Hi, and welcome to Episode 63 of the photography explained podcast. I’m your host Rick and in each episode, I will explain one photographic thing to you in plain English in less than 10 minutes (ish) without the irrelevant details.

What I tell you is based on my lifetime of photographic experience, and not Google. Still can’t remember it off the top of my head so I’m still reading it out.

Let’s get straight into this – here is the answery bit.

A wide-angle lens offers a wider field of view than a standard lens. The focal length of a wide-angle lens is less than a standard lens, and less than 50mm on a full-frame camera. Wide-angle lenses are used to capture more of a scene and a wider view, and are used in a variety of photographic genres. The smaller the focal length number, the wider the field of view the lens provides.

Okay, so that’s the written bit, let’s go into this in a little bit more detail. Let’s start with this one.

You can listen to the episode here

Or keep on reading. Or do both. Entirely up to you!

What is the focal length of a wide-angle lens?

Well, in the last episode I talked about a standard lens, which on a full-frame camera is 50mm – everything is based on a full-frame camera.

I will explain the differences during this episode don’t worry.

On a full-frame camera, a standard lens has a 50mm focal length. So anything with a smaller number focal length could theoretically be considered a wide-angle lens.

But the general rule of thumb is anything wider than 35 to 40mm focal length is a wide-angle lens. I should be able to say this by now, blimey Episode 63 and still doing these things.

What’s that on a cropped sensor camera?

I explained this in the last episode, but we’ll go through it again quickly here. A cropped sensor camera has a crop factor of 1.5 to 1.6 depending on the lens manufacturer.

50mm on a full-frame camera equates to 50 x 1.5 which is 75.

A wide-angle lens on a cropped sensor camera has a focal length of less than 52-60 mil using that same range.

A cropped sensor camera focal length of less than 52mm is a wide-angle lens because standard is 75-80mm.

But to get to 50mm with a cropped sensor camera you use a focal length of 50/1.5 which is 33mm. But it is not the same as 50mm. I need to do crop factors in a separate episode…

What about micro-four thirds cameras?

Okay, Micro Four Thirds cameras have a crop factor of 2. 50mm on a full-frame camera equates to 100mm on a Micro Four Thirds camera.

Wide angle lenses, therefore, on micro four-thirds cameras have a focal length of less than 70-80mm.

Blimey, I’m glad I got that out of the way.

What different wide-angle lenses are there?

Well, there are lots. I mean, I’ll stick with what I know if that’s okay with you, which is full-frame cameras and Canon lenses.

There are many focal lengths.

What do these numbers actually mean?

Well, what I’m going to do is I’m going to tell you the popular focal lengths of wide-angle lenses, and also what the field of view is because that’s the thing that changes with the focal length. Now when I’m talking field of view, I’m talking horizontal field of view. So that’s the wide bit when your camera is in landscape mode.

• Okay 50mm gives you a 40-degree horizontal field of view.
• 35mm gives you a 54-degree field of horizontal view.
• A 24mm focal length gives you 74 degrees.
• A 14mm focal length gives you 104 degrees.

I will come back to that in a minute because there’s some information I was looking for that I couldn’t find. See, I don’t know everything.

Are wide-angle lenses fixed or prime?

Well, that’s a great question. You must have been listening to previous episodes to ask that one! You can get both. I’ve listed some prime wide-angle lenses. And now I’m going to touch on a couple of zoom wide-angle lenses.

And when I say wide, these are wide, they are both Canon lenses. They’re not cheap. They’re big lumps with big bulbous bits of glass on the front of them.

The lens that I want is this

The Canon 11-24mm wide angle, zoom lens, which gives you at 11mm 117 degrees, and at 24mm you get 74 degrees.

Now that is a massive, massive range. One thing that’s not in my notes I’d like to mention here is that for every extra mm on the focal length, you get a bigger difference with wide-angle lenses.

So, to explain that 25 to 24 to 23, the difference is bigger than going the telephoto way.

And now fisheyes

The other lens I wanted to touch on was the Canon 8-15mm fisheye zoom lens.

Now what is a fisheye lens?

It’s a lens which gives you views like that from a fish, well what were you expecting? I used to have one of these lenses, I used to love lying on my back in the forest pointing (my camera) up and making all the trees bend in from the 180-degree viewpoint.

It was fantastic, it was great fun, but I had no commercial need for this expensive bit of kit.

So let’s just think about that.

180-degree field of view.

This brings a few problems with it like you have got to put your feet behind the camera. And with tripod legs, you got to be careful because if your tripod legs stick forward, you got your three legs, if you got one on its own in front of the camera, it will be in the photo. Just something to think about.

So 8mm to 15mm

Again, it’s a big range. And the problem with this is that the 8mm end was a circular fisheye, and the 15mm end filled the full frame.

I couldn’t see a purpose for a circular photo at all. So I sold it, it cost me a couple of 100 quid but that was actually good learning for this podcast.

I need to think about that, don’t I? The money I spent on lenses I didn’t need was just training for this podcast.

What are wide-angle lens used for

Well, landscapes, architecture, interiors, cityscapes, anything you want really.

Not people, wide angle lenses are not flattering when you’re taking photos of people. First off, you’ve got to get up close to them. And when you do that, it’s not good, you need to get a portrait lens, 85-100mm is perfect.

So use a wide-angle lens where you want to get more in a photo.

Now we need to remember that wide-angle lenses change the perspective Don’t forget 50mm standard lens is a similar perspective and view to that which we get with our eyes, or as I determined last episode with the naked eye. I hate that.

It’s the same perspective that we get with our eyes, that’ll do no need for that word in there. It didn’t add anything, it just made me quite angry.

So things are smaller. When things are smaller, you have to think more about your composition. What is the subject, with a wide-angle lens, if you get it wrong, your subject is lost in everything else. And you need to create depth in photos, the wider you go, the more you need to work at your composition to make sure it’s just not a flat plane of nothingness way off in the distance.

So you have to think about these things.

Okay, what do I use?

Well, I use a Canon 17-40mm F4 L lens for most of my architectural photography work. I use the 17mm focal length for probably 95% of the images that I take. 17mm is in the ultra-wide bracket so you got to be careful – you don’t want things to look artificial, just by the focal length you’ve chosen.

But 17mm really does work for me. 17mm is a great wide field of view. It gives you a great view of a room (say). Sure it looks a bit bigger than it is in real life, but it looks okay because you expect a photo of an interior to sort of flatter the space.

If I go wide as 14mm (focal length), then it becomes disproportionate. It doesn’t look realistic. 17mm for interior work, it’s absolutely fine. And it’s a reasonably accurate representation.

No one’s ever said to me “Now that’s just making the room look artificial”.

So 17 mm is my focal length of choice.

And the reason I like the 17-40mm lens is that if I need to come in a little bit, then I can do it without having to move my tripod, I don’t often to be honest with you, I’d say 95% of the images are taken, taken using the 17mm focal.

I could say I think I’m a bit of a bit of an extreme kind of guy.

I use 17mm and 40mm.

On the 70-200 mm, I (tend to) use 70mm or 200mm, I tend not to use the bits in the middle. I think that’s just me. And I can’t explain why.

I also have a Canon 24-105mm lens which sure includes standard, it starts wide, goes through standard all the way to telephoto, and is a brilliant all-round lens.

And that is just so versatile. If you’re going to buy one lens, that’s the one I would recommend for general-purpose use. It’s not my default lens, but it’s always there.

And the only reason I’ll sell that lens is if Canon gives me a new one. Hint.

Okay, my one line summary.

I love wide-angle lenses, I genuinely do, which allow us photographers to give a different perspective and get more into photos. And I use my wide-angle lens all the time.

Next episode

Okay, next episode, Episode 64. I’ve done standard lenses. I’ve done wide-angle lenses, it’s just got to be telephoto lenses, hasn’t it? Telephoto lenses explained in plain English in less than 10 minutes. The title was so good for this episode I’m using it on the next one and just swapping one word.

Rate and review my podcast

Please leave a nice review and rating if you enjoyed this episode. Please subscribe so you don’t miss an episode. And if you could tell one person about my podcast, I would be most grateful.

Thank you

Thank you for listening to my small but perfectly formed podcast. To find out more about my podcast and to ask a question of your own, check out the Photography Explained Podcast website. And to find out more about me please go to Rick McEvoy Photography.

Brought to you by…

This episode was brought to you by the anticipation of a corned beef and Branston pickle sandwich (after a comment from somebody no names Mark).

I’ve been Rick McEvoy. Thanks again very much for listening to me and for giving me 13 minutes of your valuable time. 13 not 12 ¾ – that was the pickle comment that did that.

And I will see you in the next episode. Okay, I’m done.

Cheers from me, Rick.

OK – that was the podcast episode.

Want to know more?

Head over to the Start page on the Photography Explained Podcast website to find out more.

And here is the list of episodes published to date – you can listen to any episode straight from this page which is nice.

Let me know if there is a photography thing that you want me to explain and I will add it to my list. Just head over to the This is my list of things to explain page of this website to see what is on there already.

Let me send you stuff

I send out a weekly email to my subscribers. It is my take on one photography thing, plus what I have been writing and talking about. Just fill in the box and you can get my weekly photographic musings straight to your inbox. Which is nice.

And finally a little bit about me

Finally, yes this paragraph is all about me – check out my Rick McEvoy Photography website to find out more about me and my architectural, construction, real estate and travel photography work. I also write about general photography stuff, all in plain English without the irrelevant detail.

Thank you

Thanks for listening to my podcast (if you did) and reading this blog post (which I assume you have done as you are reading this).

Cheers from me Rick