Re: Do you see a big difference between 28mm and 35mm?
kakomu wrote:
I own a 28mm and a full frame body. I’ve been thinking of getting a 35mm prime. I hear about it being a favorite prime focal length regardless of platform, so I thought I would pick one up and see whether I like it or my 28mm more.
Though, I’m not sure what to expect. I’ve tried to A/B test it on a zoom, but that seemed to be counterintuitive. I wasn’t learning much and it was awkward and unfun.
So, I thought I’d ask the community: what difference do you see between the two focal lengths? Do you find that each FL does one thing much better than the other? Most importantly, how do you feel about each focal length?
There are several ways to think about this.
The difference between 28mm and 35mm is visible but rather small. (If you do a bit of googling you can find online simulators and example photographs that will help you see this. Here is one example.)
35mm focal lengths have long been popular, especially for subjects like street photography where one lens has to somehow balance the desire for wider coverage and not losing subjects in the background. It is usually regarded as a moderate wide angle lens, perhaps just a bit wider than the (very nebulous) lower limit of “normal” lenses.
But 28mm lenses have also long been popular among those who feel slightly constrained by the 35mm focal length. It isn’t better or worse than 35mm, must a little wider.
There’s nothing that says you have to own either of these lenses, much less both of them… unless you can articulate some particular need in your own photography that is fulfilled by such focal lengths. (And if you go back and forth a lot, you may well be better off with a zoom lens that covers this range. All decisions about photo equipment are compromises, and for some the zoom is the better compromise.)
The number of people who actually get a big photographic benefit from having both 28mm and 35mm primes is quite small — vanishingly small, I’d say. If you are using primes for something like street photography because of the small size and quick operation, you’d more likely get used to one of the two and avoid lens switching for such a small difference. In other words, most people are going to pick one or the other.
Part of the decision depends on what other lenses you use — for most people lenses don’t exist in a vacuum, but are part of a system of several lenses. For example, if you have a 24mm lens, you would likely get more benefit from a 35mm lens than a 28mm due to the somewhat larger gap between them. However, if you have a 50mm and a 20mm lens already, perhaps the 35mm would be more useful.
If you are trying to figure out which you prefer, take a zoom lens out and set it to one of these focal lengths and shoot a lot. then do the same with the other focal length. You’ll quickly get an intuitive sense of which you like and how they work.
Finally, in my experience using small primes for street and travel photography, I have come to think that having the supposedly perfect focal length (or having a ton of them) available is less important than you think. (If not, get a zoom.) We learn quickly to “see with the lens on the camera” in a lot of situations, and we simply make quick adjustments to the composition in the context of the lens on the camera.
Jan 11, 2024 at 11:25 AM
Previous versions of gdanmitchell's message #16440802 « Do you see a big difference between 28mm and 35mm? »
