Leica photog Uses Just One Lens

[lubitel]

I'll have my 35mm days and 50mm days 🙂 sometimes a 90mm day. I usually try to take one lens but sometimes I am very indecisive whether I need a 35 or 50 so I end up taking 2 cameras. I used to think of me as a 50mm guy, but there are a lot of situations where a 35mm is what I need. I am afraid I can never be just one focal-length type of guy. Just like I cant be just one camera kinda guy.

 

[yoshimura]

I almost exclusively use one lens, but it is a Konica Dual 21 - 35 lens...😉

 

[Socke]

When I got my G2 I had the 45 only, this was often too narrow for my purposes (the "step back" approach is not too easy with a wall in your back) and I bought the 28. That was often too wide and I found myself changing lenses much too often. I bought a second body to use with the 28, wasn't very satisfied with that and gave in to buy a 35.

For me the 35 is the proverbial IT, even when I take more than one lens I find myself using the 35 mostly.

I can fully understand a photographer who found his area of photography working with one lens only, for documentary and reportage purposes a 35 is IMHO unbeatable, as it is for my travel snaps.

 

[Tuolumne]

Does a tri-elmar count as "one lens"? If so, I'm a one lens guy.

/T

 

[einolu]

makes sense, i never really understood how people realize which of the lenses they carry in their little backpacks to use.

that man has a powerful vision, great shots!

 

[Socke]

Does a tri-elmar count as "one lens"? If so, I'm a one lens guy.

/T

Jep, like the guy I met yesterday, with a Rebel XTi and 18-200 .....

 

[AusDLK]

Guy's accomplished (and I wish to be so myself someday) but the web site is pretty tacky.

 

[40oz]

it looks to me like he gets the look in printing. Lots of vignetting, and something over the lens to cause a soft diffusion. Or, he really uses a holga, but since that brand doesn't bring a lot of freebies with it, he lies and packs around Leicas in case anyone corners him 🙂

 

[Bertram2]

This one lens thing is loaded with myths and is as popular as trivial . If you are strongly focussed on one photographical issue it is just logic that you do not need more than one lens.
If you aren't it is nonsense, because the rest of the focal lengths do make sense, depending on what the task is.
Quite underestimated is the effect of doing a certain kind of photography for a longer period and thus getting used to a certain FL and thinking later, that this is YOUR lens !
In fact you will catch yourself sooner or later at trying to shoot a frame with a 28 (for example) which needs a 50.
Especially using 25-35 for a longer period can make you forget to concentrate your frame correctly if you have too.
So the one lens thing is o.k. for people who live happy with their monomania like Wino, all the rest should carefully ponder what lens their photo needs.

My observation always was, that the the one lens myth ist especially popular among those who have bags full of lenses. Maybe their enthusiasm is driven by the secret desire to get rid of all the many focal length they own and which the never have really "learned" in a sense of knowing how, and when to use them correctly ? 😉


bertram

 

[einolu]

i find the philosophy is popular with people who actually practice it. i think that after taking photos for a little while you realize which focal length is best for the type of photographs that you see the world in.

 

[tedwhite]

Well, for me it's 35mm 90 percent of the time. Having said that, I frequently carry a fifty in a jacket pocket. I once started to photograph someone on the street who was willing to hang around, and I said "wait a moment," and slipped on the 50. More suited to a portrait, I thought.

In studio, it's a different story. I use a Rolleiflex for portraits, although sometimes a Pentax Spotmatic with that wonderful Super Takumar 105/2.8. Easier to move around with that one.

 

[VinceC]

I'll be honest and admit I find the 35mm focal length boring, in the way that many people said they found the 50mm boring a generation ago when it was the most common focal length. 35mm is on most point-and-shoots and is otherwise the most common vantage point in the photographic world. I prefer a minimum of a two-lens combination ... 28 and 50. If I carry just one lens, I alternate but most often will take the 28. If you're going wide, you might as well go wide.

The Delano article said he shoots on TMax 400 and TMax 3200 pushed to 6400, then does his own printing. He clearly does something with diffusion on a lot of the prints ... probably something akin to a piece of nylon stocking held under the enlarger.

Many of his compositions aren't really my cup of tea. But he's clearly talented.

EDIT: There have been a couple criticisms of his Website on this thread. It's my experience that a lot of professional photojournalists keep the JPEGs quite small on their Websites and make liberal use of Flash in order to maintain control over their online images.

 

[mfunnell]

I'll have my 35mm days and 50mm days 🙂 sometimes a 90mm day.

Same here! And if I only take a 50 then I'll discover that I'm having a 35mm day and can't "see" anything else. And vice versa. So I tend to take a couple of lenses but usually end up sticking with one - once I've figured out what day it is.

...Mike

 

[mike goldberg]

Lots of good comments above.
Looks like the 35, 50 and some fixed lens RF's are the favorites.

I like einolu's use of the word "vision." Also...
NickTrop's, "becoming one with the lens."

Remembering Beniliam's great street work, I've heard
that he works almost exclusively with the 50. There is a discipline
involved here, and it involves letting go of old habits. In my PJ days
of the 1980's, I weighed in with 2 slr's 4 lenses, flash, etc.
That has to be unlearned. It's like the staffers' cell phones
ringing during meetings at a social agency, because of anxiety
over missed calls.

The message seems to be clear: Keep it simple.
Cheers, mike

 

[tedwhite]

For some reason I can't see Delano's pictures. I went to the website but couldn't do anything after that.