28mm & 35mm: Is owning both redundant?

[Mauribix]

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I think the biggest difference between them will shows up when photographing architecture.

It's not so easy to handle with the perspective distortion of a 28mm lens.

Obviously you will have different frames, but a 35mm lens will show less "falling walls" when put upwards.

Otherway if the reportage is "your style" it's just a matter of taste (and it's a sooooo personal choice!).

Anyway I don't think it's redundant to own both. IMHO

[kenneth]

I think the biggest difference between them will shows up when photographing architecture.

It's not so easy to handle with the perspective distortion of a 28mm lens.

Obviously you will have different frames, but a 35mm lens will show less "falling walls" when put upwards.

Otherway if the reportage is "your style" it's just a matter of taste (and it's a sooooo personal choice!).

Anyway I don't think it's redundant to own both. IMHO

 

I agree with you on architecture. Have Leica ever produced a perspective control lens? that I guess would be a useful addition in 35mm focal length then a 28mm lens would be a good second lens. I also agree that a 28mm is not redundant with a standard 35mm but possibly a little extravagant

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[Guest darkstar2004]

Darkstar: Keep the 28, the 50 and the 90 - Leica lenses are only getting more expensive and after you have sold them, you will only want them back, and to do that you will pay more for the replacement lenses that you originally paid.

 

JBA: there is nothing wrong with the 35, 50, 90 kit you have. That is all I had for years and it served me well.

 

I learned that bitter lesson when I sold my Voightlander 35/1.2 - and I'll never sell off another Leica lens! The three I have (28,50 & 90) are absolutely keepers.

 

Still working on that Noctilux - looooooooove its boker! :D

[wbesz]

I own the 28/2 ASPH lens for my MP and am wondering if many folks here own both it and either a 35/2 'cron or a 35/1.4 Summilux.

 

My question is - are the 28mm & 35mm focal lengths so close that owning both (for general use as well as documentary imagemaking) is redundant?

 

What do you folks think?

 

Your choice of a 28 lens is too wide for me (reference: full-frame MP) as a walk around lens.

For a single walk around lens I would get a 35mm focal length (and keep the 28/2 for a future M8).

[lars_bergquist]

It is all a matter of kit—of how many lenses you are carrying.

 

On the 35mm format, 50mm is the 'standard lens', the one that can be made to fit the most purposes. when I moved around with a 35mm camera and just one lens, that lens was a 50. With a M8 and its 18x27mm format, 35mm is the 'standard lens'.

 

Two lenses: The classical combo is 35 and 90mm. Many photojournalists used nothing else. With the M8, this means 28+75mm. I like that just as I liked the 35+90 combo.

 

Three lenses: A standard kit in the old days, with 35mm film, was 28+50+135mm. With my M8 I carry 21+35+90mm, covering about the same ground.

 

Four lenses: No way!

 

So what do I own? 90 Summicron + 75 Summarit + 50 Summilux ASPH + 35 Summilux ASPH + 28 Summicron ASPH + 21 Elmarit (plus some odds and ends). But I do never carry two lenses with 'adjacent' focal lengths. That is overkill.

 

The old man from the Age of Fixed Lenses

[stephengv]

Any update? I have the same dilemma. 

[pop]

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Any update? I have the same dilemma. 

It was a matter of opinion and of what you take pictures of. It was this way in 2008 and it's still so. But then, you might try a 32mm lens.

[stephengv]

It was a matter of opinion and of what you take pictures of. It was this way in 2008 and it's still so. But then, you might try a 32mm lens.

 

 

You're right its a matter of opinion. I just need more opinion from others who have experience to help me decide. 

[MarkP]

I find that 35mm is my best walk-around companion lens, & I wouldn't often switch back & forth between 28 & 35 in an active situation...

 

But if I'm specifically out to shoot pictures, IMO a 28 & a 50 are an ideal pair

 

In this sense, 28 & 35 are pretty close, though not 'redundant'; & 28 & 50 are to me a better working combination.

 

 

 

Kirk

 

 

 

+1

[pop]

You're right its a matter of opinion. I just need more opinion from others who have experience to help me decide. 

You might also be interested in a more recent thread discussing that matter: 

Having both a 35 and 28mm? Lens dilemma

 

[wattsy]

Any update? I have the same dilemma. 

 

 

I'm not sure I get the dilemma. The focal lengths are different enough to warrant owning both or deciding which you like best and owning that one. Personally, I use 28, 35 and 90 lenses (the latter only in the "macro" range using the goggled adaptor). I also own a 50 but I only really keep it for old time's sake – I can't remember the last time I used it.

Edited September 11, 2017 by wattsy