>>3478720>he photographic community for a very long time had referred to the 35mm format when discussing focal lengths as standardThat's not true at all. Mostly because in medium format and larger, you have all kinds of different aspect ratios. The 3:2 aspect ratio that all 135 format cameras use was only used in 6x9 cameras, not in 6x6, not in 6x12, not in 4x5" , etc. etc. .
Most people knew the format they were shooting and what mm lens correspands to what coverage, and they would just mention the lens itself and no "equivalent". And actually in large format, both past and present, the specs and discussions list angle of view.
The whole thing with "35mm equivalent" started with all that APS-C fuckery in the digital era. Because now that was the most popular+amateur format, and many casual shooters needed to readjust, especially since it wasn't too drastic of a difference to be able/worth to memorise a complete new sequence of mm numbers (as was the case with medium or large format).
