One camera, one lens?

[DownUnder]

Not sure a 23mm f/2 on a APS-C body ( X100V etc. ) will bring back that glorious look of a 50/1.4 on 135 film.
I remember your Wabi-Sabi Xpro-1 days . Perhaps the Voigtländer 40/1.2 on the ZF will get you even closer.
Rarely using digital these days, but the VM 40/1,2 on a M10 always hits the right balance of minimal carry and character when I want color.

Agree. The Fujinon 23/2.0 is a fine lens, but it produces images I find too 'clinical' for my liking. Ideally sharp nd good colors, but the overall effect, meh.

The older 23/1.4 Fujinon is a far better choice, for me at least. It also has the feature of hand focussing. Push the front part of the lens down and boom! you have a manual focus lens with all the good bits of Fuji's focusing and metering. Push that same part up again and the lens returns to auto-focusing. What's not to like?

The 14/2.8 is similarly auto-manual. Not a lens I use a lot, but it's good glass, if rather too wide for most tastes. For me using it on the street would be like trying to make candid people images at the Grand Canyon.

 

[mtnbkr]

While the idea of an interchangable lens camera only having one lens seems odd to my brain, I tend to go out with only the lens that's on the camera. For SLRs that tends to be 50mm, for rangefinder, that has become 35mm, and for my M43 digital, I mostly select the 12-40mm "Pro" zoom. I have other lenses for each platform, but I seldom carry them all together.

Chris

 

[Jamie Pillers]

Chris, I'm curious... why 50 on SLR and 35 on rangefinder?

 

[Bill Blackwell]

 

[Bingley]

Jamie, I'm still shooting film, so I'll give you two responses to your question. Reviewing the photos I took in May in the U.K. and in Portugal last year, the two camera/lens combos that turned out to be go-to kits were:

For digital: the Leica CL with the W-Nikkor C 35mm f2.5 LTM (50mm equivalent focal length). Really pleased with the results. I have this Nikkor lens in both Nikon S-mount and LTM mount versions, either of which work on the CL w/ an adapter. The optics of these leases are great.

For film: the Leica IIIc with the Voigtlander Heliar 40mm f2.8 ASPH LTM. After looking at many digital files from our most recent trip, I've turned to editing the film photos and I gotta say, this combo rocks! The Heliar 40mm is well known on this site and it's a fantastic optic, as well as tiny. A perfect match for the IIIc (which I've had for going on 20 years and which is still a favorite camera). This combo is fantastic for street photography, but it helps if you have an external vf w/ 40mm framelines or similar.

Neither of these kits is crushingly expensive; the digital CL (now, alas, discontinued) produces files that are hard to distinguish from full-fame digital cameras. I purchased my sample, used, in 2021, and it's been a go-to travel camera since.

 

[Peter_S]

Currently just on a Ricoh GRiiix. The simplicity when packing for a trip is refreshing. Does 90% of the jobb. 35mm would be preferable, but 40 is close enough and a very handy focal length. Edit: If I stil had my T3, I would likely carry that, too. I tried some alternatives (Minilux, T, TVS), none of which made the hassle of an extra camera worthwhile.

 

[mtnbkr]

Chris, I'm curious... why 50 on SLR and 35 on rangefinder?

Mainly down to how I use the cameras, but also the size of those lenses relative to the camera itself.
I mainly take SLRs when the purpose of the outing is photography rather than the photography being incidental. I do most of that shooting on 50mm because that is the focal length I've built my "vision" around...if that makes sense.

When I pick up the rangefinder, the purpose of the outing is something else (family gathering, etc). I want the camera to be small and unobtrusive and I also want a bit more width because I may not have as much physical space to work with and may be closer to my subjects. Also my 35mm LTM lens is far smaller than the 50mm I have for that platform, so the overall package is smaller.

Chris

 

[wlewisiii]

I've done it many times. I did it most recently with my M 240 and sonnar type 50mm lenses for one year. That got ... interesting ... 😀 but was well worth it.

That said, I've also done it with a Nikon D800 & a 50/1.4 AF and with a Olympus E-PL 1 and a 17/2.8 for shorter lengths of time. Both were valuable lessons.

But realistically if I'm going to limit myself to a "one lens" situation anymore, I just grab my Rolleiflex Automat because nothing beats a pre-war Zeiss Tessar 75/3.5🥷

 

[38Deardorff]

Tessars are magic.....i'll take character over just sharpness every time