What is the difference between 35mm and 50mm?
The right lens is essential for every photographer. Many photographers believe that the lens is more important than the actual camera.
This article will help you decide between a 50mm or a 35mm lens. This article will explain and what focal length it is. We’ll also discuss the differences between these two focal lengths.
What is the focal length?
The focal length of a lens determines its angle of view and how much magnification the subject will receive when it is photographed.
The two opposite characteristics are:
-
- A longer focal distance offers greater magnification as well as a narrower field of view.
- A shorter focal distance has a smaller magnification, and a wider field of view.
Focal lengths can be expressed as a full frame sensor (equivalent of a 35mm camera). You must use a “crop-factor” conversion rate if you are using a cropped sensor. The crop factor for the APS sensors in Nikon, Sony and Canon cameras is 1.5x. You can find out the crop factor of a crop sensor camera from a different manufacturer by looking in the manual or doing a quick online search.
NOTICE: Learn more about the differences between a full-frame and crop sensor camera HERE.
If you use a Nikon DX camera with a 50mm focal length lens, you will get a 75mm. If you used a 35mm with the same camera it would give you a focal length of about 50mm. A 35mm lens is needed to achieve a 50mm focus on a DX sensor. To get the 35mm focal range on that same camera you’d use a 20-25mm zoom lens.