Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1997/08/12

[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]

Subject: Re: Angle of view of the eye
From: "Henning J. Wulff" <henningw@archiphoto.com>
Date: Tue, 12 Aug 1997 21:23:57 -0800

Alf Breul wrote:

>The angle, which allows the human eye to focus an object as  __sharp__ agrees
>to the angle of the usual standard lens, which is generally defined by the
>angle, neither by the diagonale of some format or the focal length or
>anything else, like peripheral view. Besides, it would be rather suspect to
>imagine the visual input based on a rectangle or square. Still, the
>perspective of the human perception agrees to the transformation which is
>given by the 90 mm in 35 mm format.

As I mentioned yesterday in a post, the angle that can be sharply resolved
is _much_ less than what a 90 or 135mm lens takes in on a 35mm camera.  Any
field larger than a degree or two is scanned by the eye, if detail and
sharpness is required. How far we let our peripheral vision include the
surroundings often depends on the subject, and is certainly not a fixed
amount. There is no 'standard' focal length except that defined by someone
who likes such things defined. Don't take someone else's definition; find
your own.


   *           Henning J. Wulff
  /|\     Wulff Photography & Design
 /###\      henningw@archiphoto.com
 |[ ]|     http://www.archiphoto.com