narsuitus
Well-known
When I purchased my first 35mm film camera, it came with a 50mm normal lens. The 50mm normal lens was OK but its angle-of-view always felt too narrow for my taste.
When I started shooting 6x6cm film cameras, I could not understand why the 80mm normal lens did not feel as confining as its smaller format equivalent.
I later learned that a normal lens is defined by the diagonal of its format size. The diagonal of a 6x6cm medium format camera is 79.2mm. The diagonal of a 35mm small format camera is 43.3mm. I concluded that the 80mm normal lens was very close to its true 79.2mm diagonal. The 50mm normal lens, on the other hand, was more telephoto than its true 43.3mm diagonal.
Since then, I have tried 35mm, 40mm, 45mm 50mm and 55mm as my main lens on various 35mm film cameras. My personal preference is in the order listed.
