What is your least favorite lens length...

What is your least favorite lens length...

  • 28mm

    Votes: 120 11.9%

  • 35mm

    Votes: 120 11.9%

  • 40mm

    Votes: 71 7.0%

  • 50mm

    Votes: 145 14.4%

  • 75mm

    Votes: 65 6.4%

  • 85mm

    Votes: 19 1.9%

  • 90mm

    Votes: 34 3.4%

  • 100mm

    Votes: 42 4.2%

  • 135mm

    Votes: 392 38.9%
  • Total voters
    1,008
My least used focal length on my Leica rangefinders, screwmount and M, is 75mm. (I don't have a 90 and my 135 is an ancient Hektor). I have a Voigtlander f/2.5 and the wonderful Leica Summicron but somehow these lenses don't wind up on my cameras. The 50mm focal length is just about as high as I generally find comfortable.
 
42.5mm. I don't even have one any more.

After that, 19mm, 40mm, 60mm, 100mm, 105mm and 127mm. Among the lenses I've actually owned or used, 20mm followed by 12mm.

This is not an outstandingly meaningful poll, as it comes close to attempting to prove a negative.

Cheers,

R.
 
85mm. For some reason, 90mm and 105mm work great for me, but 85 doesn't do it. It's too limited to being just a portrait length, whereas 90 and 105 I can use for other stuff, as well. Don't know why the slight difference in focal length between 85 and 90 is so important to me; but for some reason it feels like a world of difference.
 
PhotoMat said:
"What's my least favorite focal length?"

Probably that of a lens I don't own. 😉
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I'm the same. And (between film SLR primes and RF) I own all but 75mm and 135mm. And of those two I have to go with 135mm as I own and use the lens lengths either side of 75mm. Just can't see the point in having an 85mm I love and getting a 75mm as well. But I have never been tempted to get a 135mm even with them being cheap in LTM.
 
Scrambler said:
I'm the same. And (between film SLR primes and RF) I own all but 75mm and 135mm. And of those two I have to go with 135mm as I own and use the lens lengths either side of 75mm. Just can't see the point in having an 85mm I love and getting a 75mm as well. But I have never been tempted to get a 135mm even with them being cheap in LTM.
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ALL? 12mm, 13mm, 14mm, 15mm, 16mm, 17mm, 18mm, 19mm, 20mm, 21mm, 24mm, 25mm, 28mm, 35mm, 40mm, 42.5mm, 50mm, 55mm, 58mm, 60mm, 73mm, 85mm. 90mm, 100mm, 105mm, 115mm, 125mm, 127mm, 180mm... Those are just the ones I'm sure about (and omitting 75mm and 135mm). I think there may also be 29mm, 32mm, 38mm, 52mm (yes, I know), 70mm, 101mm, 120mm, 150mm...

Cheers,

R.
 
I have a 23mm lens in my collection. I also know there are 65mm and 66mm macro lenses out there.

But forgetting the weird stuff, 75mm (on 135 film) has always seemed rather pointless to me. 90mm or 100mm gives a more useful jump up from 50.
 
Some days, I really dislike 50mm; it seems neither long enough nor wide enough. This usually passes, though, and I break out my 50 and enjoy its merits.

I never get tired of 35mm, though.
 
In the 1950s, I had a Leica 3F with 35mm, 50mm, 90mm and 127mm lenses. I really did not like the 127mm although that length is not on your survey. It was a Wollensak.
A friend of mine had a 30mm lens on a Yashica SLR which he loved. The 28mm was too wide for him and the 35mm too narrow. What does it all add up to? I have no idea.
 
Roger Hicks said:
ALL? 12mm, 13mm, 14mm, 15mm, 16mm, 17mm, 18mm, 19mm, 20mm, 21mm, 24mm, 25mm, 28mm, 35mm, 40mm, 42.5mm, 50mm, 55mm, 58mm, 60mm, 73mm, 85mm. 90mm, 100mm, 105mm, 115mm, 125mm, 127mm, 180mm... Those are just the ones I'm sure about (and omitting 75mm and 135mm). I think there may also be 29mm, 32mm, 38mm, 52mm (yes, I know), 70mm, 101mm, 120mm, 150mm...

Cheers,

R.
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LOL. All the ones on the survey. Apart from the survey lengths, and zooms, I think I have only had 45mm and 55mm focal lengths.

Dare I ask, Roger, how many you have/ have used of your list?
 
Scrambler said:
LOL. All the ones on the survey. Apart from the survey lengths, and zooms, I think I have only had 45mm and 55mm focal lengths.

Dare I ask, Roger, how many you have/ have used of your list?
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Ah... All the ones in the survey. Of course. Amazing how one can mistead the obvious. Sorry.

Trying to answer your question, I currently own 14mm (Sigma-Nikon, usable on Leica with an adapter), 15mm (CV-Leica and a Sigma fish-eye), 18mm (ZM), 21mm (several), 28mm (CV-Leica), 35mm (several), 50mm (several), 55mm (Pentax), 58mm (Exakta), 65mm (Leica and Subjektiv), 75mm (Leica), 90mm (several), 100mm (Dreamagon T-mount) and 135mm.

I've owned or borrowed for extended periods 12mm (CV), WATE 16-18-21, 24mm (Leica and Nikon), 25mm (Zeiss in both Contax RF and ZM mount), 38mm (Robot), 43.5mm (Robot), 85mm (several), 105mm (Nikon).

Of the others I've handled and sometimes taken a shot or two with 16mm (Zeiss), 19mm (Canon), 73mm (Leica), 127mm (Wollensak). There are probably others but I don't remember.

That's what decades of writing for the photo press will do for you... Or used to do for you. It's a lot less fun nowadays and there's a lot less money about.

Cheers,

R.
 
A slip of a finger on a mobile phone caused me to vote wrongly.

My least favourite is far and away 50mm. Like looking through a tunnel, yet not a telephoto.

35mm was my favourite for many years, but coming back to rangefinders, I have moved towards 40-ish mm most of the time.
 
Thinking about it, no real least favourite personal focal lengths, just ones that do not lend themselves so well to me, for the different subjects I might shoot. Tele's are about reach to me, so I need the reach or I don't. Once I get past a certain width though, there are genuine focal lengths I would not know how to shoot with. Anything past 20mm, like 18/ 15/ even 12mm, I genuinely would not know how to approach shooting with them, and have a respect for people who can produce good work regularly with such focal lengths.
 
50mm. No doubt.
I have both a Nikkor 50 1.4 AI and one of the re-issued Nikon 50 1.4 rangefinder lenses, and virtually never use either.
Never liked the focal length. Too wide to be long, and too long to be wide. For me its only saving grace is its high speed.
My normal lenses are both 35 mm (Nikkor f2, and Nikon 1.8 rangefinder).
 
I didn't vote because it depends on film/sensor format (size). But I'll go for 135 - a bit long for my tastes, without being long enough to be telephoto-useful for the kinds of things I like to shoot.
 
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I like 35mm and 50mm on M6 and on M8 I use it exclusively 35mm, as it the lens that is convenient focal length to general photography. I have voted for 90 as the least as that length is very limited used on my cameras.
 
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