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The focal point F and focal length f of a positive (convex) lens, a negative (concave) lens, a concave mirror, and a convex mirror.. The focal length of an optical system is a measure of how strongly the system converges or diverges light; it is the inverse of the system's optical power.
A 100 mm focal length f /4 lens has an entrance pupil diameter of 25 mm. A 100 mm focal length f /2 lens has an entrance pupil diameter of 50 mm. Since the area is proportional to the square of the pupil diameter, [6] the amount of light admitted by the f /2 lens is four times that of the f /4 lens.
35 mm equivalent focal lengths are calculated by multiplying the actual focal length of the lens by the crop factor of the sensor. Typical crop factors are 1.26× – 1.29× for Canon (1.35× for Sigma "H") APS-H format, 1.5× for Nikon APS-C ("DX") format (also used by Sony, Pentax, Fuji, Samsung and others), 1.6× for Canon APS-C format, 2× for Micro Four Thirds format, 2.7× for 1-inch ...
If the medium surrounding an optical system has a refractive index of 1 (e.g., air or vacuum), then the distance from each principal plane to the corresponding focal point is just the focal length of the system. In the more general case, the distance to the foci is the focal length multiplied by the index of refraction of the medium.
The effective focal length is nearly equal to the stated focal length of the lens (F), except in macro photography where the lens-to-object distance is comparable to the focal length. In this case, the absolute transverse magnification factor ( m ) ( m = S 2 / S 1 {\displaystyle m=S_{2}/S_{1}} ) must be taken into account:
As with other types of camera lenses, the focal length is usually expressed in a millimeter value written on the lens, for example: a 500 mm lens. The most common type of long-focus lens is the telephoto lens , which incorporate a special lens group known as a telephoto group to make the physical length of the lens shorter than the focal length.
A principal focus or focal point is a special focus: For a lens , or a spherical or parabolic mirror , it is a point onto which collimated light parallel to the axis is focused. Since light can pass through a lens in either direction, a lens has two focal points – one on each side.
The crop factor is sometimes referred to as the focal length multiplier ("Film") since multiplying a lens focal length by the crop factor gives the focal length of a lens that would yield the same field of view if used on the reference format. For example, a lens with a 50 mm focal length on an imaging area with a crop factor of 1.6 with ...