Help me learn to love my 35mm lens?

[benlees]

I like 35mm; I feel it is a great compromise between 50 and 28. Take a couple steps forward or back. If you can't take a step in either direction you're stuck. Life goes on. Still, only had to bring one lens...

I've used 28 a lot and even 25 for awhile. A 50 seems like looking through a tunnel after that.

 

[Pentode]

I like 35 for the DOF. It was my main lens for a long time and I still use it a lot.
It's only recently that I've really started appreciating 50 again. Part of the reason I get along well with 35 is that I shoot mostly in the streets of NYC where most subjects are close or, at least, reasonably close. I don't even really consider a 35 to be a wide lens; it's more like a slightly wide normal.

28 is a length I've always had trouble warming up to, however. If I'm going to go that wide, I'd rather go 24 or even 21.

As far as advice goes, I think the most important thing is what you're already doing: leave the 35 on the camera for a while.

 

[Big Ursus]

Often, paying special attention to the foreground pays off with wide angle lenses, even with a 35mm.

Oh, and watch out for perspective distortion with buildings, and with pictures in which faces are close to the lens.

BTW, for what it's worth, I think I use a 28 more than a 35, and rarely use a 50.

 

[Ccoppola82]

I started photography with an SLR a few years ago and my first real lens purchase was a Canon 35L for my FF 6d. I had it in my head that I was a 35 guy, but found myself reaching for a 50 cron more often than my 35 Summaron. It wasn't that I couldn't work with the 35, it's just that the tighter composition from the 50 worked better for me. That being said, I still feel like the 35 is my do it all lens if I'm going SUPER light and 1 lens setup. I did recently force myself (and struggled a bit) with a 2 lens 28/50 setup. 28 is my nemesis lens. I find it uncomfortable to use, but upon inspecting my film I end up with a higher keeper rate with the 28. Is it slowing me down and making me look deeper into a scene? Maybe. Maybe it's the effect of the lens. In either case, slow down and JUST take your 35 and have fun. Eventually it'll feel more natural.

 

[mcfingon]

When I was doing newspaper photos in the 80's, the 35mm lens was most useful for doing a shot of someone and showing his or her context. So think of it as an environmental portrait lens.

 

[ACullen]

I used a 28/50 combo for thirty years before using my first 35mm lens a few years ago . I instantly fell under the spell of the 35mm and it’s my go to focal length for most things. Having said that I still get plenty of use of the FLs around it ie 28/40/45/50 !

 

[Huss]

I find the 35mm lens too tight, and the 28mm too loose.

I like the Lomo Minitar 32mm 2.8, which is just right. And teeny.

 

[gavinlg]

35mm is life. No cheap distortive or perspective tricks, no bokeh-hiding-bad-composition antics. Closest you can get to a normal.

 

[Jerevan]

In some ways it is good to try new things; but there is also a time for realising that some things just don't work (for you) no matter how much money and time you put in.

 

[kiemchacsu]

Help me learn to love my 35mm lens?

Agreed with some comments above?
Why you _have_to like 35mm while you are happy with 50mm already.
At the end of the day, pictures are final results and i am sure that no one cares if a picture was taken by which focal length.
In my case totally opposite , i sold all my 50s and 35mm is my only focal length now. Not that i hate 50s but i use 35mm 95% of the time, so that it is.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Peter_S]

1) Watch the background - give it as much attention than the foreground. No "bokeh"-fixing of bad backgrounds.
2) Composition requires more attention in general.
3) Do not hesitate to crop. 4:3 ratios may work better sometimes, and generally 35mm will give you a bit more leeway to do so, and why not.
4) Get closer...or maybe not. If you need to get closer, are you trying to achieve the same thing as with the 50s? "Environmental" was the word here. See above points.

 

[lynnb]

The way to get to know any lens is to shoot with it all the time until you become familiar with its angle of view and the way it renders. So enjoy getting to know your 35mm, and then you'll be able to judge whether the 35mm view is one you like to work with.

Any focal length lens can produce good work if the person using it has a good eye and understands how to use it. It's your eye that makes the difference. Look at Jane Bown's wonderful portraits taken with the OM Zuiko 85mm f/2.

35mm allows an intimate distance while still giving context, through its wider angle of view. Is that what you like?

 

[teddy]

The 35mm has field effects inherent to this angle of view which it itself can be charming and interesting. There may be a little vignetting that you can use to effect, and the distortions, field of focus effects and general closeup performance make for interesting photographs. When shooting wide open, you will notice that the middle compared to the corners differ in focus - thus the field curvature. The corners will not de-focus like the centre. Use these features to good effect, because they can make a charming image and sometimes make a coherent effect with the subject in focus and the borders of the image. Most 35mm also produce impeccable image clarity at close distances.

You might think this is a lot of hoopla, make your opinion - but artistically it can be a strength of this lens angle of view. Taking into consideration the practical use of getting closer to the subject, and getting more of it at the same time. The 35mm is possibly the most practical angle of view.

Leitz Summaron 35/2.8

Leitz Summaron 35/2.8

Leitz Summaron 35/2.8

Leitz Summicron 35/2 Type 1

 

[Out to Lunch]

Best tip is to use it more so that you can appreciate its potential.

 

[Richard G]

Bill Pierce recounts swapping cameras with a PJ to take a photograph of each other so that the photograph of themselves was on their own roll of film. He habitually used the “get it all in” 35, and marvelled at the telephoto view in his mate’s viewfinder, through a 50mm lens.

I shot for 20 years with a 50 and when my children were small I traded in a meterless M4-2 for a metered M6 and soon added the tiny v4 35mm Summicron. That compact kit was fantastic for chasing after children, shooting from the hip with scale focus and I’m sure my keeper rate was much higher for all the advantages of that specific set-up. I remember the first shot of my daughter with that lens where I finally cracked the framing with the 35. There is so much more to the 35 than you think.

 

[retinax]

Try one one an SLR or with live view for a little while. Easier than starting with a RF I think. Especially with a high magnification VF, seeing that big view as a picture is hard at first.

 

[narsuitus]

Back in the 1960s, when I bought my first SLR, the 50mm lens was used by most photographers as the standard lens. The 28/50/135 kit was the most popular combo.

When I switched to a Nikon SLR from a Miranda SLR, I also switched my kit to 35/85/180. I preferred using the 35 instead of the 50 because it allowed me to step in front of competing news photographers to capture the images I needed.


Nikon F2 by Narsuitus, on Flickr

 

[ChrisPlatt]

50mm is normal - if you are a cyclops.

I have two eyes, with overlapping fields of view and peripheral vision.
Don't you? 😉

Chris

 

[css9450]

Back in the 1960s, when I bought my first SLR, the 50mm lens was used by most photographers as the standard lens.

When I was about 14, I started using my parent's Minolta SR-1. They had one lens for it - a 50. I don't think they even considered the possibility that the lens could be removed and another one attached in its place. So I was raised that way. It was a revelation when I discovered other focal lengths!

 

[BillBingham2]

.... kit to 35/85/180....

Nikon F2 by Narsuitus, on Flickr

That was my Father's kit at Kodakery for many year. The 35/1.4 is a rocking lens, way out of my price range back then. With the 35 he never needed to worry about heads becoming footballs or other such fun distortions. He came from a LF background and was very sensitive to showing people in their best light.

B2 (;->