Shooting with a 35mm lens vs 50mm

David Hughes said:
Hi,

Just curious; how far away from your screen are you and what's its diagonal?

And how far away from the keyboard and what's its diagonal?

Regards, David
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Interestingly, when I was using a laptop I was experiencing some eye strain, and wondered why I was sitting so close to the screen even though it was more comfortable to type with the computer a few inches further away.

I pulled over an SLR with a 50 on it and looked at the screen through it - almost perfectly framed in the VF. Curious I then took the Zorki and looked through that - the screen was about an exact fit in the VF.

I experimented a bit, and found that I generally stood a tad closer to images of various sizes than a 50mm lens would capture. About confirming that 50mm is slightly "too long", 45mm was about right.
 
raid said:
The Zeiss G 45/2 meets the description :)
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I saw some Zeiss specs indicating the true focal length is 47mm, so it appears the labeling was rounded down to the nearest 5mm... :)
Raid, do I recall correctly you have the 43mm Pentax too?
 
I'm a 35mm guy. 50 just seems a bit long for general work - street, landscape etc - and too short for portraits. If I want longer, I'll go for 85-90mm.

That said, my favourite camera has a 42mm fixed lens, so I go with that.
 
Hi,

It's amazing the number of 40 to 45mm prime lenses there are out there and made by everyone from Lomo to Leica...

Regards, David
 
I grew up with a 50mm it came with a pentax and was all I could afford, after that came a 28mm that was a few decades agao, since then the 50mm focal legnth has always been my favourite focal length
 
I've (currently) got a 21mm Color-Skopar and it's great for getting in very close to crowds and architectural detail - but it's probably too wide for my liking. I've also got a 20-35mm f2.8 Nikkor which I use on the F6 and D800 but seldom use it much wider than 35mm. My 35mm f2 Ai-S is almost permanently on the front of my FM3A and I love the 35mm lens (well, 23mm with a crop factor) on the front of my Fuji X100.

I seldom use a 50mm lens - not because I don't like it - but simply because I find 35mm about the most versatile focal length for the subjects I shoot and the way my eyes tend to see things. I have a few 50mm lenses but, aside from the 35mm f1.4 (which crops up to a notional 50mm) I use with my X-Pro1 and X-E1, I can't tell you the last time I used one.

All I can suggest is that you stick a 35mm lens on the front of a camera and use it extensively for a few weeks. It's more than capable of doing street, portraits, landscapes, reportage, etc. It's just a really versatile focal length, in my opinion.
 
lxmike said:
I grew up with a 50mm it came with a pentax and was all I could afford, after that came a 28mm that was a few decades agao, since then the 50mm focal legnth has always been my favourite focal length
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I also shot with a Pentax and 50mm lens for years, a K1000 with the 50/2. I probably could have afforded something else but never saw the need. The 50 continues to be my favorite focal length.
 
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