Wideangle

A wide-angle refers to a lens with a short focal length and a correspondingly wide angle of view, producing a broader scene than a standard 50mm lens. On full-frame cameras, wide-angle lenses commonly range from about 24mm to 35mm, while ultra-wide lenses cover roughly 14mm to 24mm. On smaller sensor formats, such as APS-C, the same focal lengths yield a narrower field of view equivalent to longer focal lengths on full-frame.

Wide-angle lenses offer several practical characteristics. They allow capturing expansive landscapes, large interiors, and crowded urban scenes without stepping back far, and they permit closer focusing distances while still keeping much of the scene in focus. The perspective created by a short focal length tends to exaggerate depth, making near objects appear disproportionately large relative to distant ones.

Distortion is a key consideration. Barrel distortion is common, bending straight lines outward toward the edges, especially at the extremes of the frame. The expansive field of view can also exaggerate perspective, so architectural lines may converge or diverge unnaturally if not composed carefully.

Common uses include landscape and architectural photography, interior shots where space is limited, and certain types of astrophotography. In portrait work, wide-angle can be challenging because it may distort facial features if the subject is too close or placed near the frame’s edges.

Camera bodies with crop sensors change the effective field of view due to the format’s crop factor, making a given focal length act like a longer lens. Post-processing can correct some geometric distortion, but optical design and proper composition remain important considerations when using wide-angle lenses.