New Digital Focal Lengths

Does it bother anyone else that all "digital" lenses have a 35mm conversion attached. I want to go wide angle with my D70 and was looking at the 12-24 Nikkor. It has a 18-36mm standard range.

If it is designed for digital and only compatible with digital, why don't they just call it a 18-36mm Digital lens? I understand the technical aspects and all of that stuff but we really can't have it both ways. If 35mm is the standard by which focal length will be judged then call a spade a spade. Otherwise just call it a 12-24 and forget the 35mm comparison.

What do you folks think?

Z

All digitals are different so they give a 35mm comparison so you can work out the range on your exact camera

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Originally Posted by Zman

Does it bother anyone else that all "digital" lenses have a 35mm conversion attached. I want to go wide angle with my D70 and was looking at the 12-24 Nikkor. It has a 18-36mm standard range.

If it is designed for digital and only compatible with digital, why don't they just call it a 18-36mm Digital lens? I understand the technical aspects and all of that stuff but we really can't have it both ways. If 35mm is the standard by which focal length will be judged then call a spade a spade. Otherwise just call it a 12-24 and forget the 35mm comparison.

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Yes, this makes sense. You don't, for example, find "35mm equivalens" for medium or large format lenses. Even worse, these are not real equivalents. The perspective remains the same as the real focal lengths, the lens is just chopping off the edges, not actually magnifying anything.

But the fact is that most digital photographers come from the 35mm world and have little experience with multiple formats. Adding 35mm equivalents makes their lives easier even if the numbers are fundamentally flawed.

Like Michael says, MF and LF photographers are already familiar with this. An 80mm lens has a certain angle of view on a 645 medium format but is wider on a 6x7, for example. This would be close to a "normal" lens on either of these two (a little wide on the 6x7) but a short telephoto on 35mm and very wide on a 4x5 large format. Since a lot of 35mm photographers have worked mostly in that format, it's a new concept to them. Adding to the confusion, you're using the same lenses you used for 35mm. They can't call the 12-24 an 18-36 because the focal length is 12-24. The angle of view changes because the image area is smaller, the focal length doesn't change.

I think in the future that the 35mm comparisons will die off; people will understand the concept - it's really not as big of a deal as people make of it. With a 1.5 or 1.6 conversion factor, the advantage is with telephoto lenses but you'll probably need to buy a wider angle lens if you shoot wide. I've had my DSLR over a year and haven't yet broken down to buy the 12-24 but I miss having the angle of view of a 20mm lens that I have on my film cameras.

Put it this way - you probably got used to what a 50mm lens looks like on a 35mm SLR. It will just take some practice to get used to what a 50mm lens looks like on a DSLR.