Is 40mm a 50mm or 35mm lens?

[Honu-Hugger]

So if you had a 40mm, you'd still want a 35mm? or would a 28mm get you buy?

PS. Wasn't "soup is good food" the Dead Kennedy's?

Who can say? I like 35's and 28's, and then tend to jump to 21's. But many others like 24's -- it's all really personal preference. I dismiss my 50's and alway seem to think I'll be shooting with a 35 or an 85, but when I look back many of my favorite shots were taken with a 50. So I have some personal prejudice to overcome and need to consider using my 50's more -- it's all about knowing your equipment and how it can assist in bringing to film what you have imagined before the shot. As for the lenses you have asked about; you're splitting hairs. If you had a 40 on your camera and a shot presented itself I certainly wouldn't run home to pick up a 35, or even a 28: I'd shoot -- a lot😀

 

[snaggs]

I think the 40mm could be the size for me. I tried my Sigma 12-24 on my D70 @ 24, equivalent to about 36mm... and I think it was still a tad wide in some respects. Or maybe the large size of this lens in SLR lens in clouding my judgement, but I still preffered my 50mm f/1.4, which I do find just a little long.

Im really looking forward to the Rollei 40mm f/2.8, it has a distinctive look and flavour to it.

Daniel.

 

[Doug]

I'll often pick a lens almost at random, stick it on the camera, adjust my mental view of the world to match 😀 and go out and shoot. If the lens is 90mm or 15mm that's doable but makes it tougher. I may have a preconceived plan for what sort of shots I'm after and pick an appropriate lens to go with. Like right now there's a cabinet with an oval mirror at the back of someone's doorless garage that needs a longer lens than the 28mm that I've been past there with... I want to catch my own sunlit legs in the mirror and that requires I stand out in the alley behind. I think the 75mm might be good... 🙂

But there's a lot of fixed-lens RF cameras, and many have ~40mm lenses. Obviously a lot of these users can live with 40mm as a universal lens. Several years ago I took only a Fuji GS645S, a 6x4.5cm format roll film RF camera with fixed 60mm f/4 lens (about equal FoV to a 40mm on the 35 cam), to Hawaii for a couple week's vacation... and it served just fine. I had a hand-held meter with me, but mostly went with "sunny-16", and did a lot of focus guestimating and hyperfocal distance settings because neither the meter nor RF were working properly. Yet I was happy with the results and didn't feel unduly limited. (Ya know, if this had been an auto-everything all-electronic camera that wasn't working properly, it probably would've been useless!)

So, Daniel, I'd agree with you that the 40mm is a very very useful focal length. I expect you'll like that 40mm Sonnar and use it a lot!