Zulu22 wrote:

wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong!

When you put a 50mm lens on a 1.6 crop and fill the frame with something you are going to get the exact same picture (distortion and compression wise) as an 80mm lens on a full frame camera if you stand the same distance away (you will have to do this to get image framed exactly the same).  The picture will be the same because the distance from the subject will be the same.

If you put 50's on both full frame and 1.6 crop, the 50mm on the full frame will have less compression because you will be CLOSER to get the picture framed the same way. 

Let's stop spreading misleading information.

That's like saying that if I cropped 50% of a picture taken with a 10mm wide angle lens that I would then magically see only the distortion of a 20mm lens?

I don't think so.

With the 1.6 factor, The distortion remains the same, only the focal length and angle of view have changed.

That Look Photo wrote:
The thing with digital SLR cameras is "dust" . You don't want to change your lens to much. Every time you do. It leaves your camera body open for dust to get on the chip.

Why does there always have to be some "gotcha" like this to keep one from Nirvana? There are many examples in life besides this...

DSLR's are a dream come true, and it's unfortunate that we must worry about this!

Zulu22 wrote:
I give up.

Well you've given it your best shot, and I applaud you for it!  If people think that lenses create distortion rather than distance/angle of view you'll never convince them otherwise.. lets just hope that others that need guidance on this will learn from their own experience rather than believe the misguided mumbo jumbo in here!

Zulu22 wrote:
I give up.

An Edit: For my style of work, it really doesn't matter anyway. Whether I am right or wrong will not change the fact that I will not use a 50mm lens for portraiture since I can see and don't like the distortion it renders.

Light and Darker wrote:
Well you've given it your best shot, and I applaud you for it!  If people think that lenses create distortion rather than distance/angle of view you'll never convince them otherwise.. lets just hope that others that need guidance on this will learn from their own experience rather than believe the misguided mumbo jumbo in here!

So a 10mm lens creats no distortion? And only my distance and angle of view to the subject is what is creating the wall eye effect?

Seriously, I would like to hear your explanation.

Let me edit: I actually don't care. It's not like this information is gonna make a difference to me.  For my style of shooting, I wouldn't use anything lower than my 28-75mm (at full zoom) for portraits anyway.

Ed Remington wrote:
Let me edit: I actually don't care. It's not like this information is gonna make a difference to me.  For my style of shooting, I wouldn't use anything lower than my 28-75mm (at full zoom) for portraits anyway.

Are you like 13 years old?

Ed Remington wrote:
So a 10mm lens creats no distortion?

By George he's got it! A 10mm lens doesn't 'create' distortion, its wide angle of view merely reveals more of the distortion inherent in translating the spherical field of view onto a flat film/chip surface.

Take a picture of the same object at the same distance with a 100mm lens and a 10mm lens, and if you crop the 10mm lens picture to show the same image as the 100mm you will see no difference between the images (other than one has significantly decreased resolution) This is because you now have two images with the same angle of view.

In the old days, alongside the focal length, the angle of view (for a particular format) was always quoted - I guess this was to stop folks who used large format cameras getting confused when buying for their 35mm toys. And we're back to the same old confusion due to the same thing - the size of the light recording material.

The angle of view of a dslr using a 50mm lens is the same as a 75mm lens on a 35mm film camera (the factor depends on the chip size so cameras will vary but mine is 1.5 :-P ) - it is totally equivalent - there will be no difference in distortion/perspective between the two set ups.

Ed Remington wrote:
That's like saying that if I cropped 50% of a picture taken with a 10mm wide angle lens that I would then magically see only the distortion of a 20mm lens?

if you crop a picture taken with a given lens to match the field of view of a longer lens, it will be identical in perspective to a picture taken with the longer lens.  the only factor affecting distortion is subject-to-camera distance.  wide angle lenses appear more distorted because they allow to you to get closer and keep your subject in the frame.

(edit - apparently this has already been sufficiently explained.  i should read down further before responding )

DaveSwan wrote:
The Canon 85mm f1.2L is not only one of Canon's finest lenses, it's one on the best lenses ever made......period.

Most 85mm lenses in most 35mm systems are good, and this one's no different. There are many other 85mm lenses at half the price or less of this, and at less weight that are better, honestly.