Hi, I generally don't use long lenses, and, with but one exception, I never use zooms, and that one's a Pentax M24~35 zoom .... more of a tool for fine tuning a crop than a zoom since the range is so narrow. So, my lenses are all relatively light, the biggest, heaviest lens, and the longest lens I now have, is the A*200/2.8 I'm also pretty good at hand holding at slow shutter speeds, having practiced some techniques extensively over the years. 1/30th second is pretty easy for me with most focal lengths up to about 105mm, 1/15 is a "snap" with wider lenses, and 1/60 and 1/125 is fine with longer optics. But, again, the lenses are relatively light and small compared to the behemoth zooms and heavy AF lenses a lot of people use. Anyway, I don't like zooms on principal ... too big, too slow to use, too "inn your face" and obtrusive, for the most part. And then there's the all too frequent and obvious distortion at the wide and long end of the focal range, although that may not be as much of a problem now as it used to be.
But, my photography is quite a bit different than most of what you see on this list. Zooms, even if I liked 'em, are too slow in operation most of the time, and I don't use auto focus, and rarely use a meter. All my gear is old, light, and set up to be used quickly. I should note that for some "street photography" I use tri-X, not so much for its speed but because I like the look and because it sort of goes well with the Leica, but more and more I'm using 100 speed film for general work, and, thank goodness, I still have a few bricks of 25 and 32 speed films available. shel Markus Maurer wrote: > Hi Shel > I often use only a A70-210mm 4.0 zoom on the road and to be on the safe side > against shaking I shoot with a minimum of 1/125 or 1/250 or faster without > tripod . To get that under most light conditions, I need ISO 400 film, ISO > 100 would not work for me. > I can use a grey filter for small apertures in bright light, I too prefer a > small depth of field mostly. > I do not own fast tele/zoomlenses, so I see no other solution than fast film > for me. The only fast lens I have is the 50mm 1.2 from Pentax, all others > lenses are between 2.8 - 5.6 > > How do you solve that (analog?) dilemma, with a super fast (expensive) tele > or with a digital camera? > > saluti > Markus > > >>As for using faster films ... well, generally I don't, at > >>least not just because I'm using a lens with a smaller > >>aperture. I like to shoot relatively wide open, and slow > >>shutter speeds don't bother me particularly (hence the the > >>desire for smaller lenses)
