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Camera Reviews Lens Reviews

Field-of-view of lenses by focal length

Bill Claff (bclaff)


Keywords: lens, basics, guides, tips, nikon, nikkor, sensor, format, fx, dx, cx, focal_length, fov, field_of_view

Field-of-view (also known as FOV)

The values for Field of View (FOV), sometimes sloppily referred to as "lens view" or better, "angle of view", come up frequently enough at the forums that I thought a list might be helpful for quick reference.

Remember that focal length is stated for infinity and most lenses decrease in focal length as you focus closer.

 

Click for enlargement

Panorama made of 12 vertical shots stitched together
Nikon D70 with 12-24mm f/4G ED-IF AF-S DX Nikkor @ 12mm, f/7.1, 1/60s
With hand-held SB-800 on SC-29 cable, TTL|BL flash setting

 

Please note, this is a table of rectilinear values, i.e. values for rectilinear lenses; fisheye field of view is a different beast.

How to use the table: Hopefully the table is quite self-explanatory, but let's say you are looking for the Field-of-view of a 50mm lens mounted on an FX body. In the column "Lens Focal Length", go down to the row marked "50mm" and then over to the green area marked "35mm & FX format (1)". The FOV for a 50mm lens would be 39.6 degrees horizontally and 27.0 degrees vertically. Diagonally, the FOV is 46.8 degrees.

For a 55mm lens on a APS-C/DX sensor format body, the field of view would thus be 24.0 degrees horizontally, 16.1 degrees vertically and 28.7 degrees diagonally.

 

Lens
Focal
Length
FOV (Angles in degrees)
35mm & FX format (1)
 
DX format (2)
 
CX Nikon 1 format (3)
Horizontal
Vertical
Diagonal
 
Horizontal
Vertical
Diagonal
 
Horizontal
Vertical
Diagonal
10mm
121.9
100.4
130.4
 
99.0
75.9
109.2
 
66.8
47.5
76.8
11mm
117.1
95.0
126.1
 
93.5
70.7
103.9
 
61.9
43.6
71.6
12mm
112.6
90.0
122.0
 
88.5
66.0
99.0
 
57.6
40.3
66.9
14mm
104.3
81.2
114.2
 
79.8
58.2
90.3
 
50.5
34.9
59.1
15mm
100.4
77.3
110.5
 
75.9
54.9
86.3
 
47.5
32.7
55.7
17mm
93.3
70.4
103.7
 
69.1
49.3
79.2
 
42.4
29.0
50.0
18mm
90.0
67.4
100.5
 
66.0
46.9
76.0
 
40.3
27.5
47.6
19mm
86.9
64.6
97.4
 
63.2
44.6
73.0
 
38.3
26.1
45.3
20mm
84.0
61.9
94.5
 
60.7
42.6
70.2
 
36.5
24.8
43.3
24mm
73.7
53.1
84.1
 
52.0
36.0
60.7
 
30.8
20.8
36.6
28mm
65.5
46.4
75.4
 
45.4
31.1
53.3
 
26.5
17.9
31.6
30mm
61.9
43.6
71.6
 
42.6
29.1
50.2
 
24.8
16.7
29.6
35mm
54.4
37.8
63.4
 
37.0
25.1
43.8
 
21.4
14.3
25.5
45mm
43.6
29.9
51.4
 
29.1
19.7
34.7
 
16.7
11.2
20.0
50mm
39.6
27.0
46.8
 
26.3
17.7
31.4
 
15.0
10.1
18.0
55mm
36.2
24.6
42.9
 
24.0
16.1
28.7
 
13.7
9.1
16.4
60mm
33.4
22.6
39.7
 
22.1
14.8
26.4
 
12.6
8.4
15.1
70mm
28.8
19.5
34.3
 
19.0
12.7
22.7
 
10.8
7.2
12.9
75mm
27.0
18.2
32.2
 
17.7
11.9
21.2
 
10.1
6.7
12.1
80mm
25.4
17.1
30.3
 
16.6
11.1
19.9
 
9.4
6.3
11.3
85mm
23.9
16.1
28.6
 
15.7
10.5
18.8
 
8.9
5.9
10.7
90mm
22.6
15.2
27.0
 
14.8
9.9
17.8
 
8.4
5.6
10.1
100mm
20.4
13.7
24.4
 
13.3
8.9
16.0
 
7.6
5.0
9.1
105mm
19.5
13.0
23.3
 
12.7
8.5
15.3
 
7.2
4.8
8.6
120mm
17.1
11.4
20.4
 
11.1
7.4
13.4
 
6.3
4.2
7.6
125mm
16.4
11.0
19.6
 
10.7
7.1
12.8
 
6.0
4.0
7.3
135mm
15.2
10.2
18.2
 
9.9
6.6
11.9
 
5.6
3.7
6.7
150mm
13.7
9.1
16.4
 
8.9
6.0
10.7
 
5.0
3.4
6.1
170mm
12.1
8.1
14.5
 
7.9
5.3
9.5
 
4.4
3.0
5.3
180mm
11.4
7.6
13.7
 
7.4
5.0
8.9
 
4.2
2.8
5.0
200mm
10.3
6.9
12.3
 
6.7
4.5
8.0
 
3.8
2.5
4.5
210mm
9.8
6.5
11.8
 
6.4
4.3
7.7
 
3.6
2.4
4.3
300mm
6.9
4.6
8.2
 
4.5
3.0
5.4
 
2.5
1.7
3.0
400mm
5.2
3.4
6.2
 
3.4
2.2
4.0
 
1.9
1.3
2.3
500mm
4.1
2.7
5.0
 
2.7
1.8
3.2
 
1.5
1.0
1.8
600mm
3.4
2.3
4.1
 
2.2
1.5
2.7
 
1.3
0.8
1.5
800mm
2.6
1.7
3.1
 
1.7
1.1
2.0
 
0.9
0.6
1.1
Format 35mm & FX (1)   APS-C / DX (2)   CX Nikon 1 (3)


(1) 36x24mm 35mm film frame/FX sensor size - Field of View Crop Factor = 1

(2) 23.6x15.7mm APS-C/DX sensor size - Crop factor = 1.5

(3) 13.2x8.8mm Nikon1/CX sensor size - Crop factor = 2.8

 

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Originally written on January 9, 2013

Last updated on January 18, 2021

Bill Claff Bill Claff (bclaff)

Awarded for multiple contributions for the Resources

Sherborn, MA (8mi west of Bost, USA
Basic, 9691 posts

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