A 35mm lens will be slightly wide-angle, 24mm quite a bit wide-angle, and 15mm would be extremely wide-angle. Lenses below this focal length do indeed give us a wider angle of view. So, for our definitions, a range of 40mm to 60mm will be within the normal range. Since we’re defining 50mm as normal, then the previously mentioned 43mm focal length gives a slightly wider angle of view. Wide-angle lenses can be considered as lenses with a shorter focal length than normal. For the sake of simplicity, we will standardize in this article that our format of choice is full-frame 35mm, film or digital. Keeping in mind crop factors and their calculations for whatever format we’re using, we can now loosely define other lens types. What is wide-angle? What is telephoto? What is a zoom? Lens Focal Length Definitions Having a definition of normal helps define other focal lengths.
Creative camera placement and good technique will overcome any seeming restrictions. If you can only bring one lens along, having a fast normal lens is a great choice. Making these lenses faster can also be accomplished within what many of us consider a reasonable price range. Therefore, a definition of normal as what the eye sees is not truly accurate.Īn additional advantage of the optical formulae used for normal lenses is that it has been relatively simple to design inexpensive lenses to be paired with cameras. But, if you stop to notice, your peripheral vision is still very wide. A fairly limited field of view is what is in your attention. The eye has a very wide field of view, but our brains tend to zone out unneeded information.Īs an experiment, you are looking at your computer or device screen right now. Because the human eye is a complicated piece of machinery in itself. So, why is a 50mm lens the most common normal lens focal length for this format? The answer is a little more complicated than merely saying it mimics what the eye sees. Thus, by this definition, a normal lens for full-frame 35mm is 43mm. For 35mm film photography, the 24mm by 36mm rectangle of the film frame has a diagonal measurement of about 43mm. Relating to photography, a normal lens is defined as a focal length that is equal to the diagonal measurement of the image format. In this guide, we’ll examine what makes a lens wide-angle, telephoto, normal, or zoom. Not all lenses can even cover the various formats, which we will explain as well. Your intended format is therefore an important factor in determining what a lens will provide for your photography. A 50mm lens made for medium format cameras is wide-angle, on large format it’s extremely wide-angle. If we are using an APS-C or MFT format camera, that same 50mm focal length is telephoto. That “Nifty Fifty” normal lens description really only applies to the full-frame 35mm digital or film format. We first have to relate those numbers to the format we’re using.Īs an example, let’s first look at a 50mm lens. Other important things to know include what exactly does it mean to call a lens wide-angle, telephoto, zoom, or normal? What are the characteristics we should expect from using these lenses? How will they affect our images? Depending on our camera format, those focal length numbers tell us where on the scale from wide-angle to normal to telephoto that lens sits. The numbers don’t tell the whole story, but they do tell us something important. An understanding of focal lengths in photography is essential knowledge for capturing consistently great images.
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