A realization about focal length and age ...

Last night, I was thinking about lenses I've used over the years when

I had an odd realization. It came to me that my most-used focal

length has pretty much changed with my age.

 

 

When I was 17, I bought a 17mm f/3.5 Tokina lens and I loved it. I

used other lenses up to 500mm, but if I had to pick one lens to keep

on my camera when I went out and about, it was the 17mm.

 

 

A few year into college, my most used lens became a 20mm f/3.5 AIS

Nikkor. In law school, I moved more toward a 24mm as a favorite

focal length, and so on ...

 

 

Now, I'm 42. It occurred to me that in the last year since I bought

D100, the lens I have on the camera most is the 28mm f/1.4 AFD

Nikkor, which crops to a 42mm focal length pattern on a Nikon DSLR.

 

 

I've always been impressed by Cartier-Bresson's work, but couldn't

quite get why a 50mm lens was what he used for the bulk of his work.

Yet, at the rate I'm going, I'll be regularly shooting a 50mm

equivalent lens in eight years. Is anyone else seeing in terms of

longer focal lengths as they get older?<div></div>

Hmm ... I am only 28 but my most used lens is a 100mm macro. Maybe I am wise beyond my years ... :-)

 

-A

Or you should start working out and saving your money, because you'll be shooting a 600mm by the time you are my age.

You probably want to maintain a greater distance as you age. I think it would be more interesting to correlate focal length with culture rather than age; e.g., do Western street photographers gravitate toward longer focal lengths than Eastern street photographers?

Interesting. I think young people (particularly guys) tend to look for the racy, dramatic feel of wide-angles, whereas maybe the more mature photographers try to make the subject matter speak for itself more. It's just a form-vs-substance progression that probably is true of a lot of artistic pursuits.

Beau, there's no question that I've always liked the drama of wide angle lenses. As you say though, as I've aged, I've gained more confidence in my choice of subject matter.

hypothesis 1: as you get older, your vision gets worse, and the high-resolution part of your eyes gets smaller. Thus, you see detail in a smaller part of the world and your mental compositions tend towards a narrower angle of view.

 

<p>The idea about not wanting to get as immersed in the action, a more "sit back and observe" mindset seems to make sense too.

 

<p>FWIW, I'm 17 and find the 28mm lens to be my most natural focal length (though I only have that and a 50).

<a href="http://www.keithlaban.co.uk">Keith Laban Photography</a><p>Interesting question.<p>I've been taking photographs for more years than I care to remember but my preference for "standard" focal length lenses has never wavered. I suppose there are two main reasons for this which are closely related, (1) I prefer the natural perspective, (2) Generally speaking I dislike photographs that are distinctly photographic.

I'm getting old and nervous, so I've gone telephoto. :-)

 

Anupam, that was a good wisecrack! LOL

it depends on what youre shooting....

I have tended towards longer lenses as time goes by but I believe it's experience rather than age that has caused the change. I used to just want to capture the world in a picture frame but now I tend to isolate and simplify. My preferred focal length for general picture taking has moved up from 50 to 100mm. There's still a place for wide angle images of course.

135mm is about my limit on hand holding a shot at age 57 (sigh...)

The older I get, the wider the lens! Have to compensate for poor eyesight - can't focus as well, camera shake - can't hold steady any more, depth of field - can't see the subject so good, need a motor drive - hands aren't as clever as they once were, need auto focus too. When I was a boy, a Nikon F and a 85mm Nikor did the job, now it has to be an Eos 30 and an EF28-105mm or (I tell myself) I can't bring the bacon home. Who's kidding who?

I'm using shorter focal lengths more as I get older. The length I use still varies quite a bit depending on the type of shooting, but the overall trend is towards wider angles.

I don't know for sure. I tend to hang in the moderate telephoto range with a first, but surely in the WA range with a 2nd body or choice. Maybe groing older enables me to leave more equipment at home.

guess it really depends on what you're shooting and personal tastes, and it's hard to draw a generalization and a trend of aesthetic preferences changing with age, though i'm not ruling out any change in itself.. otherwise, most everyone would start out with a fish-eye and end up with a 600m with a 2x conv by the time they turn 80.. (i started out with a 50, moved to 35, now at 28).

My dear wife claims that I was born "old"!<br>

Perhaps that's why I've always tended to use the moderate teley's from 75mm to 135mm.<br>

I guess though that I might be regressing since I've fallen in love with a 28mm lately! :-)<p>

Cheers!

With the increasing wisdom of age (?) I have sold off my zoom lenses (including a 60-300mm/5.6) and now use primes exclusively, mainly my standard 50mm/1.8 Canon FD with my F1. Other than that I have a 28mmm, an 85mm and a 135mm.

 

The only focal length that has changed in recent years is that of my eyes such that I now need longer arms to read the newspaper.

Interesting thoughts. My favorite lens in junior high school was my dad's old 90mm Elmar. I used a couple 105s with SLRs for a number of years. In 1981 I bought an 85, which remains my favorite lens. I like the field of view. It allows me to be selective and remain at close range. It is the longest lens I carry, and the lens I use most for images for myself. I also like the 35, 50 and 24. However, if I was limited to only one lens, it would be the 85. (A tripod is a great help at any age, and increases in value with years!)

In my youth, I was inclined to use a 70-210mm and now I must be perpetually stuck in my youth as I no longer see telephoto and use, for the most part, only the 16-35.

There was a point where I was using a lot of telephoto lenses for image compression and then there was the wide-angle phase but today, I'm really attached to my fast 50mm for my 35mm system.

 

It took me a while to get used to shooting at 50mm because at first it seemed mundane and limiting. This is really a question of photographic approach. If you see a camera system that generally limits your photographic vision or one that helps you focus this vision. There were trips where I packed just one 50mm lense so that I would be forced to use it.

 

The 50mm in the 35mm camera system is one of the most highly evolved lense you'll have in your bag. Its been around forever. Even a cheap prime 50mm lense will probably outperform your other more expensive lenses. Pound for pound, it will also probably be cheaper and faster.

If you're on a budget and want to put the best glass between your subject and your film, try a prime 50mm.

Hmmm. I'm still young (a mere 24!), but I've been pondering this myself lately.

 

My first SLR was for my tenth birthday, and for a long time I was obsessed with long lenses.

 

I had a long time away and have only been shooting seriously for the last year or so. At the minute I'm shooting a lot through a 50, but also growing much more appreciative of the wider end of the scale.

 

As I lean towards a Bessa, the thought of the CV wides is making me go all tingly.

So here's another hypothesis...

 

Perhaps as men get older they need the egotistical comfort of a longer lens - in much the same way as some men develop a need to drive big or fast cars? Perhaps another interesting question would be to ask if female photographers develop the same desire for longer lenses or whether they just 'mellow out'?

 

Personally, at 28, I keep swinging between my wide and long lenses depending on whatever phase I am going through at the time - does that say anything disfunctional about me? Or am I approaching an early midlife crisis?

 

Or perhaps I've just been hanging out with too many feminists of late...

grant alluded to a good question. Does your change in focal length preference reflect a change in subject matter? Seems to me that there's a more meaningful correlation between age and the subject matter that interests you thereby affecting your focal length preferences, than between age and focal length use directly.

 

Personally, when I was younger I avoided photos of people and concentrated on abstracts, landscapes and urban scenes. I used a much wider range of lenses to "bolster" the effects - though I may not have realized it at the time.

 

As I've entered my forties, I'm finally learning to accept people and everyday life as it comes to me. To that end, I've narrowed my lens selection to a 35 and a 50 of the best quality I can afford. "Lensiness" is taking a back seat to an appreciation of the subject matter itself.

"Or perhaps I've just been hanging out with too many feminists of late..."

 

I'll go with your last as it seems feminists try to male sexualize, to the negative, everything. When was the last time you heard a feminist have anything positive to say about the male population? We're talking classic, rip the guy, sexist behavior here.

 

Wishing you the best with your lense choices and stop seeing a lense as a penis. That's just too nutty for this old dog. It's a camera lense and nothing more.