John_F Loc: Minneapolis, MN

Is there an article of some kind somewhere that gives the focal length ranges for different type lenses: fisheye, 1:1, macro, wide angle, normal, telephoto, etc (if there is an etc). I have been trying to reckon from the optics lens formula and that for magnification. Is there an alternative description using 'angle of view.'

Nikonian72 Loc: Chico CA

A true macro lens means the lens can project a life-size image on camera sensor. This is known as 1:1 magnification. There are several macro lenses of different focal length, each capable of 1:1 magnification, but each focal length has its own (different) Minimum Focusing Distance. Typical examples of APS-C or full frame focal lengths available for macro: 15mm, 35-mm, 85mm, 90-mm, 100-mm, 105mm, 150mm, & 200mm.

TucsonCoyote Loc: Tucson AZ

Has been discussed from what I remember and of course there is always heated arguments
because of the fairly wide overlap in opinions and optical properties of lenses .....so we can
box this one .....but in fuzzy boxes !

tramsey Loc: Texas

I think this will help

http://www.tamron-usa.com/lenses/learning_center/tools/focal-length-comparison.php

rwilson1942 Loc: Houston, TX

I don't know of an article but here are my thoughts.
The original 'normal' lens for 35mm cameras was the 50mm. In general, wide angle was considered anything much 'shorter" than 50mm such as 35mm, 28mm etc.
Telephoto was considered anything much 'longer' than 50mm such as 85mm, 105mm, etc. Here is the definition of fisheye from Wikipedia, I think the term was originally applied to lenses capable of 180 degree coverage. 1:1 refers to a lens capable to producing a 'life sized' image on the sensor or film.
Macro is supposed to be 1:1 or greater but is frequently used to indicate a lens that is capable of closer than normal focus (what ever that means).
A lens description like "70-300mm F/4.5-5.6 Di LD Macro" are pretty meaningless in my opinion. "Angle of coverage" describes the angle range that a lens can image. That is the angle of the full image circle produced by the lens. It does not take into consideration the sensor size which is part of what defines 'angle of view', i.e. a FF lens has a much greater angle of coverage than the angle of view of that lens mounted on a crop sensor camera.
All of this is clouded by the whole 'crop sensor' verses FF thing.
As I said, normal, wide angle and telephoto as I defined it above is based on old 35mm cameras.
Hope this helps more that it confuses.

John_F Loc: Minneapolis, MN

Helpful article. I learn from it that a lens focal length that approximates the image capture medium's diagonal measure is termed a normal lens. This is a good start on the information I seek.

BebuLamar

John! A lot of these terms are not well defined so I rather not care.
But let see. Started with the definition of normal lens which have the focal length roughly the same as the diagonal of the format.
Lenses that have longer focal length are telephoto. Lenses that have shorter focal length are wide angle. Lenses that have at least 180 degrees angle of view and distort the image to do that is fish eye. Marco lenses should provide 1:1 magnification at the closet focusing distance. Zoom lens of course is a continuously variable focal length within a range. If the range of the zoom all shorter than the normal lens it's a wide angle zoom. If the range is longer than the normal then it's a telephoto zoom. Well when the the focal length of a lens started shorter than normal but the extend to the telephoto range then it's called "Walk Around" ????

wdross Loc: Castle Rock, Colorado

Other than fisheye (180°), true macro (1:1), and "normal" (50mm for full frame), a lot of the transitions from one type of lense to the other is somewhat subjective (e.g., ultra wide to just wide or short telephoto to medium telephoto). It's sort of like asking what is the angle of a portrait lense; some have shot portraits with 50mm all the way up to 200mm. And some have probably shot even outside that range. In general, see how your camera lense manufacturer classifies their primes for an idea of what angles are classified as what.

rwilson1942 Loc: Houston, TX

I don't think this is correct as stated, any focal length lens will cover the diagonal of the medium otherwise you get vignetting.
A 50mm lens will cover the diagonal of the medium but so will a 500mm lens. The 500mm will just have a much narrower angle of view.
The term normal refers to the focal length lens that most closely reproduces the view of the human eye for a given camera format.
For 35mm cameras that was 50mm. For cameras using 120 film (medium format) it was around 80mm if I recall correctly. For a 4X5 camera I think it was around 150-210mm.

bcrawf

The terms 'wide angle', 'normal', and 'telephoto' are imprecisely defined, but are pegged to 'normal' as being 50mm on a 35 mm camera. To relate the terms to lenses on "crop sensor" cameras, multiply the lenses marked focal length by the camera's crop factor. For example, a 31.25mm lens on a 1.6 crop factor camera is a 'normal' lens (since 31.25mm X 1.6 = 50mm.). Notice that a 50mm lens which covers a full frame (relative to a 35 mm camera's 24mm X 36mm film frame) becomes a "mild tele" (most might say) when it is used on a 1.6X crop camera (since it works as an 80mm lens does on a 35mm camera).

John_F Loc: Minneapolis, MN

That sounds reasonable except that the hman eye is binocular. How does that figure into the normal lens concept?

wdross Loc: Castle Rock, Colorado

Other than one should determine which eye is the dominant eye, it doesn't play in too much. The "normal" lense emulates the "normal" view by the eye (which is the average size used for eye glass lenses). Although the eye can only see fine detail in an ~3.8° circle, its rapid focusing system + our brain allows us to perceive a detailed image over the approximate same angle as a 50mm lense (full frame).

BebuLamar

John I think you stated it a bit wrong. The normal lens should have the focal length roughly equal to the diagonal of the format and not the coverage because all lenses designed for the format should have the same coverage.

John_F Loc: Minneapolis, MN

Looked up human eye field of view and found the following:

Up 60 deg, down 70 - 75 deg for 130 - 135 deg vertical
Nasal 60 deg, temporal 100 - 110 deg for 160 - 170 horizontal
So the field of view is elliptical !

Didn't take notes on color range (buts its large) or aperture range (large too). Didn't notice anything on focal length, tho.

forjava Loc: Half Moon Bay, CA

"The original 'normal' lens for 35mm cameras was the 50mm." Actually, no, but the comment as a whole is useful. Wrt my extract quoted:

Nikon pioneered and established the 50mm as normal with its innovative Nikkor-S Auto 50mm f/1.4 for the Nikon F. First delivered in the early 1960s, this lens family achieved balanced performance at all apertures. Per Oshita, The Nikkor-S Auto 50mm f/1.4 was the most popular NIKKOR lens during the Nikon F and F2 eras.

Before this redefinition of normal by acclamation, the normal space had not yet fully settled into its present form. 1.4 lenses were positioned as specialty, not normal, due to lack of balance. For example, Nikon came at the 50mm f/1.4 from its 5.8cm f/1.4, with an optical design having commonalities with its 5.0cm 1.1 rangefinder.

By 1977, many were pegging 45mm-55mm as standard normal [sic]. This discussion is still ongoing. For example, on YouTube, a photographer recommends Nikon's 60mm micro as more versatile than a 50mm to pack around, that is, normal enough, all practical things considered.

See Koch. See Braczko. See Oshita at http://nikkor.com/story/0044/.