rscheffler wrote:
...I think it\'s worth trying a 21 or 24/25 for street. I guess it will depend on situations, but I particularly like 21 in very active scenarios when in the middle of the action. While there is greater risk of clutter and messy backgrounds, etc., sometimes you can get really interesting ranges of interaction within the scene. Only thing is then you\'re carrying more than one lens, so it adds a variable of which to use and there will likely be times when you\'re \'stuck\' with the wrong one. Between 21 and 24, I\'d probably go 21 because you can always crop. Not sure how much you like the idea of cropping. As Edward mentioned, I don\'t even bother with an add-on OVF anymore with 21mm. I guess you\'re super familiar with 35mm and probably can shoot without looking, if you have to. It\'s the same thing...
I like the 21mm focal length a lot and use the Elmarit-21 ASPH. The first thing I would say is that there should be no fear cropping — the framing with the external viewfinder (I use the Zeiss one) is very approximative. Also, I often shoot with the 21mm using what Moriyama Daido calls the \"no finder\" method. I tend to hold the camera at belt level and prefocus to about 1.5 metres and just point the camera at the subject: not to be sneaky, but useful in cases where you don\'t want the subject to look at the lens or where you don\'t want the affect the subject\'s look as he and she is on the street.
The following pictures are all taken with the Elmarit-21 ASPH on the M-Monochrom and are from the Alone in Bangkok project. If you don\'t have parallel lines going off into infinity, bu \"closing\" the back of the frame, you don\'t get an obvious 21mm look. The first picture was taken in an instant, just as I was less than two meters from the motorcycle taxi the young woman just got on: there is no way I could have had enough time to take this picture if I had to bring the viewfinder up to my eye.
The second picture is an example of closing up the back plane of the frame, but the hands of the woman in the middle of the frame are exaggerated in size.
Not sure how much you like the idea of cropping. As Edward mentioned, I don\'t even bother with an add-on OVF anymore with 21mm. I guess you\'re super familiar with 35mm and probably can shoot without looking, if you have to. It\'s the same thing...
