35 or 50

I've been thinking a bit recently about what my next lens should be. Of course this tracks back into the question of "what type of photography do I want to do?" or more exactly what will be my 'normal' lens? When U start to think about it, just about anything between 35mm and 85mm has a close-enough-to-normal-perspective, but that's still a pretty big range. 85mm is about 7X magnification over 35mm, or to put it another way, 35mm has about 3.5 times the angle-of-view of an 85mm. Luckily my current lens is 28-80mm zoom, so I at least have an idea of what these focal lengths are like.

Over the past year-and-a-half, I've found that I generally like to get close to my subject if I have that luxury. The other night, I was goofing around a bit, just seeing how close I had to get to this big ol' chair I have in order to fill the view finder. At 80mm, I was more than half-way across the room (about 12 feet away), so if I were shooting at an intimate location with an 85mm I know that I become pretty much limited to close-ups. 50mm isn't to bad, but I really like the ability of 35mm to bring a big chunk of the room into the scene -- to provide context.

Another thing I'm looking for, is that the lens has to be fairly fast -- I want an f2. But then we get into issues of cost. Nikon makes (made) both a 50mm f1.8 and a 35mm f2. The 35mm is only about two-and-a-half time the price (I won't be buying new, but still, I can expect a similar spread). Add to that that the 50mm is a more common lens, and the choice is between the lens I can easily get and afford, and the lens I want but might have trouble getting and is going to take longer to save up for.

But I do really like that 35mm perspective.

(this shot was taken in Penticton last summer, down by Okanagan Lake)

*edit*

Another thing I'm looking for is a manual body -- something that won't drain overly expensive, non-researchable, batteries -- maybe a Nikon FM3A, or really just about anything with a cable release mount. Of course, the lens is more important, especially since my current zoom won't work on a manual body.

And I still have to find somewhere that actually has the film scanner I'm trying to get. I'll keep my fingers crossed about Andres in Penticton.