Wide Angle Lenses and Low Light Photography

Today’s Port by Mark Toal

After writing about how much I love wide-angle lenses I bought the Leica/Lumix 25mm f/1.4 lens as a birthday present to myself. In 35mm terms, the 25mm lens has the same angle-of-view as a 50mm lens, so it’s not exactly a wide angle lens! I had told myself that I’d never buy this lens but the price was just too good. You know how that goes; you convince yourself you can sell it for more than you bought if for—so what’s the risk?

Don’t get me wrong the lens is incredibly sharp through its entire aperture range and it’s a Leica lens but what I’m struggling with is the narrow angle-of-view. I hardly ever used the 50mm lens on any SLR that I ever owned and I’ve never been much of a fan of the shallow depth-of-field that you get at f/1.4

But I’ve always liked the idea that if you don’t like something, except Lima beans, you’ve got to give it a try. In situations like the photo of my friend Brandi and her son Easton that was made in a dark restaurant it worked beautifully. At f/1.4 with just the light from a cell phone this was the best lens for the situation.

Meet Mark Toal in Person : Mark will be at the Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas from January 6 through January 9th. Be sure to stop by the Panasonic booth and say “Hi” and tell him what topics you would like to see covered in the blog in 2015.