most used focal lenght

[victor]

hi all rangefinder and viewfinder camera users.
what focal lenghts are your favorites, and what du like about it?

[Eric Rose]

duh

[Grady O]

It wont let me vote, but I use a 35mm. It's the only Leica lens I own (ok, only Leica lens I could afford). I really like it, goo for every day stuff. I think I would like to get a 50mm, but I'm in no hurry.

[bmac]

Most used in all formats, the "normal" or wide-normal" lens.

[jnanian]

victor:

it really depends what i am taking a photograph of ..
i'm kind of all over the map

[bjorke]

I use the 28mm a75% of the time on my Contax, and the 45mm almost all of the rest. The 90mm sits in the bag. On my ancient LTM, I use the 50mm since it's the best and I have a great viewfinder for it.

I used to use the 85mm (like a 90mm) more on my Canon SLRs -- don't have the fab 85mm for my RTS though (yet). The longer lens seems much more natural in an SLR.

[Aggie]

I use my 43mm (equal to about 21 in a 35 mm format) the most. Second comes the 80 (equal to about 44mm in the 35 format) I have now two of the longer lenses, the 150mm and the 210, but have only placed them on the camera, I have not used them in a shot yet.

[Flotsam]

The 40mm on my Leitz Minolta CL is a pretty close approximation of a 150mm on my 4x5, (and a hell of a lot lighter), so it is perfect for scouting,

[David A. Goldfarb]

I have three fixed-lens Voigtlander viewfinder/rangefinder cameras, all of which have normal lenses (Vitessa-L 35mm--50mm, Perkeo II 6x6--80mm, Bessa II 6x9--105mm), so no choice to be had with those.

On my Tech V 4x5", I have four cammed lenses (90, 135, 150, 210), and my favorite is the 135/3.5 Planar, because it's so sharp and fast (in 4x5" terms at least), and it's a good focal length for rangefinder use, since the viewfinder can be a little imprecise sometimes and there's a little more DOF than with a longer lens. On the other hand, I probably use the 150/4.5 Xenar just as often, because it's small and will fold in the camera.

[victor]

it is interesting to look at the tendecies of using the lenses. especially today, when the choice of high quality capable lenses are all over the fl map. unfortunatly, leica still doesnt have the 15mm lense. but voigtlander is very good indeed. on the bigger ones (44/66 and 69) there are of course the apo-grand's (35/45) which are breath stopping. so u find yourself with the new experiances with those capabilities and choices (though expenssive game..lol).
about a year ago, i have used exclussivly only the normals ( 50 and 80 ). rf and vf totally changed my approach. the normal is still one of my favorities, but i found myself calling "normal" 35mm, 24mm and 75/90, and their equvs.. it all begun with the voigt snap/skop25mm. at the bigging it was really wide for me, but step by step i came to a point that i call this focal normal. suddenly i had a new dimention in understanding one of my fave masters - kudelka. i just, cannot understand why leica dont make the elm24mm with those click-stops of the snap-skop25. those clicks are great things and their placing (1, 1.5, 3) is very logical and practical. what is great about this focal and the equv is that u go into the bones of what u photograph, while still having it in space, and at the same time - the perspective is very controlable.
the choice of the lense depends on my mood. i think that every thing can be done with each lense when u know how to use it and when u "call it normal" while the "normality" is defined by the mental state.
along the "mental state" of course there are the geomentrical/optical effects. but u can use it in your artistical advance . well - 15mm and 90 are more limitting of course.

bojork.. about the long lenses.. first of all, of course i do agre with u (about slr). i dont use them too much as well. actually, artistically the most intriguinge long in my opinion is imagon...lol
but then.. look at it from the other side..
what u do with the long is that u are concentrated on some choosen part of the scene. the viewfinder (0.72) with the x1.25 gives u at about the real size scene. when u look with the 75 or 90 frames u r actually concentrated vissualy on some part. so the vissual and the mental is in corelation. x1.25 also increases the focusing accuracy at about one stop in confidance. so it is just another approuch.