Going ultra-wide

Understanding the Field of View Crop Factor in Digital SLR Cameras

Because the sensor in a digital SLR camera is typically smaller than the 35 mm film it replaced, the physics of the lens's focal point changes. This phenomenon is known as the "Field of View Crop Factor" or "Focal Length Multiplier." The result is that your long lens becomes longer, and your wide lens becomes narrower.

Wildlife photographers appreciate the Focal Length Multiplier because their 200 mm telephoto lens effectively becomes a 320 mm lens. However, creative photographers find it frustrating because a 24 mm lens becomes a 38 mm lens, making it challenging to achieve a truly wide angle.

My personal lens investment dates back to the pre-digital era, so I never had the chance to compensate for this effect. Consequently, all my lenses became too long for many of my purposes. To satisfy my need for wide shots, I occasionally rent a 14 mm ultra-wide lens (with an effective focal length of 22 mm), which reminds me of the good old days when a wide lens was truly a wide lens.

Wide-angle photography is a lot of fun and allows me to keep the social media header imagery fresh.