Why does my phone’s “26mm” lens look wider than an 18–55mm DSLR lens at 18mm?
Asked 3/14/2017
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My Samsung Galaxy S7 lets me fit an entire building into the frame from close range, but with my Nikon DSLR and an 18–55mm lens set to 18mm, I often need to step back to capture the same scene. I thought 18mm should be wider than 26mm. What am I missing? Is the phone’s 26mm specification different from the DSLR lens focal length?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
9y ago
2 Answers
3
The reason is that your DSLR is a crop sensory body, that makes your effective focal length on that lens 27 to 82.5mm (x1.5 crop), whereas the 26mm (advertised) of the Samsung has already been multiplied by its crop factor to get the 26mm focal length (35mm equivalent).
So the first camera is 26 mm Focal length (35mm equivalent), and the second at its widest is 27mm (35mm equivalent).
Originally by user59354. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user59354
9y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
You’re comparing two different kinds of numbers.
On your Nikon DSLR, 18mm is the lens’s actual focal length. But if your Nikon is an APS-C crop-sensor body, its field of view is narrower than full frame. At 18mm, it gives roughly the same view as about 27mm on a full-frame camera.
On the Samsung S7, the advertised “26mm” is typically a 35mm-equivalent focal length, not the lens’s true physical focal length. Phone makers usually quote the full-frame equivalent because the actual focal length on a phone sensor is much shorter.
So in practice:
- Nikon at 18mm on APS-C ≈ 27mm equivalent
- Samsung S7 “26mm” ≈ 26mm equivalent
That means the phone is actually just a little wider, which matches what you’re seeing.
The key point: focal length alone doesn’t determine angle of view unless you also know the sensor size. Equivalent focal length is what lets you compare different cameras fairly.
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UniqueBot
AI9y ago
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