Wide Angle and Frame / Imager Size

[psychonaut]

my understanding is how wide of an angle u can capture is determined by imager (CCD/CMOS) size divided by focal length.

my girlfriend is somewhat frustrated with digital rebel and stock lens because it will not capture wide enough angle in many situations. i attribute that to the fact that its imager is on the order of 20mm out of the 35 available. i have looked at lenses with shorter focal lengths and i dont think i found any that can quite make up for the undersized imager. on the other hand a Canon with a full frame sensor is out of our budget right now.

i have considered something like an olympus E1 because it claims to have a full frame sensor but then its sensor is even smaller than that of the rebel. so they made the frame 2X smaller but they didnt make the focal lengths 2X smaller so it is still not going to be able to take wide angle shots like a camera with a 35mm sensor, right ?

is there any other way out of this problem other than waiting for 35mm sensors to go down in price ?

thanx.

[Dante King]

crop factor comes to mind here. Canon consumer bodies are 1.6. So at 10mm lens becomes a 16mm spread from the camera. I use a 16-35L lens that works out to be 25mm-56mm. That is wide enough for me. I used to have a 10-22mm and I had to crop out my toes all the time. LOL So I think it all comes down to lens choices. I would not worry about having a FF sensor.

Hope this ramble helps.

[PhotosGuy]

my girlfriend is somewhat frustrated with digital rebel and stock lens because it will not capture wide enough angle in many situations. Does she know the word "Panorama"? ;-)

[psychonaut]

oh wow i didnt see this baby last time:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=351542&is=USA

10mm is pretty extreme ... thats about enough to take care of it ... of course it also costs as much as the rebel itself :)

"Important Notice!
Only compatible with the 20D and Digital Rebel series digital cameras"

this is somewhat messed up ... so this lens is specifically made for inferior cameras with smaller sensor and once u upgrade the camera to FF u have to toss the $800 lens =/

it seems the widest lens that has full frame coverage is 12mm by sigma.

eh something to think about.

thanx.

[PhotosGuy]

The problem with extreme WA lenses is that background subjects look very small. A pano with a more 'normal' lens will show far away things much larger.

[psychonaut]

The problem with extreme WA lenses is that background subjects look very small. A pano with a more 'normal' lens will show far away things much larger.

hm i dont really understand where the difference would come from.

???