with one of a large number of lenses from my bag. I prefer to travel/walk light and look for shots where I can use the lens I have. I have no regrets for photos I couldn't get because of my kit.

I have no digital M now, so when it comes to bodies I will carry the Q3 43 and/or a film M or Barnack. The M will have a 35mm; the Barnack will normally have a 35mm also with external VF. The exception is the barebones Leica Standard, which has no rangefinder and I choose a 50mm lens to avoid adding an external VF. This camera is so minimalist it almost disappears into my hands (but still draws attention by the noise of the shutter!)

Edited 7 hours ago by LocalHero1953

[costa43]

I stick with just a 35mm for general travel nowadays, although I do still own other lenses as my mood and taste could change again. I feel my general photography improved once I accepted that I will not get every shot. I now tend to see moments and scenes in 35mm, whereas in the past, I was annoyed I could not get an entire building into the shot for instance as my lens was not wide enough. 

[Advertisement]

Hallo,

Look here: Leica M

[dynaerik]

The beauty of minimalism would push me to go with the M10M + the 35mm Summicron. And when I look at your pictures from Italy I think they are just great. Just one lens makes it so much easier and you won't overthink or carry a lot. Plus: The 35mm is so versatile. 
 

On city trips I go only with one lens and the other(s) stay in the hotel. Most of the time 35mm. Sometimes 21mm.