Lens Field of View Visualisation Tool

In every lens listing on lens-reviews.com you will now find a copy of the FOV tool.

It is designed to allow you to get an idea of what you will see through the viewfinder when using a lens of a particular focal length.

Considering buying a new lens?  Want to compare it against the lenses you already have in your bag?  Now you can, with the lens-reviews.com FOV Tool

Instructions

In every lens listing on lens-reviews.com you will now find a copy of the field of view (FOV) tool. 

The Virtual Camera Back will automatically be adjusted to allow you to see the field of view of the lens you are reading about.  The area inside the dotted box represents your field of view.  You can drag the box around with your mouse if you wish.

The default view is full frame, and I am sure that most of us are not lucky enough to have a full frame DSLR. The first thing you need to do is tell the tool the focal length multiplication factor (or crop factor) of your camera.  

You can do this by either clicking on the crop factor buttons, if you know your crop factor.  Alternatively you can select from a selection of common DSLR bodies from the main manufacturers in the "Choose Camera" drop down.

For zoom lenses the left hand end of the focal length slider will be set to the lens widest angle.  The right hand end of the slider will be set to the narrowest angle.  To see the relative field of view of the lens at any particular focal length drag the slider to your required focal length. 

For prime (fixed focal length) lenses the slider is fixed, and will automatically show you the correct field of view of your selected lens.  The focal length slider will be disabled.

Limitations

The field of view you see is relative to the field of view of the lens that the shot was taken with.  At present the shot was taken with a 17mm lens, so all calculations are relative to that. 

We give generic answers using generic maths.  Modern compound lenses are complicated, and the real field of view you will see through a specific lens may vary marginally from what you see here, but I promise, it won't be by much.

We do not take into account the effects relating to magnification when using macro lenses with a short lens to subject distance. 

Known Issues

We have lenses in our database that have a focal length that is shorter than 17mm.  When we encounter one we set the bottom end of the zoom range to 17mm.  We need images taken with rectilinear projection lenses with a focal length of less than 17mm.  Can you help by lending us a lens, or sending some images? If so please get in touch.  Maybe we will have a competition to choose the images we use in future.

The main image does not always load first time in IE7, as soon as you click on a button or move the slider the image should be displayed.

Plans for the Future

Fix the Known Issues!

Add a selection of images taken at different focal lengths to allow sensible comparisons.

Your requirements!  Please leave comments here with your thoughts about the tool so far and your wish list of potential improvements.  We aim to please.