Equivalent Lens

wilmorh

wilmorh

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Hi, a friend of mine, who, bless him, thinks I have a working knowledge of photography:lol: emailed me today with the following question...


"This site here says that my nikon coolpix has an equivelent lens of 35-280

http://www.cameras.co.uk/specs/nikon-coolpix-8700.cfm

Does that mean to get a similer results when i get a DSLR do i need to get the kit 18-70 and the 75-300."


He's about to buy his first DSLR, and I'd love to give him the correct answer, but not entirely convinced I'd be correct. I'm guessing he's right...:shrug:
 
yes unless he is after between 71-74mm lol

but it can depend on lenses to, yes to an extent
 
wilmorh said:
"This site here says that my nikon coolpix has an equivelent lens of 35-280

http://www.cameras.co.uk/specs/nikon-coolpix-8700.cfm

Does that mean to get a similer results when i get a DSLR do i need to get the kit 18-70 and the 75-300."
Click to expand...

Yes, sort of, and no.

Yes in terms of the size the subject takes up in the frame, how wide/narrow the field of view is etc, but no in terms of getting 'similar results'. The fact that a compact has a much smaller sensor means that the depth of field is nigh on impossible to control. A DSLR will allow full control (subject to light availability) over the depth of field which means that the results will be different.
 
What is being stated here is that the lens on the Coolpix gives a "Similar" field of view to a 35mm-280mm lens on a Full Frame SLR. The lens itself isn't that focal length, it's because the chip is smaller than the full frame camera it gives the "equivalent view.

Now depending on what camera he buys, the same applies if it's not a Full Frame camera ( unlikely). So most "cropped frame" cameras have a crop factor of about 1.6. OK so what does that mean. Simply the lens effective filed of view would be the equivalent of a lens with a 1.6 times focal length on a full frame camera.

Example 50mm lens on a cropped sensor DSLR will give the same field of view as a 80 mm of a FF camera

So his kit lens 18-70 is the equivalent of 28 -112

At the longer length a 200mm lens will give him the equivalent of 320mm.

so an additional lens something like a 70-200 would do the job nicely

Hope this all makes sense
 
You lot are fab!!:thankyou: He's looking at buying a sony dslr, it comes with the standard kit lens, and he was looking at getting the 70-200 as well.

Thanks again, knew I could rely on ya!!:D
 
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