I’m a fan of wide and super-wide angle lenses. I just like the effect (without distorsion) of the wide angle of view.
For those of you who don’t understand camera/lens talk, a primer:-
The covering power of a lens is determined by it’s angle of view, which changes depending on it’s focal length and the format of the camera sensor, but for some strange reason is always calculated with regard to a ‘standard’ 24×36 format (35mm)
A ‘standard’ lens has a focal length of 50mm with a diagonal of 46°. It’s all to do with the diagonal of the sensor/film. A 24x36mm film has a diagonal of 43,6mm, which for reasons best known to the experts, made a 50mm lens ‘standard’. A 6×6 ‘box’ camera has a film diagonal of 84mm, and the ‘standard’ lens for this format is 80mm.
Wide angle lenses start from about 35mm, telephoto lenses start from around 85mm.
For example, a regular 28mm wide angle has a diagonal of about 75°.
A 20mm super-wide is about 94° – and an even wider super-wide 16mm at about 107°
This 11mm lens, my latest baby, is 126° – this is humongously W I D E – and best of all, the distorsion is really at a minimum.
Of course, this is all well and good, but without anything for comparison, the ‘effect’ of this lens can’t really be measured – just click on the above images and enjoy – I’ll do a ‘real’ comparison when I have time…