Getting a 1.3 Crop Perspective

I've got a 1.6 crop camera and wanted to get an idea of the perspective using a 1.3 crop camera with my lens. If I set my 100-400mm lens to 325 on the 1.6 crop camera (1.6x325=520) will that give me the same perspective as a 1.3 camera with a 400 lens (1.3x400=520). The math equates, just wondering if it's more complicated than that.

Perspective is the wrong term to use here. Essentially, perspective relates to the relative sizes of various elements in the scene to each other. What you're looking to replicate is the field of view (or angle of view).

Your math is correct. The "crop factor" between a Canon APS-C format camera and Canon's 1Dx series (1.3 crop) is roughly 1.23. Thus, to get the same field of view on the two formats, the lens' focal length on the "1.3 crop" camera has to be 1.23 times the focal length on the APS-C format camera.

By the way, perspective is ONLY affected by changing the distances between the camera and the various elements in the scene in front of it.

Your thinking was right. And Skip was right, too. The way you ddid the math is correct, and it does indeed give you the field of view that you calculated. But, as Skip explained, "perspective" is not the correct term. "Perspective" means "where you are looking from", or where the camera records the scene from. The perspective is what determines how the various elements in your composition will look (especially size-wise) in relation to one another. The field of view is how much of the scene before you will be recorded by the camera's sensor.

By the way, Larry, I have used both a 1.6 crop body and a 1.3 crop body quite extensively......a 50D was my primary body from 2010 thru 2013, and a 1D4 has been my primary body from Nov. 2013 thru the present. So, I am familiar with the differing fields of view that each format provides.

Thanks Skip and Tom.