Name your favorite lens if you could only carry the one on a 35mm rangefinder.

-- Bart Aldrich (gba-opus@home.com), October 10, 2000

Answers

It's just my opinion--I think RF cameras work best with a standard lens (i.e., anything from 40mm to 50mm), which is great for head-&- shoulders and semi-environment portraits. I find SLRs work better with wide-angle and telephoto lens as you can really see the perspective distortion (expansion of the foreground with a wide-angle lens) and depth-of-field effects (on telephoto lenses, especially when using a large aperture). My favourite: Olympus 35 SP with a 42/1.7 lens and Minolta CLE with a Leica Summicron-C 40/2 lens.

-- Hoyin Lee (leehoyin@hutchcity.com), October 10, 2000.

Bart,

I have been using the Leica M series cameras for about a dozen years now. I love both the 35 and 50mm Summicrons, (f2.0), but have given up on the longer lenses. They 90mm lenses are great, but SLR's are easier to work with in my opinion. I would be hard pressed to give up either the 50 or 35, but I never carry both at the same time. It is not worth the effort to change lenses for only 15mm variation. Rather, I make my choice based on my intended subject matter. If I think back over the last year, I would say that more often than not I would have my 35mm lens on the camera.

It is small, sharp and is better for those great candid "from the hip" shots that rangefinders excel at. Yeah, the more I thing of it the 35mm f2.0 Summicron would be my one lens only choice.

If you want more responses to this question, you might try the Leica site in this board.

http://greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a.tcl?topic=Leica%20Photography

-- Al Smith (smith58@msn.com), October 10, 2000.

Tri-Elmar. 3 focal lengths in one lens.

-- steve (s.swinehart@worldnet.att.net), October 10, 2000.

I'd carry the 40mm f/1.7 since I can't remove it from my Canonet QL17. Anyway, it's right there in between a 35 and 50mm. I'm still dreaming of a Leica M6 with a 35/2, so I'd have to work for it in reality.

-- Ron Gregorio (gregorio@ksc.th.com), October 11, 2000.

A 35 summicron asph is what is on the camera most of the time, so I guess that would be my choice.

-- Bill Sadataki (bill.sadataki@grubb-ellis.com), October 11, 2000.

If I could only use one lens, I wouldn't get an interchangeable lens camera. My preference would be a fast normal to slightly wide angle, and the Canonet QL17 with its 40/1.7 lens, super quiet shutter and CL- like dimensions would be hard to beat for less than five times the cost.

rick :)= rick_oleson.tripod.com

-- rick oleson (rick_oleson@yahoo.com), October 11, 2000.

The $2000 Leica with the $2600 Tri lens aside.....ouch! I think a Voigtlander Bessa R with a 35mm f/1.7 might fit in there just right. Any comments?

-- Bart (gba-opus@home.com), October 11, 2000.

I bought an M6 with 35, 50 and 90. After two years I realise that 90% of my pictures were made with the 35mm. The 50mm come next but I could live without

-- Eric Laurence (Edgar1976@hotmail.com), October 15, 2000.