Wide angle lenses confusion

[gmccarthy]

I'm busy watching a online beginners photography course and in it they say a 35mm is a standard lens. Anything wider than this is a wide angle lens. A solid wide angle lens would be a 24mm lens (For a 1.5x crop camera)

I have a Canon 18-55mm lens - so does this mean at 18mm its considered a wide angle lens? I wouldnt think so - what am i missing?

 

[peter27]

I use analogue 35mm (film size) cameras, and this is like FX where digital cameras are concerned. I think of 35mm lenses as wide angle, 50mm as standard and 70mm as tele. Of course, it is possible to go a lot wider or have far greater tele magnification than this; but perhaps what they mean on your course is that 35mm is the limit of the more standard range - beyond this you will encounter noticeable distortion, abberation, etc.

Your lens is 27mm to 82.5mm assuming a 1.5 crop. So quite wide to moderately tele.

A 16mm lens will produce 24mm assuming a 1.5 crop, which is definitely wide angle. A DX camera would need a lens of around 11mm to achieve a 16mm equivalent.

A 16mm lens on an FX camera would be super wide angle and these are often called fisheye lenses because of the distorted view produced.

 

[Maneef]

18mm is wide , but not wide enough sometimes , consider a 10-20mm sigma or 10-22 canon or 11-16 tokina for a crop frame..

 

[gmccarthy]

Thanks for the explanation. Makes a bit more sense now.

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[TCampbell]

I'm busy watching a online beginners photography course and in it they say a 35mm is a standard lens. Anything wider than this is a wide angle lens. A solid wide angle lens would be a 24mm lens (For a 1.5x crop camera)

I have a Canon 18-55mm lens - so does this mean at 18mm its considered a wide angle lens? I wouldnt think so - what am i missing?

Wide angle is really defined by the true angle of view and how it relates to the human eye.

See: Cameras vs. The Human Eye

You can read a lot of different information on the human eye and it's "angle of view". There are several things that make the eye difficult to compare to a camera and lens. But what's generally accepted is that the angle of view of the human eye is somewhere between 40-60º when looking "straight ahead" at the core area of your vision (no looking around or trying to use peripheral vision.)

A full frame DSLR or a 35mm film camera approximates that same angle of view if it uses a 50mm lens. On an APS-C size sensor DSLR, you'd divide the crop-factor (1.5 Nikon, 1.6 Canon) into that focal length. e.g. 50 ÷ 1.5 = 33.3. 50 ÷ 1.6 = 31.25. So basically if you're in that 30-35mm focal length range, you're approximating the angle of view that the human eye considers to be "normal". If YOUR eye can see it (in the core area of your vision without "looking around") then your camera can see it.

Any longer focal lengths are tending toward the telephoto direction. Any shorter focal lengths are tending toward the wide-angle direction. I say "tending toward wide angle" rather than just "wide angle" because a 28mm lens is technically a wider angle of view... but it's very slight. Odds are your eye wont notice the difference (at least not easily.)

On a medium format camera (6cm sensor), an 80mm lens is considered "normal".

18mm is "wide". It's not extremely wide, but it's wide. On an APS-C camera, there are a number of wide-angle options in the "roughly" 10-20mm range which are noticeably wide. 24mm is gently wide. 28mm is technically wider than a "normal" angle of view, but so slight that it will likely escape notice.

 

[imagemaker46]

I always figured a 35mm was considered a wide angle, we used to always consider anything wider than 21mm as super wide.


Sent from the laptop on my living room table, using my fingers to type.

 

[KmH]

Each is a range of focal lengths.

Standard focal length is generally considered to be 35 mm to 70 mm.

For more info see - Understanding Camera Lenses

 

[KmH]

Sent from the laptop on my living room table, using my fingers to type.

I love it! :thumbup:

 

[gmccarthy]

Thanks. Very interesting link


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[Buckster]

I always figured a 35mm was considered a wide angle, we used to always consider anything wider than 21mm as super wide.


Sent from the laptop on my living room table, using my fingers to type.

Yeah, this is a conversion to the smaller APS-C sensors. For full-frame 35mm sensors or 35mm film cameras, it's still 50mm for "normal", and 35mm is considered "wide".

As usual, Tim C explained it very well.

 

[Dikkie2]

But what's generally accepted is that the angle of view of the human eye is somewhere between 40-60º when looking "straight ahead" at the core area of your vision (no looking around or trying to use peripheral vision.)

Generally indeed.

Unless you have a panoramic set of eyes, like I do, so you can see 180º when looking straight ahead.