Leica's use of a 50mm lens wasn't pure genius. Westlake says: "The
answer goes all the way back to the earliest 35mm cameras, such as Oscar
Barnack's Leica. For practical reasons of lens design as much as
anything else, these were often fitted with 5cm lenses, and for various
reasons this became a convention which firmly stuck."
In case you didn't read it on the first pass:
<http://blog.dpreview.com/editorial/2009/03/what-is-a-standard-lens.html>
Chuck Norcutt
Ken Norton wrote:
>> I've long known that a "standard lens" is defined as one with focal
>> length equal to the diagonal of the frame size which is in turn related
>> to angle of view. However, I did not previously know how that is
>> related to print size (or print diagonal) and viewing distance.
>>
>
>
> What is the issue? Rules? Are there laws of physics being broken?
>
> I maintain that 50mm as the "standard" focal length for 35mm format was pure
> genius. It's so easy to judge "magnification" as everything is an easy
> multiple of 50mm. A 100mm is 2X, a 200mm lens is 4X, a 300mm lens is 6x, a
> 24mm lens is almost 0.5x. I believe that the overall success of the 35mm
> format has been specifically contributed to by this "standard". Since the
> 35mm format has always been about convenience at the expense of
> image-quality--from a technical perspective it has always been flawed, it
> only makes sense to round the numbers to a convenient standard.
>
> In reality, once you apply a typical crop to the image for final printing,
> we are squaring up the image so even 42mm isn't a correct "standard" focal
> length, but closer to 35mm focal length.
>
> 50mm has never been one of my favorite focal-lengths. It seems to always be
> too long or too short. I personally prefer the 35mm focal length as my
> "standard" just because it allows me to show my subject in its surroundings
> without distortion. You can also zone-focus it. But does this have to do
> with it being closer to 42mm? No, it just has to do with my own artistic
> preference.
>
> AG
--
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