rmalarz wrote:
Bill, I'm a bit confused by your question. Field of view is degrees. The size of the sensitive surface is a 35mm frame. These are two different items.
The field of view is the angle a particular lens can "see". It's actually a cone. Within that cone is a 3 dimensional scene which is, by projection, mapped onto a 2 dimensional surface. The size of the photosensitive surface. The "field of view" is already expressed in degrees.
--Bob
I think what dsprague meant was 35mm equivalent focal length. I'm sure you knew what he meant and I suppose it was appropriate to correct him. However, I think the point is, wouldn't we all be better off if we referred to lenses by their 'field of view' instead of focal length and cut out all of this 'equivalent' and crop factor business. I can understand how those who grew up with film SLR's think of field of view in terms of focal length, but field o view would be much more universal across all of the different formats and sensor sizes. It would take some getting used to, but would make life so much easier for newcomers - and old timers once they got used to it.