For about 10 months, I’ve been using a variety of film cameras, all with so called ‘normal’ lenses mounted on them. Normal, meaning having about the equivalent angle of view that we see while looking straight ahead. For a 35 mm camera, that would be a 50 mm lens. On the Mamiya 645e, that is an 80 mm lens. On my D300, considering the crop factor, that comes out to about 32 mm, give or take. The nearest focal length being a 35 mm lens. I don’t own one of those, but I do have a 50 mm that I’ve been using, or a focal equivalent and field of view of a 75 mm lens.
For this shot, which is a different view of yesterday’s shot, I had in mind what it would look like through a 50 mm, backed up, looked, and it was nowhere near what I thought it would look like. I was really feeling the red and white stripes of the railroad crossing arm against the color of the sky as well has the blossoms in the background.
Looking through the 50 mm/75 mm equivalent, it was very much cropped. I had to back up quite a bit to get what I wanted … though I wish that the fence wasn’t there, but what can you do other than go with it? To get this shot, I had to almost walk into the street. It’s a pretty busy street in both directions, so better to stay on the sidewalk.
I had been using my film cameras for B & W exclusively, mainly for convenience and to keep costs down. Now, maybe I’ll have to borrow a move from the Chris Klug handbook and shoot Fujichrome or something. It has been dozens of years since I’ve done that. It could be quite satisfying!
I think that to keep things on level playing ground, it’s time to get a 35 mm lens, which is much, much less expensive than getting a D700 unless someone wants to sell me one the same price as the lens. If so, contact me via e-mail and I’ll send the check right away! 
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11 Responses to “It seemed wide enough at the time”
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Paul, another possibility would be a Sigma 28/1.8 which results in a focal length of 45mm on your Nikon, pretty similar to the 50mm on FF, which always had a tighter angle of view then what was considered “normal”. Advantage is the high lens speed together with a really good IQ and the possibility to focus really close, drawback are weight and size (but they are a good match for the D300). Not to forget about the substantially lower price than the Sigma 30/1.4.
I have bought mine 6 months ago, and for the dark time of the year this really became my favourite lens, together with the 85mm. The 28mm on APS-C has quite a bit of this Chameleon-like capability of working like a wide-angle if you come close but from a distance also offering a narrow enough angle of view to arrange the subjects seemingly normal in the frame. I do not regret having bought mine.
Markus: Thanks for the advice. I’ll certainly look into it. I’m also considering some of the older, manual focus lenses. I don’t mind focusing manually, at all. The only problem on an AF camera is that there is not an appropriate focusing screen to ensure good focus. You have to eyeball it.
Paul,
I am in a similar position. I have a Nikkor manual focus 50mm f1.4 from my film days and have been thinking of the 35mm f1.8 autofocus for my D300 since it is s pretty good price. Now that the SB400 flash purchase is behind me, it might be next item to save up for.
Your idea of getting a 35mm manual focus lens (lime the 50mm) is a good one. Might be able to find a good deal on a used one; worth looking in to.
Film???!!! Film? Film! You and Micki
They just about had to pry my old Minolta out of my dead twitching fingers a couple years ago. i loved that thing. But now i’m truly captured by digital for convenience not to mention expense. (Though I’ve sunk a young fortune into my DSLRs.) One thing I did do was get a Sony Alpha which accepts my old and prized Minolta lenses. It is a wonderful companion to the Canon 40D and I used it the other night at Bixby.
Anyway … enjoy your film work. I surely miss it.
Well, John. My film work isn’t going away.
I just need to get organized around the house and find a place to do the developing for B & W. I like both sides of the fence, unlike Micki who will NOT go digital, no way, no how!
This problem always bugged me when I shot with the 10D. I never really resolved it to my satisfaction, even though I bought a Sigma 30mm 1.4 as a normal on that camera. Which, now that I have the 5D, I’m going to sell. But the Sigma is a great lens, and I really enjoyed using it. However, I agree with you that once you begin to get a sense of a particular FOV in your mind’s eye, you really want your camera to respond to that vision.
I might suggest that you load the M6 with color film sometime regardless of how you resolve this. You have a Summicron, I believe, which renders color quite nicely, especially OOF areas. It’s a quality I suggest you experiment with a little.
Chris, you have inspired me to do so. I’ll be putting some color into the 645e, as well. You’re right about the FOV. I would love consistency across the cameras. So far, no one has offered to sell me a Nikon D700 for $300, but the day is not over just yet!
High on my list of ‘next things to purchase’ is a 50 ‘cron for my Bessa. I need a 50mm lens for the rangefinder (for the same reasons you so eloquently state in the above post); all I have right now is a Zeiss 35mm Biogon, which I love, but sometimes is ‘too wide.’ And images from Butzi’s blog shot with his M9 and his ‘cron have filled me with Leica envy. I don’t know whether I’ll ever own a Leica body but I can surely use Leica glass on my Voigtlander.
OMG, I’m starting to sound like Ken Rockwell (grin).
Paul
I use a pre-AI 24mm f2.8 lens on my Nikon D40 and it’s on of my favorites.
I understand that you need an AI to work on a D300.
The 36mm effective length is about as “wide angle” as I can compose with at the moment but the hyperfocal scale on the aperture ring wide enough to use scale focusing on some of the wider apertures.
With the camera set on manual, I can flick through the shutter speeds pretty fast with the thumbwheel and I set the function button to control the ISO speed. This way I can control exposure without resorting to menus or whatever.
I have got pretty good at guessing exposure, though a quick check on the histogram confirms all is well.
The “in focus” green light in the bottom left hand corner works in manual mode and is a great help when focusing manually, though you have to watch yourself and not “chase the light” when you should be concentrating on the composition
http://www.naturfotograf.com written by Bjorn Rorslett is a good resource on the older MF lenses.
It’s a lot of fun
Gavin
Hey, Gavin. Actually the D300 will use any Nikon lens produced in the last 50 years. I’ll just have to kick it old-school manual mode, which obviously I do not mind.
So, the camera would be aperture priority, manual focus … it’s the way that I was brought up. It would feel so familiar. I’ve already started searching e-Bay.
I’ve owned the 35mm f1.8 now for over a year and it stays on the D300 almost all the time. It is light weight and small and for me does a great job. I too, don’t have the money for the full frame D700 so this is a good solution for me. I use to have the 24-85mm f2.4-4.0 then replaced it with the 18-200m VR. I enjoyed both of these lens but find I don’t really miss the zoom much. I use my feet. All I carry anymore is the 35mm on the body and my 85mm f1.8 in my bag and sometimes throw in a flash.