For a long time I preferred shooting with a 50 mm lens. I had no hesitation going longer for certain shots, as the perspective of a longer focal length always fascinated me, but I never really considered using a wider focal length. Frankly, I tended to zoom with my feet, preferring, in general, to carry less equipment. I did lust after fisheye lenses, but they tended to be far too expensive for such a specialty item. At any rate, slowly, over time, and especially since the advent of cell phone cameras, with their wider view of the world, I've started getting more comfortable at the shorter end of the focal length spectrum.
I decided to pick up a copy of the Leica R 21 mm f/4 lens several years ago, before things got out of hand with prices on old film equipment. I found a beater copy for a couple of hundred dollars. A strange fact about this lens is that it has two L-shaped aperture blades. It is always amusing to see how a camera company like Leica would chose to cut corners. Candidly, the lens is plagued by soft corners and vignetting until stopped down to about f/11. Seriously. But in bright light, it performs very well indeed. Doesn't hold a candle to modern wide angles, but quite an achievement for the lens designers of the 1960s.
A year or so ago, I purchased a lightly used copy of the Leica Q digital camera. My local camera store owner texted me that a photography-loving dentist was trading one in as he moved his way up the pecking order of Leica camera ownership. I'd heard that the 28 mm lens on this camera was something special, so I went ahead with the purchase. It really is a sweet lens. But what I particularly enjoy about the little Leica is shooting in its macro mode.
Shooting macro with a wide angle lens. Definitely a topic to return to another day.
