Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2016/09/16

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Subject: [Leica] How did 50mm become the "normal" lens for 35mm cameras?
From: jim at hemenway.com (Jim Hemenway)
Date: Fri, 16 Sep 2016 22:26:25 -0400
References: <3102AFDA-E450-4F4B-AB03-A7A8973AE34A@fastmail.com> <7BCAB2D88BEE4631BE521C119C7DED49@Family> <C4488CF5-6273-4B9E-BCB9-F2D82B33F520@gmail.com>

Jay:

I have that excellent Pentax 43mm f1.8 lens, as well as a Pentax pancake 
lens f3.5 40mm.

JimH




On 9/16/16 9:17 PM, Jayanand Govindaraj wrote:
> I have a Retinette as well, with a 45mm Schneider lens. Nikon used to make 
> a 45mm f2.8 pancake lens, Fuji has a 27mm f2.8 pancake lens for their X 
> mount (40.5mm equivalent), and if memory serves me right, Pentax used to 
> make a 43mm f1.8 lens.
> Cheers
> Jayanand
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
>> On 17-Sep-2016, at 05:04, Douglas Barry<imra at iol.ie>  wrote:
>>
>> According to my list, I have a Halina 35X somewhere in the attic with a 
>> 45mm, a couple of Kodak Retinette 1s with 45mms, and a Yashica Minister 
>> also with a 45mm.
>> Douglas
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Adam Bridge"<abridge683 at 
>> fastmail.com>
>> To: "Leica Users Group"<lug at leica-users.org>
>> Sent: Friday, September 16, 2016 10:45 PM
>> Subject: [Leica] How did 50mm become the "normal" lens for 35mm cameras?
>>
>>
>>> Let me back up a moment.
>>>
>>> I was taught that a ?normal? lens is one whose focal length matches the 
>>> diagonal of the film/sensor frame.
>>>
>>> For 35mm film as shot by, say, a Leica M6, that turns out to be 43mm - 
>>> midway between a wide 35mm lens and a 50mm lens which I have sometimes 
>>> seen called a ?short telephoto? perhaps even by B&H.
>>>
>>> Now as I remember from my cinema days 35mm movies are shot at the same 
>>> aspect ratio as still but have different dimensions since they are shot 
>>> with the long edge running across the film instead of the short edge as 
>>> is the case for full frame 35mm film photography (except, I?m guessing, 
>>> half-frame 35mm but now I?m totally out of school having never seen one 
>>> of these cameras.
>>>
>>> That?s where I?m coming from. And wondering why we don?t see more 
>>> 40-something focal length lenses. I know that there 48?s out there? 
>>> Nikon maybe from the old days? Mark Rabiner, you talked about this at 
>>> some point, I think.
>>>
>>> Thanks
>>>
>>> Adam
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Leica Users Group.
>>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Leica Users Group.
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> _______________________________________________
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Replies: Reply from jayanand at gmail.com (Jayanand Govindaraj) ([Leica] How did 50mm become the "normal" lens for 35mm cameras?)
In reply to: Message from abridge683 at fastmail.com (Adam Bridge) ([Leica] How did 50mm become the "normal" lens for 35mm cameras?)
Message from imra at iol.ie (Douglas Barry) ([Leica] How did 50mm become the "normal" lens for 35mm cameras?)
Message from jayanand at gmail.com (Jayanand Govindaraj) ([Leica] How did 50mm become the "normal" lens for 35mm cameras?)