Wow, I did not realised that its been exactly a year since I last blogged. Which means its exactly a year since I took out the camera and snapped away. Well, The retina eye injury played a big part in this…… work made it worse and then kids came along.
Am not complaining since am having a fulfilling family life which I would gladly devote all my time to. Juggling it between work is not an easy thing though and then a rare chance appear….that I will have almost a day off while waiting for my next flight home.
I have almost forgotten whats inside my dry cabinet, sniffing through that black box brought back many memories….. I see the flash, ok hardly used, then the 35mm F1.4…well it has served me well and am happy that its sitting pretty next to my M240. And then I saw the 24mm F1.4, a forgotten treasure…….whats the next best thing to do ? You got it, bring it along to my Tokyo trip.
I have always been doing my street shots with the 35mm. However, some friends tell me that the 35mm is now out of fashion. It is the more reporter style 21mm, 24mm, 28mm that got everyone raving. When I first attached it to the camera, I thought its a little too big to blend into the crowd. The little extra protrusion from the camera body made it harder to grip with comfort, not to mention that the setup is way heavier. But heck, need to give this baby a try before deciding to sell it or not.
It was not as bad as I thought. No one noticed that I had a camera with me as I do my usual rangefinder 007 spy shots. Walking around and after the first few shots, I was pretty peeved that I did not manage to get the usual tempo with my shots when compared to the 35mm. I then realised that although both are F1.4, the 24mm is just not as fast as the 35mm. You need to walk a little slower or wait a little bit more.
Then came the fact that its wider. You would think that its easier because you will be able to get more within the frames correct ? But no, it captured more unwanted parts than I would like. I mean if I am using the 35mm, while walking, if I see this subject approaching me, I could still get a decent shot of that subject mostly without other distracting surroundings. But with the 21mm, it sucks in everything. You get lost in the photos because you will not know where to look at.
I suppose that its more for buildings and architecture or landscapes. But I must say that for street photography, when you get it right, the results are amazing, even more so that the 35mm.
Would I sell this lens? Nah…..I just have to give it another try and see if I can get the hang of it.
P.S. Some of the picture are cropped…..just cannot accept the wide angled images sometimes…..and forget about the night images, the results are similar with most Leica M Lenses….
urbanarchiver 