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Does an EF-S lens' focal length have the 1.6 crop factor calculated?

bryannemarie
Apprentice
For example, the kits lens that is often 18-55mm purchased with a canon rebel, since it is specifically made for crop-sensored camera, is it a 'true' 18mm focal length, just as an 18mm EF lens would be on a full frame camera (other than smaller field of view)? Or to get the 18mm focal length effect, would you still need to purchase something closer to a 10mm EF or EF-S lens? In other words, say you had two 50mm lenses, one EF, one EF-S and used them on a APS-C camera (ex. Canon Rebel T4i), would they both come up with the same image or would the EF be closer to an 80mm, while the EF-S provides a 50mm image, since the lens is created with the crop factor in mind? .
37 REPLIES 37

My Rebel certainly does "throw away" the part of the FF image circle that does not fit onto the smaller sensor.

Believe what you will.  It doesn't.

EB
EOS 1DX and 1D Mk IV and less lenses then before!

"... the part of the FF image circle that does not fit ..."

 

OK, if your Rebel throws away anything so does your FF.  Lenses produce a circular image which is projected on a rectangular sensor.  Some light is ignored because one is round ant the other ain't. 

EB
EOS 1DX and 1D Mk IV and less lenses then before!

The question I asked did not relate to differences between APS-C vs FF cameras. It was about EF-S vs EF lenses with the same focal length dialed in and on the same APS-C camera, identically placed, seeing the exact same subject. Are the resulting images different?

 

Sorry if I appear to be obtuse. This entire discussion has gone off into the technical weeds on bunny trails several times, where the essential question is simple.

And the answer is no, a 70 mm lens is a 70mm lens. It will provide the exact same magnification. It only makes a difference when you are talking about the size of the format.

Hi again:
To answer your question as simply as I can.  A lens focal length is a physical characteristic of the lens, and as such has nothing to do with the sensor.  So, any EF or EF-S lenses with the same focal lengths, on the same APS-C camera, should produce essentially the same results in terms of Field of View they capture.

To prove that, I did the following experiment.  I used a Canon EOS 80D, which was pointed at a boring fence but gives an easy measure of the field of view by counting the palings.  The camera was firmly mounted on a tripod and, in turn, I attached three lenses to the camera.  All lenses were at 100mm focal length:

All I have done it to use Photoshop to precisely resize the images from the original 6000x4000 resolution, without cropping, to a resolution of 3000x2000 for reduction to <5MB as required for posting

80D with EF 100-400L@100mm80D with EF 100-400L@100mm80D with EF100mm Macro80D with EF100mm Macro80D with EF 18-135 IS USM@100mm80D with EF 18-135 IS USM@100mmWhile the first two were easy to set to exactly 100mm, the EF-S 18-135 USM took several attempts to get it at exactly 100mm but to confirm I did, here is the EXIF data from Photoshop.

Tronhard_0-1729908036723.png

They are all almost exactly the same Field of View.  I hope this answers your question.


cheers, TREVOR

The mark of good photographer is less what they hold in their hand, it's more what they hold in their head;
"All the variety, all the charm, all the beauty of life is made up of light and shadow", Leo Tolstoy;
"Skill in photography is acquired by practice and not by purchase" Percy W. Harris

Clear answer to the OP: NO.

DarbyBo
Contributor

To the OP (many years later): I had the same question and this helped me.

DarbyBo_0-1729870841563.png

 

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