Macro lenses have the highest magnification due to their unique construction, which reduces the focal distance they operate within and allow you to focus in very close subjects.

Lenses are named by their focal length. You can find this information on the barrel of the lens, and almost every camera lens ever made will prominently display the focal length. For example, a 50mm lens has a focal length of 50 millimeters.

Many photographers misunderstand the concept of focal length. Contrary to what some people think, the focal length of a camera lens is not the lens’s physical length, and it has little to do with its overall size. So, what is focal length? This article will explain the answer, including how to decide which focal length is right for your style of photography.

The simplest focal length definition is a description of the distance between the center of a lens and the image sensor when the lens is focused at infinity.

As you can see from the diagram above, focal length is determined when the lens is focused on something very far away – in other words, focused to infinity.

4. Telephoto lenses have focal lengths between 70mm and 300mm. They are regularly used by wildlife photographers to get closer to their subjects without being seen. They are also popular for portrait photography, and a surprising number of landscape photographers use them to capture more abstract or close-up detail photos. One feature of these lenses is that they easily isolate a subject from its background using a shallow depth of field. So, you’ll need to make sure you focus more carefully with such lenses.

So what are the mm in lenses? The key is to understand that focal length is calculated by measuring the distance from the optical center of the lens to the image sensor, and this distance is measured in mm. The longer the focal length, the physically longer the lens will be. Lenses with a wider view will have a shorter focal length and are physically shorter by comparison.

Focal length and depth of field are different properties of both a lens and sensor but are somewhat related. Depth of field is how much of a scene is in sharp focus. How narrow or wide the depth of field is, is an interaction between focal length, sensor size, subject distance, and aperture value.

Very user friendly article. Thank you. I have just ordered a Fuji 18-55 lens which I am hoping is a bit of an upgrade from the current 16-50 so will try out what I have learned when I get it.

Hello Dan! I’m Mariam from Mauritius. I wanted to thank you for this deep explanation on focal length! I just bought my first camera and your article helped me so much!

Take a look at the following demonstration. The four photos shown below were taken at increasing focal lengths. The photos start at 25mm and end at 140mm:

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When you look at the focal length of the lens in question and you see a number below 35mm, you know you’re looking at a short focal length.

You can read more information on prime lenses versus zoom lenses here. Most photographers use a combination of prime and zoom lenses in order to get the advantages of both.

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That brings us to the concept of camera sensor size. Digital cameras today come with a wide variety of camera sensor sizes, depending on the manufacturer and camera model. For example, a full-frame camera sensor has the same size as traditional 35mm-style film (specifically, 36 by 24 millimeters). From there, other cameras have larger and smaller sensors.

2024730 — The 'mm' on lenses is an abbreviation for millimeters, m/m means which is used as a unit of measurement for the focal length of a lens.

Focal length is the physical measurement of distance between the lens and the imaging sensor when the subject is in focus.

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“Nodal point” may sound complicated, but it is simply the point where light converges in a lens. Here’s a simple diagram showing the focal length of a lens, based upon this definition:

Nikoncamera lens millimeters

Again, all of these numbers are written in full-frame terms. If you have a crop-sensor camera, you will need to find your equivalent focal lengths by dividing these numbers by 1.5, 2, or whatever your crop factor is.

This concept can be complicated when the crop factor and the field of view come into play since we began to ask what is the equivalence of the focal length of a lens using it in a camera with a different sensor format.

Focal distance is the distance between the subject you are focusing to the camera sensor. Lenses that can work at close focal distances have higher magnification (or reproduction ratios) relative to lenses that need you to stay far from the subject.

As you change focal length, you will change what’s in your photo. You may choose a wide-angle lens (like 20mm) if you want to capture a grand landscape. Meanwhile, you may choose a telephoto lens (like 500mm) if you want to zoom in on a distant bird.

3. Standard lenses / normal lenses have focal lengths between 35mm and 70mm. They capture the world in a way very similar to how our eyes see. They have minimal perspective distortion, so they are a favorite of many types of photographers. Street photographers and event photographers will use them as good “default” lenses, whereas landscape photographers will use them for scenes that don’t demand the sweeping, wide-angle view.

Normal or standard lenses have a focal length between 35mm and 50mm in full-frame terms. When comparing across formats, they have a field of view that’s also equivalent to a normal lens. These lenses best duplicate how we see the world.

A lens focal length that’s greater than 50mm is considered a long focal length. This view is narrower than the normal view we’re accustomed to when paying bare attention. An image taken with a 100mm telephoto lens will have a much smaller section of coverage than a normal or wide-angle field of view.

Again – similar to cropping a photo in post-processing – you will change your photo’s field of view by changing the camera’s sensor size.

Camera zoom lenses allows to change the angle of view without moving and are more versatile than prime lenses. The downside is that maximum apertures are not usually as fast as the fastest prime lenses. For example, an f/1.4 zoom would be ridiculously expensive and massive.

One way to think of small camera sensors is that, essentially, they are crops of bigger sensors. In fact, they are often called “crop-sensor cameras” for this very reason.

The image below illustrates this. It was taken with the full-frame Nikon D800 and Nikon’s 24-70mm f/2.8 zoom lens, zoomed to 44mm. If you were to put this same lens on the Nikon D500 (a crop-sensor camera with the “APS-C” sensor size) without changing anything, it would still be a 24-70mm lens at 44mm. However, the crop sensor of the D500 would lead to a narrower field of view, shown by the red box below, labeled APS-C / DX.

Remember that if you tend to specialize in any type of photography, it’s crucial to understand how focal length affects your image so you can have a better idea of what sort of lenses you should be shopping with, as well as the impact they have on a subject and background. You can download my PDF photography guide to get more information about this.

The difference between laser light and the light emitted by an incoherent source can only be fully appreciated with reference to certain notions of.

Focal length determines many of the characteristics of the photos you can take as well as the physical dimensions of the lens.

1. Ultra-wide lenses have a focal length of less than 24mm (all of these numbers are in full-frame terms). They capture incredibly broad views. However, because of this, they often present a distorted or exaggerated view of the world. They are great lenses for landscape photography, and they’re fun for special effects if you get up close to your subject. Also, if you do real estate photography or architectural photography, you’ll definitely want one of these lenses in your bag to capture full interiors.

5. Super-telephoto lenses have focal lengths exceeding 300 mm. They are often used for photographing wildlife, sports, and other small or distant subjects. These lenses can be very large and heavy and may require the use of a tripod to support them. They are also very expensive, sometimes over $10,000. However, there are less expensive options available, too, especially if you get a used or refurbished copy.

Can you help me understand how a 60mm f2.8 macro lens is described as being 120 mm and, at the same time, equivalent to 35 mm focal length. I am completely bewildered.

The angle of view in photography is the area of the scene that is captured by the camera sensor. This area is described in degrees of coverage in front of the camera.

Canoncamera lens millimeters

Hi Anne, it totally depends on the sensor size of the camera. For example, if you’re using a Micro 4/3 sensor camera with the 60mm f2.8 lens, since the crop factor is 2x, it means that you’re cropping the image the double, so technically it’s like shooting at 120mm focal length. Hope it’s clear. 🙂

Focal length in photography comes up far more often than focal distance, which is an entirely different property of a lens. Focal distance is related to focal length but is not dependent on it.

Hopefully, now you can see why focal length is so important in photography. As photographers, the single most important thing is, quite simply, what’s in your photo!

In practical terms, angle of view and field of view are used interchangeably in photography to indicate the way our cameras “see” the scene, and using a short focal length or a long focal length will change drastically the field of view or the amount of the scene that is photographed.

Focal length comparisons are incomplete without the infamous crop factor discussion. Nowadays, we have APS-C, Micro 4/3rds, medium format, and full-frame, all of which use a lens focal length description centered around 35mm film gear. While this made sense when the digital revolution began, it’s often simply confusing to parse nowadays.

These super long focal lengths are usually more expensive but they allow to capture subjects from a very far distance like in sports and wildlife photography, and to shoot other genres like deep astrophotography.

It’s important to understand the definition of focal length as a photographer, but don’t get hung up on the technical terms or math-related concepts.

Apart from the definition of focal length in photography as the measurement in millimeters from the lens to the image sensor, focal length has a direct impact on the angle of view, which is a static property of the lens in question but is impacted by the sensor crop factor.

By twisting the barrel of a zoom lens, you can adjust the focal length and field of view of your lens, which affects depth of field, distortion, and all other aspects of your image.

Nasim Mansurov wrote an excellent article on Equivalent Focal Length and Field of View that covers this topic in more detail. If you want to learn more about crop factor and effective focal length, give it a look.

Super telephoto lenses have very different focal lengths, ranging from 300mm and beyond. When considering focal length and field of view, crop factor is incredibly important because you can gain significant amounts of reach using a crop sensor like Micro 4/3rds.

This 60mm focal length lens is produced for Micro Four Thirds (MFT) system cameras. MFT cameras have an 18mm × 13.5mm sensor, which is approximately half the linear size (quarter the areal size) of the 36mm × 24mm sensor in full‑frame cameras. Full‑frame is also known as: • 35 mm format • full‑frame camera • full‑frame format • full‑frame image sensor • FX format • 135 format (the 35 mm film format as specified in ISO 1007 Photography — 135‑size film and magazine — Specifications)

Photos taken with a long focal length look more “compressed” as compared to shorter focal lengths, and allow you to capture subjects from a farther distance without losing image quality.

That’s where the concept of “crop factor” comes in. Crop factor takes the guesswork out of converting lenses across cameras.

Understanding your camera’s zoom ability helps you know what sort of pictures you can reasonably expect to take. Just like with an interchangeable lens camera (ILC), the camera will have a focal length range that tells you about the properties of the lens.

It’s important to consider that focal length is a static property of a lens that’s true regardless of crop factor; for example, a 16mm APS-C lens is a 16mm lens even if it has a 24mm equivalent field of view in a full-frame camera. We’ll see + in-depth info about this below.

2. Wide-angle lenses have an equivalent focal length in the range of 24mm to 35mm. These lenses still take in a wide view and are often used by landscape and architectural photographers. That said, they have less perspective distortion than an ultra-wide lens, so they usually won’t look as exaggerated and don’t usually give very unusual effects.

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Can you help me understand why a lens advertised as 60 mm f2.8 macro is described as 120mm and equivalent to 35mm focal length? I am completely bewildered.

That’s not a hypothetical example, either! Lots of cameras have a crop factor of 1.5×. If you have one of these cameras, just multiply your lens’s focal length by 1.5 to find your “effective focal length” on a full-frame camera. For example, if you have a 50mm lens on your 1.5× camera, it would match a 75mm lens on a full-frame camera.

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Camera lensmm comparison

Focal length also relates to field of view (also called angle of view) because changing the focal length changes the field of view – I’ll explain more about how the field of view and focal length of a lens interact with each other in greater detail below.

Please note that lens compression is not related to the lens, but to the distance from the subject (Ex. You can achieve the same field of view and perspective shooting an element with a short focal length like 20 mm or cropping the same area from a 50 mm as long as both images are taken from the same distance).

Hello! I’ve been enjoying your articles very much, they’re super helpful! I was wondering if there was anywhere you may be able to direct me to in order to learn about how close or far away your should be from your subject with different lenses and in different shooting situations? I think that’s the next piece of the puzzle I’m looking to understand. Thank you!

Camera lensmm chart

How focal length works is by describing each lens in terms of millimeters (lens mm). This description is a hard-physical reality of the lens in question, no matter the brand, format, or aperture.

I emphasize that we get the field of view because again, lens focal length is inherent to a lens. A 25mm Micro 4/3rds lens has a 50mm full-frame field of view. However, it remains a 24mm lens with the distortion properties of a 24mm lens; it’s not magically a 50mm lens.

Nikon’s APS-C cameras have a roughly 1.5× crop factor. Canon’s APS-C camera sensors are very similar in size, but since they are slightly smaller, they have a 1.6× crop factor. Meanwhile, Micro Four-Thirds cameras have even smaller sensors with a crop factor of 2.0×. Smartphones and point-and-shoot cameras have increasingly more extreme crop factors than this, such as 4× and 5×.

A prime lens can’t be adjusted and its focal length and field of view are fixed. The trade-off for flexibility in focal length is usually a wider aperture and better image quality because the prime lens can be optimized for its angle of view. Usually but not always; some top-quality zoom lenses nowadays are absolutely comparable to prime lenses in terms of quality for a given focal length.

However, cropping does change your photo’s field of view (again, “field of view” is how much of the scene is in your photo). Although that may sound obvious, it is very important to internalize.

The refractive index is a function of the frequency of the light, normally decreasing as the wavelength increases.

For another way to visualize this phenomenon, consider the illustration below. It shows the approximate field of view of three different lenses: a 500mm lens at one extreme, a 20mm lens at the other extreme, and then a 50mm lens, which is considered a “normal” lens. (The angles shown below are based off of a full-frame camera.)

Crop factor is also surprisingly simple. The definition of crop factor is: the size of a full-frame camera sensor, relative to the size of your camera sensor (measured diagonally).

Understanding focal length in photography can feel a bit overwhelming when trying to account for all of the ways it changes the properties of an image. Below, I’ve outlined the focal length differences across the major fields of view.

Standard lenses or medium focal lengths are suitable for shooting many different genres like portrait, street photography, landscape, etc.

However, using a prime lens means that you have to physically move in order to create a given field of view. Which kind of lens is better is an age-old question and really comes down to your own personal preferences!

Digitalcamera lens millimeters

By taking the crop factor of a specific sensor and multiplying it by the field of view, we get the field of view as if it were viewed in the 35mm standard.

The MFT camera sensor ‘sees’ only half of the field of view of the full‑frame sensor, when using lenses having the same focal length on both cameras.

While the technical definition of focal length may be relevant to some people, as photographers, it is more important to understand is what focal length looks like!

Zoom lenses are convenient because they allow you to access more than one focal length, without needing to change lenses. However, compared to prime lenses, they tend to be heavier, slightly less sharp, and worse in low light. There are exceptions, but they can be very expensive.

Standard focal lengths range from 35mm to 50mm depending on the type of camera sensor. The field of view provided by standard focal lengths approximates the field of view of the human eye.

What you really need to know is that lenses with long focal lengths bring objects closer, like a telescope. And, on the flip side, wide angle lenses are great for capturing large vistas.

Zoom lenses are what anyone who has ever picked up a camera in recent times is familiar with. In fact, they are so common that I often find non-photographers get baffled when I hand them a camera with a prime lens attached!

Telephoto lenses are those beyond 50mm. These lenses are also physically longer than wide and normal lenses. The field of view is smaller but you gain significant reach.

Finally, the more you photos that you take, the better you’ll understand focal length. Most full-time photographers have a good mental image of the difference between two different focal lengths – say, 24mm versus 35mm – and they can quickly pick the right lens for the photo they’re about to take. With practice, you’ll get to that point, too!

A zoom lens, on the other hand, has a variable focal length. Some popular zoom lens ranges include 18-55mm, 24-105mm, and 70-200mm lenses. Of course, there are many other examples.

Camera lenssize chart

Focal length differences are especially stark with wide-angle lenses. Each mm of width makes a visible difference, unlike telephoto lenses where it takes several mm to be easily noticeable.

Focal length can feel a little abstract when looking at one lens versus another. One of the easiest ways to understand focal length is to look at images that use the lenses in question! To wrap up, here are some focal length examples for you to consider:

One key to understanding focal length is recognizing how the look of the image changes using lenses with different focal lengths. Using a wide-angle lens, foreground elements are emphasized while background elements are pushed even further away, looking smaller than they really are.

I agree that this post is very user friendly, without jargon but explain relevant jargon simultaneously. Thank you, a simple concept but one often taken for granted by inexperienced photographers.

Sometimes, it can be very useful to convert lenses between different sensor sizes. For example, maybe your favorite photographer loves using 50mm lenses – but that photographer shoots with a full-frame camera, and you shoot with a crop-sensor camera. How do you know which focal length will provide the same field of view on your camera?

For example, if I use a short focal length in portrait photography, parts of the body that are closer to me can be unflatteringly emphasized. On the other hand, in genres like landscape photography, it’s more common to see images taken with a wide-angle view, not only to capture the entire scene in a single image but to emphasize elements in the foreground.

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As we step into normal focal lengths, which are closer to our human vision (like 35mm), this effect is subtle to invisible. However, once we hit telephoto angles of view, the background appears to be closer to the subject. This effect increases as your lens mm does.

Without getting into an in-depth physics discussion, the focal length of a lens is an optical property of the lens. The exact definition is: Focal length measures the distance, in millimeters, between the “nodal point” of the lens and the camera’s sensor.

Because using a different sensor size is basically like cropping, your camera sensor size will change your photo’s field of view.

As you can see, the focal length we choose affects the final image. Also, the field of view and lens distortions fundamentally affect the type of photography you do.

Elizabeth grew up in Vancouver, on the beautiful West Coast of Canada. In 2012 she relocated to Houston Texas for two years and then moved to Gautier, Mississippi in July of 2014 for another three years. Now back in Vancouver, Elizabeth runs photography workshops and teaches many aspects of photography. Her areas of interest are widespread and include street, wildlife, nature, architecture, macro and long exposures. She is particularly passionate about black and white images. You can see more of her work on her website at www.photographybyelizabethgray.com or on Instagram at photosbyelizabethgray

Hopefully, this article on explaining focal length has clarified some of the stickier aspects of the topic. Especially where they affect wide, normal, and telephoto fields of view.

If you need to magnify a distant subject, opt for a telephoto lens. Meanwhile, if you’re a landscape or architectural photographer, make sure to carry a wide-angle lens. For portraiture, and anything else in between, you can’t go wrong with a Nifty Fifty in your bag.

Focal length is one of the main considerations when buying and selecting a lens. And understanding how focal length works is essential to capturing the photos you want. Otherwise, you’ll be choosing lenses with random angles of view that only serve to confuse you with choices.

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Fixed lens camera focal lengths can also be multiplied by the crop factor of the sensor in order to compare it across formats. This is generally only important if you’re trying to replicate a look across focal lengths; i.e. you know you want a 135mm full-frame portrait style.

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Prime lenses have a single, fixed focal length. For example, a 50mm f/1.8 lens (one of the most common and popular lenses ever, from any brand) is considered a prime lens.

Camera lensdistance chart

Photographs taken with short focal lengths show distortion in certain elements; those closer to the foreground are magnified whereas all the elements in the background will show a diminished perspective.

In the relation between focal length and depth of field, when all other values are equal, short focal lengths (or wide angles of view) have deeper depth of field relative to long focal lengths (narrow fields of view). Thus, the longer the focal length, the farther the hyperfocal distance will be.

Therefore, when the MTF camera has a 60mm focal length lens, the full‑frame camera will require a 120mm focal length lens to obtain an equivalent field of view.

Then there are some expensive cameras which go in the opposite direction, since their sensors are even larger than full-frame. For example, Fuji’s medium-format GFX 100S has a crop factor of 0.79×!

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Wide-angle lenses or short focal lengths offer a great opportunity for shooting landscapes, cityscapes, Milky Way photography, and Northern Lights photography.

While we do go into some depth here and there are some confusing elements surrounding the topic, I’m confident that by the end of this article, you’ll have a solid foundation on what is focal length and how it relates to digital photography.

These lenses take on an expansive field of view that’s wider than what we normally pay attention to. An image taken with a 15mm lens will seem abnormally expansive, taking, for example, an entire landscape with ease.

Photographic subjects appear larger when you use long focal length lenses, which is why such lenses are so popular for wildlife photography and sports photography. With a long enough lens, you can easily make a subject look larger-than-life.

If you’re trying to understand different focal lengths, you can think of higher values (like 500mm) as more “zoomed in,” whereas lower values (like 20mm) are more “zoomed out.”

What is focal length oflens

Full-frame camera sensors are about 43 millimeters long diagonally. So, if your camera has a sensor with a 28 millimeter diagonal, then your crop factor is simply 43÷28. This equals approximately 1.5.

Focal length is important because it relates to the field of view of a lens – that is, how much of the scene you’ll capture. It also explains how large or small a subject in your photo will appear.

There are great apps and websites that allow you to calculate depth of field for a given focal length, aperture, subject distance, and sensor.

Lens focal length is a surprisingly nuanced topic! A simple physical measurement leads to so many considerations that go into how an image is composed. From the angle of view to depth of field, no aspect of a photograph goes untouched.

Focal length touches upon many elements of the photography basics; composition, aperture, depth of field, and other aspects all shift when taking focal length into account! Each twist of the zoom ring or swap of a prime lens is a shift in the interplay of focal length and your creative vision.

To make it easier to talk about focal length, photographers generally divide lenses into five main descriptive categories.

No, you haven’t. As explained earlier, focal length is an innate property of a lens. It’s the distance between the nodal point and the camera sensor, so it isn’t something that cropping affects.

Focal length is a property of the lens itself, not the camera. For example, a 50mm lens is a 50mm lens, regardless of whether on a full frame, cropped sensor, or medium format camera. However, the size of the sensor does play a role in how your photos will look at a particular focal length – more about that in a minute.

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