Wide Angle Lens Basics?

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Jayceyned

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Hi guys,

Have a super-simple question here I think but am a beginner so please forgive my ignorance:

I've been looking around @ prime wide-angle lenses and have seen that 14mm as well as 20 & 35mm seem to be labelled as such; however, I have the standard Canon 18-55mm zoom lens and am wondering whether there would be a difference in the field of view between my lens and the 20 (or 35) mm prime lens should I ever buy one? If my 18-55 can provide those focal lengths, why is it not labelled as a wide-angle lens?

Ultimately I'm trying to work out whether either of the prime lenses mentioned would be better for indoor 'interior' shots & nice panoramic landscapes?

Many thanks for any info & apologies again for my ignorance. I've been reading up a bit on wide lenses but still don't quite get it.
 
Those primes are intended for Full Frame cameras, on which they are equivalent to much wider than you are used to on your camera.

14mm on a Full Frame camera is about equivalent to 9mm on yours (x1.6 crop factor) so that's very wide angle indeed (on a full frame)! The thing is, on your camera 14mm isn't THAT wide and certainly 20mm isn't at all (your kit lens is wider), to get to ultra wide angle you need to be at 10 to 12mm on a crop body and in my honest opinion you'd be better off buying an ultra wide designed for a crop body sensor (e.g. the Sigma 10-20mm).
 
Jayceyned said:
Hi guys,

I have the standard Canon 18-55mm zoom lens and am wondering whether there would be a difference in the field of view between my lens and the 20 (or 35) mm prime lens should I ever buy one? If my 18-55 can provide those focal lengths, why is it not labelled as a wide-angle lens?

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the lens you have would give the same field ( angle ) of view as you say .quite often non zoom lenses are faster with your 18 - 55 lens ,if you use it at f5.6 - f8 you should get good results ,,but indoors you would need to use it on a tripod because of the low light levels ( maybe )
 
Sorry to hijack this thread, but I'm also wondering about wide angle lenses. I got an old OM 50mm lens for my E-P1 (micro four thirds, 2x crop factor), but I find the FOV way too narrow and restricting, so was wanting to go for either 28mm or a 24mm. Which would you guys suggest? I'm looking for something that I can comfortably walk around with and take pictures without having to stand several feet further back, like I would have to when using the 50mm. I'm just a bit worried if the 24mm will be TOO wide, and start to introduce distortion.
 
Smeghead said:
Sorry to hijack this thread, but I'm also wondering about wide angle lenses. I got an old OM 50mm lens for my E-P1 (micro four thirds, 2x crop factor), but I find the FOV way too narrow and restricting, so was wanting to go for either 28mm or a 24mm. Which would you guys suggest? I'm looking for something that I can comfortably walk around with and take pictures without having to stand several feet further back, like I would have to when using the 50mm. I'm just a bit worried if the 24mm will be TOO wide, and start to introduce distortion.
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Do you not have a kit lens? On MFT it's around 14-42mm I think, good walkabout range. On that format, wide angle doesn't really start until about 18mm and lower.
 
HoppyUK said:
Do you not have a kit lens? On MFT it's around 14-42mm I think, good walkabout range. On that format, wide angle doesn't really start until about 18mm and lower.
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Ah, I was always confused as to how the whole crop factor thing worked.

I do have the kit lens, but it's only f/3.5, and I was looking for something a bit faster without costing hundreds of quid (i.e. the Panasonic 20mm)
 
M43 has a crop factor of 2 same as 4/3's
Your 50mm prime will give an equiv fov of 100mm which is a little long for general shooting. Your best bet would be the pana 20mm f1.7, small but perfectly formed as they say. This gives an equiv fov in 35mm film terms of 40mm which (I think) is the perfect FL for gen walk about lens. The 14 mm is too wide for gen use (again my view) but a nice WA in it's own right. The nearest you would get in a legacy lens is 24mm which x2 is 48mm, a little longer than the 20mm but you won't get one as wide (typical f2.8) but somewhat cheaper.
 
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