[Leica] Wide angle

[sethrosner at nycap.rr.com (Seth Rosner)]

Larry Zeitlin wrote:   a very perceptive commentary on Mark's post "Wide
angle"

 

Larry, your post is a very instructive and helpful apologia for my personal
photographic inclination. I 'see' in 50mm. Fairly close to half my images
are 50mm and the same for 35mm, with the balance being long lenses, 90mm on
M cameras and telephotos on Leicaflex SL's. For many years I had a 21/3,4
Super-Angulon and used it quite rarely, almost entirely for landscapes, e.g.
the Tetons and Jackson's Hole - the correct original name of that
magnificent Snake River valley and never, that I can recall, for 'people'
photography. I simply don't like, or maybe I should say I'm not comfortable
with the perspective distortion that results. I tend to use the 35 not to
approach closely but to include more, that is, to picture a setting for my
subject. I am not an in-your-face person in normal life - excluding of
course singular confrontations with marc james small   ;-)   -   and I guess
that extends to my life behind the viewfinder. I think your analysis is
spot-on, though I'm less certain that in this in-your-face world of ours it
will go away any time soon, nor that close-up photography will come back to
the 'normal' perspective of the 50mm lens. It's why I'm quite comfortable
with the 35 Summaron on my M8.2 = 46.7mm lens, close to the 'ideal' diagonal
of the 24x35mm format. And the Rigid 50 Summicron at equivalent 69.2mm
makes it even more perfect as an intermediate people portrait lens.

 

Seth