Field of View your Eyes = what lens in mm

[Nikon Kid]

Field of View your Eyes = what lens in mm, wanted to know what Landscape lens truly gives the view of your own eyes or is this a silly question.

So if I am looking at a Landscape, which lens would take the same image.

[AC/DC]

Apparently its around the same as a 50mm lens.

[Nikon Kid]

So this Canon EF 24-105mm f4L IS USM would fit the bill nicely for a landscape lens with some adjustments by the zoom would this suit the the 50d, or would you go fixed.

[Stephen Fletcher]

50mm used to be the case in the old film days, and with a full frame sensor it still will be, but you have to adjust that for sensor sizes. Thats why film cameras came with a "standard" lens of 50mm, as it matches what you saw with your eyes.

[AC/DC]

Yeah, good point. Terry, if you include the crop factor (1.6X), your 24-105 becomes 38-168mm - so not so good for wide landscapes.

[mike from ebbw]

I do a lot of landscape photography and in particular stitched panoramics.To get the right perspective for each shot I have to stitch the lens needs to be set at about 35mm due to the crop factor of a digital body.Hence 50mm for a film body is about 35mm on a digital.

[Nikon Kid]

Then we are looking at a Canon EF 35mm f1.4 L USM, or a Canon EF 24-70mm f2.8L USM. Is there any advantage in having a zoom or am I going to lose some IQ. What is the equivalent of L in a Sigma, is it EX DG HSM ?

[mrmarklin]

Field of View your Eyes = what lens in mm, wanted to know what Landscape lens truly gives the view of your own eyes or is this a silly question.

So if I am looking at a Landscape, which lens would take the same image.

50mm is the norm for full frame cameras, but of course with a crop camera 35mm would be more appropriate. The idea is to let your camera "see" as you see.

I soldiered on for many years in the film world with only a 50mm, letting my legs zoom in and out!

50mm lenses have the advantage of ecomomies of scale: a lot are made so most manufacturers offer a reasonably priced fast lense ie: 50mm f/1.4. Really a performance bargain.;)

[RJM]

I think there is some confusion about FOV and magnification. A 52.5mm lens (eqv. to 35mm on APS sensor camera) should give you the same 1x vision equivalent magnification but it will not give the same 180°FOV of normal 2-eyed vision. No lens is capable of this so if you want to depict what you see you need to do a panorama stitch as described above.

Rick

[MarkEvan]

RJM beat me to it, you arn`t going to get the same FoV from a 50mm lens (on full frame) as what you see through your eyes.


By the way RJM iv`e just seen your avatar on The Life of Birds.......thats one scary looking bird, i`d hate to be a frog with that being the last thing I saw :eek!:.

[Roy C]

What is the equivalent of L in a Sigma, is it EX DG HSM ?
Not sure there is one in IQ terms Terry ;) (only joking before the Sigmaites jump on me).
Back to the focal length, I have a Canon 17-40 L which I use on a 1.6 cropper and there are plenty of times when 17mm is not wide enough - this is why the Canon 10-22 EF-S was brought out but EF-S lenses cannot be used on a full frame body.
BTW, for what it is worth the 17-40 is a superb lens IMO and possible the most popular of the Canon landscape lenses, not necessarily the best but for the modest price very,very good.

[tjsimonsen]

I think there is some confusion about FOV and magnification. A 52.5mm lens (eqv. to 35mm on APS sensor camera) should give you the same 1x vision equivalent magnification but it will not give the same 180°FOV of normal 2-eyed vision.
Rick

True enough, but you get some pretty blurred corners :-O

Thomas

[Nikon Kid]

what is the minium mm size to get good corners.

[macshark]

Effective focal length of the human eye is approximately 22-25mm and the maximum aperture is approximately f/3.5 (though you have to be in dark for quite some time for you pupil to open this much.) Of course, we have binocular vision, so the actual field of view is even wider. Edge sharpness, of course, is not that great...

[Nikon Kid]

Its looking like the Canon EF 17-40mm f4L USM, but how close does this Sigma 18-50mm f2.8 EX DC lens come to the IQ of the Canon, I have the Sigma 150mm and I am very happy with that.

[Roy C]

Its looking like the Canon EF 17-40mm f4L USM, but how close does this Sigma 18-50mm f2.8 EX DC lens come to the IQ of the Canon, I have the Sigma 150mm and I am very happy with that.
The Sigma with a one stop advantage over the Canon and at almost half the price is very good value for money. IQ is reported as being very good (if you get a good copy !) but there are other things to consider IMO. Some of the things that swayed me against the Sigma were:
It extends when zooming
AF is noisy (no HSM)
Rotating focus ring during AF
Good build quality but not up to Canon 'L' standards
Only usable with a 1.6 crop sensor - will not work on FF
No Full time Manual focusing
Excessive CA near wide open

If you can live with these things and want to save some loot then I am sure you would be happy with the Sigma. I am a great believer in 'you get what you pay for' and try to go with the best I can afford at the time.

[Nikon Kid]

Good Advise, Thanks Roy