How do I find current compact cameras with a truly ultra-wide lens?
Asked 4/22/2013
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I want a compact camera and a very wide field of view is a priority. Many spec sheets list the lens’s actual focal length, which makes it hard to compare cameras with different sensor sizes. Is there a good way to search current compact cameras by their effective wide-angle coverage, so I can find models with an ultra-wide lens?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
13y ago
2 Answers
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There are several web sites which collect information on camera models and provide convenient ways to narrow down to specific options that fit what you need. My favorite is part of the the Neocamera site. You can use the Camera Search to narrow down the field by camera type and by focal length in 35mm equivalent terms.
"35mm equivalent" is a little confusing, but, simply, cameras have many different sensor sizes, and by normalizing all of the information to a standard, we can compare between different camera systems and know we're talking about the same field of view. (And, 35mm film camera frame size happens to be the industry standard)
So, the following search will show all current compact cameras with a widest focal length of at least 24mm-e, which is widely (um, pun intended; sorry) regarded as the cut-off where "ultra-wide" begins:
http://www.neocamera.com/search_camera.php?size=compact&focalwide=24
We can also try just a teensy bit wider, limiting to 23mm or wider, which as of mid-2013 gives no results:
http://www.neocamera.com/search_camera.php?size=compact&focalwide=23
Or, we can switch from compact to ultra-compact:
http://www.neocamera.com/search_camera.php?size=ultracompact&focalwide=24
which Neocamera defines as cameras up to 28mm at the thickest point. (Unfortunately, I don't know of a way to get the two searches in a combined report, but that's probably okay because there's too many to wade through in one look anyway.)
You could also do a similar search on DP Review, and while their interface is a little more modern and slick, I actually find it more unwieldy. (Checkboxes on the top of the page make sliders appear or disappear down below, and then you set those sliders to change the cameras which appear on a list below that, and then in that list you have to dig further to get to camera details. On the other hand, you can include multiple camera types at once, and it's easier if you want, for example, to know what cameras were released between 1994 and 1998.)
Originally by user1943. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user1943
13y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Yes. The key is to search by 35mm-equivalent focal length, not the lens’s actual focal length. Because compact cameras use different sensor sizes, the raw focal length alone doesn’t tell you the real field of view. The 35mm-equivalent number normalizes lens coverage so different cameras can be compared directly.
A camera database/search site can help you filter current models by camera type and by widest equivalent focal length. For example, searching compact cameras with a wide end of 24mm equivalent or wider is a practical way to find genuinely wide-angle options.
In short: use a camera search tool that lets you filter by 35mm-equivalent wide-end focal length. That will give you a meaningful list of current compact cameras with the field of view you want.
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