Sanders makes a fine point about wide-angle lenses. As a rule, I have little time for wide-angle shots and have been left in the lurch by the fixation others have with these,. I am a normal to long-focus guy. I own the standard set of wide-angle lenses and a Ha$$elblad SWC but, in the end, I prefer a moderate telephoto (85/90 in miniature format and, say, a 120mm in medium format. There is a time and a place for wide-angle lenses but I learned to hate them when I was a Civic Figure and the news reporters all wanted to jam wide-angle lenses in my face at any public event. I talked to these guys and told them that the next time they intruded on me, I would regard it as assault and would smash their cameras with a brick. The photo editor from the local paper called me, with concern, and I tried to explain to him why his guys out to be on the top of a building a mile away and shooting their pictures with an appropriately long lens. He obviously knew little of the craft but, in the end, the photogs started shooting me from a distance with normal lenses, and we got along well thereafter.
They have a place. That is why I have a 4/50 from my Hasselblad 2000FCM and why I carry a 1.4/35 Summicron and a modified 4.5/21 with my Leica M6 kit. Some shots can only be made with a wide-angle but people shots work best with a normal lens, to preserve the perspective.
I recognize that zoom lenses always involve compromises. I am not happy with compromises. Modern digital zoom lenses work well, however, at least for 8" by 10" prints. But, then, I take almost no photographs today -- I spend more time charging the battery than in shooting shots. A friend in Connecticut, back in the day with my first and lamented wife, used to laugh that I was just a 'gear-head' over my approach to European cars -- I would then rather rebuild them and make them sing sweet than drive them. Today, I am a photographic gear gear-head. I love seeing how parts fit together and what they do with each other, be it the M42 adapter for my Canon Rebel II DSLR, or the 4X Bayonet I Magnar for my Rolleiflex TLR's. I like the Leitz Visoflex system. I like the doo-dads which a system camera requires. I like figuring out who the pros did it sixty years back, with the Sports Release on a Viso I or a PLOOT. I own a lot of this gear, so when people ask me questions, I can often pull out the very item of which they are asking and have it before me as I respond to their questions.
Marc It is a good world for doing good deeds. -- Nathaniel the Faun --- Rollei List - Post to rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx- Subscribe at rollei_list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'subscribe' in the subject field OR by logging into www.freelists.org
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