Less is more

In the end of last year I bought a Hasselblad CFE 4/40 IF lens. It is a super wide angle optic in medium format and costs an arm and a leg. Why did I buy it? Looking back at it now, I think because I wanted it (as opposed to needing it). I had used my Hasselblad V series system for a number of years and there was only one situation when I felt that I needed something wider than the CFi 4/50 lens, which is equivalent to roughly 26mm in 35mm format; that was when I photographed volcanoes of Kamchatka last year. I think what really triggered the buying decision was that the lens is a remarkable performer—it can arguably be considered the pinnacle of Zeiss lens design—and I had to have it. Some things are such that you cannot let go of them until you have lived the dream.

Technically, the lens is absolutely spectacular. Believe it or not, it is brutally sharp, centre to corner, starting right from f/4. I could not detect any immediately obvious chromatic aberration and, although image circle of the lens is very small (when used on the Hasselblad Flexbody, it cannot be shifted even one millimetre), its vignetting signature is far from bad. It shows noticeable distortion, but "noticeable" is meant by fairly high standards; besides, distortion has a simple signature and can be easily dealt with in post processing.

Adding the optic to my usual three lens setup (50mm, 80mm, and 150mm), however, brought nothing but confusion. First, the CFE 4/40 IF is quite large and heavy; adding it to my usual kit made me use a larger camera bag, which became too heavy to lug around. Second, the focal lengths of 50mm and 40mm just do not go together well in my experience—there is some kind of friction between them; I do not know what it is but I felt it very strongly when carrying the two lenses at the same time. I reckon the essence of that friction is in whether you use one lens or the other when you want to shoot wide, and none of the lenses wanted to be left in the backpack. The CFi 4/50 is a much better general purpose wide angle lens whereas the CFE 4/40 IF is more of a specialty optic; the latter, however, is so outstanding that you have to use it. Picking one lens over the other was tough most of the time, and I hate being in the middle.

Recently I had to sell the CFE 4/40 IF for financial reasons. Well, not exactly, perhaps—I actually wonder if using the money elsewhere was an excuse to get rid of the lens. And now that it is gone and I am back to my basic three lens setup, I feel relieved and perfectly focused (pun unintended) again. Less, indeed, sometimes is more.

P.S. I also recommend reading this article published by the Economist. It has nothing to do with photography, but it explores the phenomenon of "the tyranny of choice" and thus indirectly illustrates why using less photographic gear might be beneficial aesthetically.