Will a 35mm lens on a crop sensor give the same bokeh as a 50mm lens?
Asked 2/22/2012
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I understand that a 50mm lens on an APS-C/crop sensor gives a field of view similar to about 75mm on full frame. Does that mean a 35mm lens on a crop sensor is equivalent to a 50mm lens in every way? Specifically, if I use a 35mm prime on a crop body, will it produce the same bokeh or depth-of-field look as a 50mm prime?
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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The answer is almost definitely no, and it has nothing to do with being on a cropped sensor: different lenses have different bokeh characteristics. Bokeh is achieved through the optics and aperture diaphragm blades. Both the 35mm f1.8 and 50mm f1.8 have 7 blades, but their optical formula is different -- the result will be different bokeh.
Originally by user8473. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user8473
14y ago
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No. A 35mm lens on a crop sensor can give a field of view similar to a 50mm lens on full frame, but it does not become a 50mm lens.
A crop sensor just records the center of the image circle, like cropping a full-frame photo. That changes framing/field of view, not the lens’s actual focal length or optical design.
So the bokeh will not necessarily be the same. Bokeh depends on the lens optics and aperture diaphragm design, and different 35mm and 50mm lenses usually render out-of-focus areas differently even if they have the same f-number.
Also, for the same framing, a shorter focal length like 35mm generally gives deeper depth of field than a 50mm, so background blur is usually less pronounced. Subject distance also affects this.
In short: a 35mm on crop may match a 50mm full-frame field of view, but not its exact depth-of-field or bokeh character.
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