Charles Robinson <charl...@visi.com> wrote: >On Oct 7, 2014, at 10:24 , P.J. Alling <webstertwenty...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >> Just for example why was 135mm the most popular long lens for 35mm film for >>such a long time? It's a funny focal length. Doesn't match any particular >>rule that I ever heard. Well it was the "normal" focal length for larger a >>film format. There were lots of good 135mm designs to base the new Long Lens >>design on. So it became a defacto standard. Faster short telephotos were >>designed, but the 135mm focal length was now engrained in the photographers >>mindset, so they were designed in 135mm. n > >Cool information! I never knew this (but have wondered from time to time).
IIRC, 135mm was the longest focal length that was compatible with Leica's rangefinder-coupling mechanism, so it was the longest focal length lens offered by Leica. Other manufacturers just followed along making that a standard focal length even though they also offered longer lenses. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.