28mm vs 35mm

28mm vs 35mm

  • 28mm

    Votes: 147 43.8%

  • 35mm

    Votes: 189 56.3%
  • Total voters
    336
For 35mm SLR I prefer 24/50/85 or 24/55/105 depending on the situation. I have several 28's and 35's but I never seem to use them. For 35mm RF i like 25/50/75.

As Roger mentioned, 28 is almost a wide angle and I think 35 is just too close to 50.
 
Are we clear? There must have been something in the water towards the end of 2013. Not in this thread of course I read something interesting about the 28 FL. The author said that for intimate across the table dinner shots without disrupting things by getting up from the table, the 28 is ideal. I didn't think I'd ever get one but did, and found I didn't need to take the 21 in the bag so much and could still get a lot of the architectural shots I wanted. I like it.

But I remember my first 35 after only a 50 for years, and how much wider the pool was and how much deeper the water seemed. I don't think its close to 50 at all except that like the 50 I can go out with it alone and unlike the 28, there's no edge of frame distortion that's obvious.

I can use anything from 21 to 50 all day but my preferred are 50 and 35. You have to try them for yourself.
 
Not long ago I acquired the 28 mm for my Ricoh GXR and really like working with it. It's great for architecture and general scenery. The Ricoh AF lens is outstanding and produces excellent results. Funny thing is though, I've owned - and own - many rangefinder and SLR cameras and I've never had a 28 mm lens. Maybe I've been missing something here!...TW
 
I think if one is simply comparing image area the 35 seems too close to a 50. But if you're actually out there trying to make pictures - the 35 is not at all close to the 50 when you're composing. It seems most people though want a wide angle simply in order to get more in, not because they want a wider angle for reasons of getting the composition they had in mind. So when they get caught in a tight place and the 35 isn't wide enough to get everything they act as though the 35 is too close to a 50 to be any use. If you just want to fit a lot of stuff in the frame a 28 is going to be much better bet, but in that case so is a 25.

My eyes are used to the 1:1 viewfinders in the Miranda and Exakta SLRs. My brain "projects" the 50mm frame lines onto my normal vision when I walk around and I compose for 50mm without bringing the camera to my eye. Because of my habit of seeing things this way, 35mm is a world apart from 50mm. When I was used to using cameras with smaller viewfinders/less magnification I gravitated towards 28mm since it got more in - more closely capturing what I saw with my entire field of view. But this requires an entirely different attitude towards composing.
 
tunalegs said:
I think if one is simply comparing image area the 35 seems too close to a 50. But if you're actually out there trying to make pictures - the 35 is not at all close to the 50 when you're composing. It seems most people though want a wide angle simply in order to get more in, not because they want a wider angle for reasons of getting the composition they had in mind. So when they get caught in a tight place and the 35 isn't wide enough to get everything they act as though the 35 is too close to a 50 to be any use. If you just want to fit a lot of stuff in the frame a 28 is going to be much better bet, but in that case so is a 25.

My eyes are used to the 1:1 viewfinders in the Miranda and Exakta SLRs. My brain "projects" the 50mm frame lines onto my normal vision when I walk around and I compose for 50mm without bringing the camera to my eye. Because of my habit of seeing things this way, 35mm is a world apart from 50mm. When I was used to using cameras with smaller viewfinders/less magnification I gravitated towards 28mm since it got more in - more closely capturing what I saw with my entire field of view. But this requires an entirely different attitude towards composing.
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This is a very good insight. I would buy the next round as well just to hear more from you.
 
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