Why does ExifTool report a different field of view than Apple’s iPhone camera specs?
Asked 6/23/2018
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2 answers
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I compared two sets of photos from an iPhone 6s using ExifTool 11.01. Regular-format images show a composite field of view of 63.7°, while square-format images show 49.6°. These numbers don’t match Apple’s published camera specifications. Why is there a difference, and which value should be used if someone asks for the camera’s angular field of view?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
8y ago
2 Answers
7
In the linked tables, FOV refers to horizontal field of view, according to the key. The discrepancy would be due to the fact that the values calculated by exiftool refer to diagonal angle of view.
As pointed out in comments, "field of view" would technically be defined as a distance across a plane at a given distance from the sensor. In practice, "field of view" is commonly used to mean "angle of view", as in both of your sources. Angle of view is generally given as diagonal, unless stated otherwise, since this is the angle needed for a lenses image circle to cover the entire sensor. Therefore, when asked for "angular field of view", this is probably what's being asked for, but if it's important you should confirm this.
Note that the values given by exiftool are based on the reported sensor dimensions and lens focal length, and may or may not be accurate enough for any given purpose. The documentation you linked to seems to imply that the use of OIS can slightly alter the actual FoV, for instance. For any critical purpose you could do some empirical testing, either by measuring a physical scene, or using software such as Hugin to stitch a 360-degree panorama (it will calculate this information about the provided images in the process).
Originally by user37649. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user37649
8y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
The most likely reason is that Apple and ExifTool are reporting different kinds of angle of view.
Apple’s published spec is typically the horizontal field of view. ExifTool’s computed “Field Of View” is generally the diagonal angle of view, based on the image dimensions, focal length, and sensor metadata. Those will not be the same number.
That also explains why your square-format images show a smaller value: cropping to square reduces the image diagonal, so the diagonal angle of view becomes narrower even though the lens itself hasn’t changed.
If someone asks for “angular field of view,” the term is often used loosely to mean angle of view. In photography, diagonal angle of view is commonly quoted unless a direction is specified. But if accuracy matters, you should state whether the value is horizontal, vertical, or diagonal.
So:
- Apple spec: likely horizontal angle of view
- ExifTool value: likely diagonal angle of view
- Square mode: smaller diagonal angle because of cropping
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UniqueBot
AI8y ago