The Great Debate: 50mm or 35mm?

The Great Debate: Join me as I unpack the 50 and the 35mm. Watch to find out which of the two focal lengths I finally picked.

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Lets connect:

[albertsmith]

Been shooting Leica M cameras for decades and something that I read in a Leica book years ago has made the 35mm lens very valuable for quick street type grab shots is a simple formula.

With a 35mm lens, the side-to-side coverage of the capture is equal to the distance from the subject. For example, if you are ten feet from a wall, you'll get 10 feet of that wall in the frame.

So with this in mind and a zone focused lens, you can move about without looking through the finder and get in the right place to raise your camera and shoot, or shoot from the hip, with a good idea of what's in the frame.

This is very useful for people that wish to remain Stealthy in the street but still want to get the framing right. Soon, you get good at eyeballing the distance and then seeing that measurement across the frame, no need to actually get out a tape measure.

For this reason, a 35mm (or equivalent adjusted for format) is always a first lens purchase for all my systems.

[hughhoneyman]

Voigtlander 40 1.2 is my lens of choice. the best of both worlds...

[chumito]

Appreciate you going over BOTH the subjective aspects (composition, personal space, zooming with your feet, etc) AND the objective aspects (DOF, price considerations, lens size, etc) of this debate!

[homecareful]

Solid, Jay. I've been shooting for over 50 years and I never really thought about comparing the two on depth of field. Well done.

[gary_buzel]

35mm is my everyday carry. I like the 50mm when I don’t want to be as close like street work. Great analysis Jay. This debate will never be settled anytime soon.

[danielclift]

One trick you can use to nail the focus on a rangefinder is to preset the focus, say at your 8ft distance, and then either wait for the subject to arrive at that point, or step toward or away from them - when you see the rangefinder images coincide in the viewfinder you simply need to press the shutter.

[MitchWebb]

Just wanted to say I enjoyed that you didn't jump cut the audio at every opportunity, quite enjoyed the flow!

And to answer your debate from my perspective, I have a fuji with a 40mm equivalent Voigtlander F2 pancake on there (as close to a Leica manual experience as I'll get for a while) and just fell in love with that focal length.

[ulfjonsson]

Very nice video. Since my Minolta CLE days I have always preferred tho 40 mm lens though I also have 35 and 50 mm lenses.

[LadStrayer]

I helped your quest for 1000 subscribers.I own two 35mm lenses and two 50mm lenses. I have to say I reach for the 35 more often but I recently started shooting with a 40mm f2.5 Sony lens and wow what a nice focal length.

[hurleygreen]

LOVING THIS GREAT DEBATE! I'm a 50mm lens dude, and I consider it to be a great walkaround lens: the 35mm lens is now said to be the "natural" looking view and I won't argue with that opinion. So now I'm shooting with a 28-90mm Nikon zoom lens AND my 50mm lens and loving them BOTH! Thanks for your video.

[rosscosan]

After watching various videos I recently bought both lenses 35mm and 50mm for my Nikon D500 DSLR . Love them both and enjoyed your video very much .

[AlainGuindon]

No doubt if you use a Leica M Rangefinder and you go out with only one lens, then it’s the 35mm, for events or street. I’ll still use and enjoy the 50mm very often, but the 35 is the more flexible focal length.😊

[GastonShutters]

Another great Video Jay. My Leica pair is the 28 Elmarit, 50 Apo. But my one lens kit is the Voigtlander 40mm f1.4. That lens is fast, small, in between 35-50 and super affordable. I paid $399 for mine back then. Happy New Year!

[irenedp]

There has been a recent controversy in the Leica forums about zone focusing, which you might be interested in looking at. But, as everything, it depends. I never zone focus, and across cameras and formats I keep using 75% of the time the 50 or it’s equivalents. But I get your point for the type of photography you do. Hope you enjoy your M11!

[jlinwinter]

great video! I've been using a Summicron-C 40mm on a Leica SL for the last year and it's a wonderful lens. I'm actually moving in the opposite direction - toward autofocusing lens next year, because I find myself shooting often in conditions where I can't get focus. I live in the pacific northwest, and hiking in the rain is 85% of my landscape photography outings. Just today, I went out, climbed a mountain, and found myself surrounded by rain and mist and wanted to get a picture. I couldn't focus because of the rain/mist and my zone focusing chops weren't so good when I can't read the camera indicators (glasses fogged up). So I think I'm going with a 35mm weatherproof autofocusing lens of some kind. I really enjoyed your video and your experiences. Sometimes it takes a lot of mistakes to come up with the right answer in the end. Best wishes for the new year!

[paulsehstedt]

I made my decision 50 years ago, when I got my first Minolta SRT 101 with a 57/1.7 lens. Today I'm on Leica M and the LUX 50, the Elmar-M 3.8/24 and the Summarit 2.5/90. The jump down to 35 is too small. Happy New Year to you!

[JohnPatrickWeiss]

I shoot a Fuji Xpro 3 with Fuji 35mm f2 lens (50 mm equivalent more or less on APSC). Also have the Fuji 23mm f2 but I prefer a tighter frame and bit of distance from my street subjects. However, a buddy shoots the Leica Q2 monochrome, and the lens on that is beautiful, so I may upgrade at some point. Cheers.

[GinKenvin]

I have exclusively shoot with different Leica 50mm lenses starting in 1967 here in Canada. I am 71 yo and still shoot my 50 mm lenses now on my M11P. I think the best way to learn and master composition in photography is using a 50 mm lens. Once you have master the 50 you will be able to master any other focal length. This is just a question of personal taste and choice with a non stop commitment to your work and creative mind set. Thank you for sharing your experience.

[MrCmpunk]

Lovely video man! This was very helpful i recently owned the 50mm summarit-M and its one of the best out there, but i agree with its depth of field limits, 35 is the way to go for that!

[garymc]

Very thoughtful. I still feel that the setting I’m going to be shooting in can affect my selection between the two focal lengths.