50mm by Another Name

The number of options available for a 50mm field of view is staggering.

Yesterday, I opted for the 33mm 1.4 which gives me a field of view equal to 49.9mm. Today, I chose Fuji’s XF35mm F2 which can be seen attached to my X-T1 above. It’s a small, tiny Lens which “punches above its weight”.

The XF35mm F2 gives a field of view equal to 53mm. Compared to the 33mm 1.4 its a slightly tighter crop of 4mm - no big deal. It’s a lovely Frame. Superb image quality on the X-T1.

On my walk through the park this morning, I noticed I kept my distance from my subjects. I used the flip out screen on my Camera to shoot in stealth mode. This I found very effective for Framing and keeping a candid feel to the moments in front of me.

Keeping my distance allowed me room and space to allow more of the scenery into my Frame. On the other hand, by getting closer, this Lens is wonderful for singular theme subjects.

The only true 50mm Lens I own is my Nikon 1.4. I use this on my D750 when shooting Events for Professional Work.

I find the 50mm Lens, for my eyes a very sophisticated tool for creating images. For my style, I appreciate space. This is why the 28mm is my primetime optics, the 35mm Lens is my Classic Frame Vision, the 50mm is a real test to my skill as an image creator. It means no room for laziness. This Lens demands full participation which gets carried over into all of my other Lens. Each Lens teaches me something about that 35mm Frame.

I am deeply impressed with the work of Henri Cartier Bresson and Elliot Erwitt. Throughout their careers, the used one Lens; The 50mm.

This is what Henri Cartier had to say about The 50mm Lens:

“It corresponds to a certain vision and at the same time has enough depth of focus, a thing you don’t have in longer lenses. I worked with a 90. It cuts much of the foreground if you take a landscape, but if people are running at you, there is no depth of focus. The 35 is splendid when needed, but extremely difficult to use if you want precision in composition. There are too many elements, and something is always in the wrong place. It is a beautiful lens at times when needed by what you see. But very often it is used by people who want to shout. Because you have a distortion, you have somebody in the foreground and it gives an effect. But I don’t like effects. There is something aggressive, and I don’t like that. Because when you shout, it is usually because you are short of arguments”.

My interpretation of what Henri Cartier is alluding to is that The 50mm Lens gave his eye an accurate representation of a scene; exactly as he saw it with his eyes. The 35mm in his own words was “splendid” but requires great skill to create and use this Classic Frame.

“A beautiful Lens when needed by what you see”. This tells me Henri used a 35mm Lens but felt right at home with the 50mm. The 50mm gave him a true to life representation with zero distortion and optical trickery.

I do these visual exercises because I am training my eye, brain and vision to know exactly what Focal Length a give scene or subject will need.

When I Travel away from home, I cannot and will not take all of my Prime Lens. I will take two Camera Bodies one Zoom and one Fast Prime. With This set-up, I can cover a vast range of subjects.

My weekend is complete - it has been a success in improving my visual data base of knowledge.

Thanks for reading