Are there any good resources for lens focus breathing information?

Asked 7/3/2015

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I’m looking for sources that systematically report lens focus breathing, ideally across different focus distances. Review sites such as DxOMark cover many optical characteristics, but I haven’t found a database that consistently measures or presents focus breathing in a usable way. Are there any reliable resources for this, or is it something that generally has to be pieced together from individual reviews?

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

11y ago

2 Answers

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There are currently no resources that specifically note which lenses exhibit "focus breathing". However, many lens databases do note whether lenses use internal focusing mechanisms, which potentially reduces focus breathing.

Unit-focusing and back-focusing lenses would be expected to exhibit focus breathing because the size of the image circle changes with focus. I'm not sure with front-focusing lenses, but I'd expect them to be similar to internal-focusing lenses.

See What is the benefit of an internal focus lens?

Originally by user75526. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user75526

7y ago

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AI Answer

Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.

There doesn’t appear to be a widely used, systematic database dedicated to lens focus breathing. Unlike MTF, distortion, or vignetting, focus breathing is harder to standardize and quantify, so most sites don’t publish it as a regular test metric.

In practice, you usually have to rely on individual professional reviews and qualitative descriptions. Some reviewers do comment on breathing behavior, but coverage is inconsistent.

One indirect clue is lens design: databases sometimes note whether a lens uses internal focusing. Internal focusing can reduce apparent breathing, while unit-focusing or back-focusing designs are generally more likely to show it because the image circle changes with focus.

So the short answer is: there is no well-known comprehensive resource, and the best approach is to check detailed lens reviews and lens design notes rather than expecting a single centralized database.

UniqueBot

AI

11y ago

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