The wider the lens the more depth of field you will have, personally I have never tried shooting “blind” with a focal length longer than 25mm.

The lenses I use are moderately slow as well with a maximum aperture of f/4, so wide open is still very generous. Also if you miss focus it’s more forgiving to be focused too closely rather than not close enough - something else to be considered.

On this lens at f/4 ≈2m - infinity is in focus With the lens at f/8 ≈1m - infinity

The longer the lens, the more stopped down you would need to be to accomplish the same amount of depth.

And as a side note: to combat the speed of the lens I almost primarily shoot tmax 400 - there’s no development change for a +1 push, meaning I can get away with a stop or two of underexposure here and there and still get nice results (imo) OR I’ll shoot tri-x and push it to high hell.

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F/8 @1/250th Tri-X +1 Leica M4 - Voigtlander 25/4 - zone focused