Camera Obscured (Rex) and I talked about the cheap Chinese Leica M lenses.

They were a way in. Not the romantic way. The practical one. You still needed the camera first. But after that, you could stop waiting. You could put a lens on the M and start making pictures.

One lens almost nobody brags about is the 7Artisans 35mm f/2 (Version 1).

It was small. Aluminum. On the camera it barely existed. Wide open it wasn’t sharp from corner to corner. Not clean. Not perfect. But for portraits and street it didn’t need to be. It had a soft edge to it. A kind look. It drew faces well. It handled night light with a little glow.

I shot it for two years.

Then I moved to the fast 1.4 lenses. I wanted more light. More separation. Less compromise.

But that 35/2 had already done its job. It went with me through Austria, Italy, and France. It proved a simple thing: you don’t need expensive glass to make good photographs.

You need a camera. A lens. And the habit of going out.

And now I find myself wondering if I should buy that little lens again.