Wide Angle Lens

[pcouturier]

Is a 18-55mm lens considered a wide angle? If not what is considred wide angle?

 

[Big Mike]

It depends what camera you are using them on.

First, we must understand that most Digital SLR cameras are based on the same format as 35mm film SLR cameras. On those film cameras, anything below 30mm was considered wide angle. 24mm was really wide and 17mm was ultra wide.

Now, we must understand that most Digital SLR cameras have a sensor that is slightly smaller than a frame of 35mm film. So in a nut shell, the camera is only seeing a smaller part of the image and 'cropping' off the sides. It makes the field of view narrower by a certain factor...this is often referred to as the 'crop factor'.
The result is that 24mm no longer gives you a wide angle view and 17mm (18mm) only gives you a somewhat wide view.

The 18-55mm lenses avaliable, are made specifically for digital SLR cameras with a 'crop factor'...so I would say that 18-55mm would be considered a 'normal' range zoom lens, rather than a wide angle. The wide end is sort of wide, but not dramatically wide.

Fortunately for wide angle lovers, like me, they have ultra wide angle lenses for these crop factor cameras. The one I have, is the Canon EF-S 10-22mm. It gives me an ultra wide field of view.