Jock Elliott
Hall of Famer
- Location
- Troy, NY
I had an email conversation with Don (streetshooter) the other day and clicked through to his blog -- streetshooter.net -- and came across a small piece he had written on "How to find your natural FOV" (field of view).
If I read and understood it properly, the thesis is that if you shoot a camera with a lens that is congruent with your natural field of view, that will make it easier to execute shots that more accurately reflect the idea you had when you initially conceived of the shot. To put it another way, the camera will take what you saw from the perspective of your natural eyeballs.
I was intrigued by this idea, so I did some additional research on the net and found that there are a few photographers who believe that our natural FOV is mimicked not by a 35mm or 50mm lens, but by a 40mm lens.
So I fiddled around with my G12, adjusted the zoom until I got a shot that seemed to mimic way I see with my eyeballs. The software on my computer told me that it was equivalent to a 39.5mm lens!
Then I got to thinking about how I could have a camera that would be ready to go with a 40mm lens? An M43 with a 20mm lens?
As I was waking up this am, it came to me: if you have a camera with a zoom lens and the ability to save custom settings, it's easy: set your camera to a zoom setting that approximates your natural FOV, and then save it to one of the custom settings. When you start the camera on that custom setting, it will automatically go to the zoom length that you want. At least that's what my Canon G12 will do.
So now I am experimenting with the "custom" 39.5 mm lens, and I like it so far. If anybody is interested, I'll report back later on my finding.
In the meantime, if anyone else would like to experiment with natural FOV, I'd like to hear about your experience.
Cheers, Jock
If I read and understood it properly, the thesis is that if you shoot a camera with a lens that is congruent with your natural field of view, that will make it easier to execute shots that more accurately reflect the idea you had when you initially conceived of the shot. To put it another way, the camera will take what you saw from the perspective of your natural eyeballs.
I was intrigued by this idea, so I did some additional research on the net and found that there are a few photographers who believe that our natural FOV is mimicked not by a 35mm or 50mm lens, but by a 40mm lens.
So I fiddled around with my G12, adjusted the zoom until I got a shot that seemed to mimic way I see with my eyeballs. The software on my computer told me that it was equivalent to a 39.5mm lens!
Then I got to thinking about how I could have a camera that would be ready to go with a 40mm lens? An M43 with a 20mm lens?
As I was waking up this am, it came to me: if you have a camera with a zoom lens and the ability to save custom settings, it's easy: set your camera to a zoom setting that approximates your natural FOV, and then save it to one of the custom settings. When you start the camera on that custom setting, it will automatically go to the zoom length that you want. At least that's what my Canon G12 will do.
So now I am experimenting with the "custom" 39.5 mm lens, and I like it so far. If anybody is interested, I'll report back later on my finding.
In the meantime, if anyone else would like to experiment with natural FOV, I'd like to hear about your experience.
Cheers, Jock