Well, it all depends on the subject of the photo, does it not? For
"painted landscapes", I agree. Years ago my photography tutor gave me
so great advice regarding my impending trip to Colorado and the
Rockies. He said most people make the mistake of using a wide angle
lens to capture the vista of a range of mountains. The result is
majestic mountain peaks trivialized as insignificant specs by a 28mm or
so. He suggested the Zuiko 100/f2.8, and I was not disappointed. Of
course, it was pretty fortuituous that I had one, of the AG schnozz
variety. ;-)
Anyway, 40mm for intimate portraits, isolating a subject by getting
close and framing well, is damn sweet. It is still true that 40-42mm is
what we see without peripheral vision, so that has to count for something.
Earl
Winsor Crosby wrote:
>Richard, nice to see a post from you on the list again.
>
>I have to agree with you, for myself. I think I would rather have a
>really superb 35mm lens which manufacturers compete to make better.
>And below a certain size and weight I don't think compactness matters
>much and sometimes makes the lens difficult to use. But I know Nikon
>has done a 40mm pancake lens and it has a similar enthusiastic
>following.
>
>A month ago Steve Johnston took up the banner for 40mm in his Sunday
>Morning Photographer column on Luminous Landscape and seems to think
>it has something to do with its being the closest to true normal of
>43mm for a 35mm film frame.
>
>If there were a natural focal length I think it might be in the
>85-100 range. Many years ago Leica Fotografie did an article that
>studied of a number of painted landscapes hanging in art museums,
>went to the sites where the artist set up his easel and found that
>most of the paintings had framing and perspective similar to these
>twice "normal" lenses. I think many of us bought a lens in that
>length for portraits and then found we liked it for much, much more.
>It would partly explain the enthusiasm for the "incredible
>sharpness", at least on a Nikon list, for this length when Nikon's
>own MTF figures put them somewhat below almost any of their modern
>zooms.
>
>
>
>Winsor
>Long Beach, California, USA
>
>
>
>
>
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