...HCB, Eisenstadt and others used the 50mm efl almost exclusively, at least at first, for their street work.
Their most effective shots seem to pluck and isolate vignettes from the chaos of life.
For this the longer efl is ideal.
It will be interesting to see where this longer lens leads us all.
Thanks, Lili.
When I was using the Leica M6 I started off by shooting 80% with a 35mm lens and 20% with 50mm lenses; later these proportions were reversed and I shot 80% with the 50mm lenses. And I hadn't shot more than some 20 pictures (that I printed) with 28 and 21mm lenses. When I decided to buy the GRD in July 2006, I was concerned that I might find it difficult or not congenial to shoot with a 28mm EFOV lens, but I had an open mind because I knew that my favourite photographer, Moriyama Daida, shot with the Ricoh GR1 (2mm) and GR21 (21mm) film cameras. As I started using the GRD I found that the wider lens took some getting used to, but that it was really suitable for street photography. Nevertheless, from time to time I missed a 50mm lens: that is why I got a D-Lux-3 in December 2006 and, then, the GX100 in late-August 2007, when I still did not know when the GRD2 would be released. And of course this is also the reason that I have now bought the GT1 40mm EFOV tele-converter.
The GRD2 package, with the GW1 21mm EFOV wide-converter and the GT1 40mm tele-converter, offers now great flexibility. However, many people have suggested that it would be better for Ricoh to make a GRD-40 camera because this is the focal length that interest them. I am not so sure and vacillate between the current solution of the "GRD28" (the current GRD2) camera with the two converter and the idea of three cameras: a GRD21, a GRD28 and a GRD40. The idea of carrying three of these small cameras doesn't pose a problem and obviates the need for putting on converters; on the other hand the current solution of using converters is much cheaper. I could go either way, but it seems to me that people pushing for a GRD40 are ones who haven't warmed to using a 28mm EFOV lens. I should also add that after getting the GX100 I thought that I would shoot ir mainly at 35 and 50mm, but found that some 70% of my shots were still at 28mm and a good many at 24mm — the wide-angle aesthetic can grow on you.
Finally, I should add that it's quite possible to shoot close-up portraits with a 28mm lens, but the approach has to be different thab the 40mm portrait above, which would have had too much "big nose" distortions with the 28mm lens. For comparison here are two GRD (28mm) portraits, which suggest that, with this focal length, it's best to shoot in profile or limit oneself to distortion that is still acceptable but, certainly, the type of portrait posted above could not have been made with a 28mm EFOV lens:
—Mitch/Bangkok
http://www.flickr.com/photos/10268776@N00/