Trying to figure a lens size?

[BennyK]

Hi Folks,

I've been trying to figure out the lens size used on this editorial photo, could any of you help on this? Please disregard the line in the center as this was a two page spread and I stiched it together just to show it.

Reason being I mean to shoot in Piccadilly Circus and I like the width and depth of field of the shot.

Thanks


If this is better answered in another forum please let me know, although I'm almost certain it was shot with medium format, probably an RZ.

 

[Ian Grant]

Probably a 35mm lens on a 35mm camera /55mm on a MF camera.

Ian

 

[barzune]

MY GOOD HEAVENS !! It's good ol' Mattress Back Mary, a tall redhead acquaintance of my Youth!
Haven't thought of her in years !!

 

[andrew.roos]

After searching through a few hundred flickr images tagged "piccadilly circus", this is the closest I have found in terms of persepective (and hence shooting location):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/91256662@N00/6812458646/

It's not identical - the shooter in the magazine shot was standing a bit to the left and a bit further away from the statue, and with a lower camera position.

It would take about a 75% crop of the flickr image to get approximately the same field of view as the magazine image. The lickr image was taken with an 18mm lens on en EOS550D, which has a 1.6x crop factor, so equivalent to about 28.8mm on a 35mm camera. Although it has been edited in photoshot, the image size is the same as the native sensor size, so it is unlikely that it has been cropped. Allowing for the 75mm crop required to equalise the field of field gives 38mm on a 35mm camera.

However compare the size of the statue compared to the building on both shots. On the magazine shot the statue appears smaller compared to the building, so the camera must have been further away from the statue, and using a longer lens.

Based on this my guess would be about a normal lens, either the 90mm or the 110mm on the RZ-67.

 

[eSPhotos]

Does it matter?
You can zoom in or out with your feet until you get the frame you want.

 

[brucemuir]

Does it matter?
You can zoom in or out with your feet until you get the frame you want.

Perspective wont be the same.



I'm going to agree with Ian and say a 35mm if 135 format mayyyyybe a 50mm.

Notice there isn't a lot of convergence on the buildings in the BG although the camera appears fairly level.
On 6x7 I'll split the difference and guess the 90mm for an RB. Aspect ratio does favor one of the "ideal" formats but it was more than likely cropped for publication.

I like to guess these same type questions but am sometimes fooled if you don't take the time to analyze the clues.

 

[BennyK]

Guys.... Thanks for the thoughtful analysis.

One thing about magazine shots like that is the impact of the perspective (i.e. more in your face so to speak), than a tourist shot with a point and shoot. I recently took some shots at that location with my little Nikon L35AF film camera which has a very nice and sharp 28mm fixed lens on it, just to see what they would look like. I'll scan them and put them up sometime when I get a minute.

 

[BennyK]

RE

This is a bad scan of the scene. If you notice I took it across the street from the statue island and probably auto-focused on the Centre Point skyscraper in the back middle.

The example that Andrew put up in the flickr link seems very wide, there is some sort of center pointing distortion in that shot (doesn't look bad btw).

 

[Hikari]

Go to Google maps and estimate the camera position and then you can estimate the angle of view. Determine the aspect ratio of the image you posted and then it should be easy to figure out the focal length needed to achieve the same angle of view.

 

[georg16nik]

Wide angle lens on larger than/or medium format, with use of movements.
Could be RZ with some adapters etc.