Why are both 10-22mm and 24-70mm called wide-angle lenses on a Canon T2i?
Asked 9/1/2011
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I'm using a Canon T2i (APS-C crop sensor) and comparing lenses like a 10-22mm and a 24-70mm. I thought lower focal lengths always meant wider angle, so I was confused seeing a 24-70mm lens described as wide-angle when my 18-55mm kit lens starts wider at 18mm. How do wide-angle categories work, and is the 18-55mm kit lens also considered wide-angle?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
14y ago
2 Answers
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Traditionally, lenses wider than 24mm on full-frame are "ultra-wide". On a smaller-sensor Canon DSLR, a 15mm lens provides that same field of view (16mm on Nikon, Pentax, or Sony; 12mm on Olympus/Panasonic). So on an APS-C camera, a 20mm lens would be "wide" but not "ultra-wide" — but with the increased field of view of full frame, that would fall under ultra-wide.
On full frame, a 35mm lens is wide angle (but not ultra-wide); that same lens would be "normal" on an APS-C camera.
In either case, yes, the 18-55mm kit lens is a wide-angle lens. On a crop-factor DSLR, that nicely covers a reasonably wide angle, through normal, up to a moderate "portrait-length" telephoto.
(On some systems, some lenses designed for APS-C cameras won't work at all on full frame. Or, they'll work but with poor performance in the corners — and on Nikon, for example, this is compensated-for by automatically cropping-out the edges when a designed-for-APS-C lens is attached. But it's pretty much universal that full-frame lenses will work on APS-C.)
Originally by user1943. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user1943
14y ago
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Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
“Wide angle” depends on field of view, which is determined by both focal length and sensor size.
On your Canon T2i’s APS-C sensor:
- 10mm is ultra-wide
- 18mm is wide
- 24mm is still moderately wide
- around 35mm is close to normal
- 50mm is slightly telephoto
So yes, both lenses can be called wide-angle lenses, just to different degrees:
- A 10-22mm is mainly an ultra-wide to wide zoom.
- A 24-70mm starts at moderate wide angle and zooms through normal into short telephoto.
- Your 18-55mm kit lens is also a wide-to-normal-to-short-telephoto zoom.
The reason this gets confusing is that lens categories are often described using full-frame conventions. On full frame, 24mm is clearly wide, while on APS-C it’s more moderately wide. Likewise, a 35mm lens is wide on full frame but close to normal on APS-C.
So the key idea is: lower focal length means wider view, but whether something is called “wide,” “normal,” or “telephoto” also depends on the camera’s sensor size.
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