FAQ: Wide-Angle Lenses

In this week’s edition of FAQ, the topic is a wide-angle lenses. When describing the focal lengths of lenses, there are three main groups: normal, wide-angle, and telephoto.

What is a wide-angle lens?

By way of comparison, normal lenses approximate the perspective and special relationships between elements within the viewing area the way our eyes do. In other words, normal lenses represent the world much like the way we see it.
Wide-angle lenses capture a wider view of the scene before the camera, but because they squeeze more of the scene into the same physical aspect ratio, i.e., 2:3, 4:3, etc., photographs made with wide-angle lenses have a deeper sense of depth, along with exaggerated special relationships between elements within the frame lines.

Telephoto lenses capture a narrower view than normal lenses. Subjects appear closer to the lens, while the perceived distance between elements within the frame lines is compressed.

What’s the difference between field of view and angle of view?

Angle of view (AoV) and field of view (FoV) are often used interchangeably but, technically, represent distinct values. Angle of view describes how wide of a vantage a specific lens provides. It is a constant measurement and does not change, based on with what camera you are using a lens. Field of view describes how much of your surroundings ends up within the frame of your image based on the angle of view of a lens and the sensor size of the camera being used. This is why a 50mm lens on a full-frame 35mm camera is considered a normal lens, but when used on a camera with a smaller APS-C sensor, the angle of view is narrowed by a factor of 1.5x, which in essence turns the lens into a short telephoto lens. The angle of view of the lens hasn’t changed, but the field of view is now significantly narrower.