Lens Field of View Calculator
Enter focal length and sensor format to get horizontal, vertical, and diagonal field of view — plus coverage width and height at your subject distance. Nothing uploaded.
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Full field of view details
Learn more: field of view and sensor format
The same lens gives a different view on each sensor
The tool uses angle = 2 x atan(sensor size / (2 x focal length)). A 50 mm lens on a full-frame sensor, 36 mm wide, covers 39.6 degrees horizontally. On a Micro Four Thirds sensor, 17.3 mm wide, the same lens covers 19.6 degrees, about half.
Wikipedia's image sensor format page says the sensor format determines a lens's angle of view, and that a smaller sensor gives a narrower view. It defines the crop factor as the ratio of the full-frame diagonal to the sensor's diagonal.
Two APS-C sensors show the effect on a smaller scale. A 50 mm lens gives 26.6 degrees on the tool's Nikon-size sensor (23.6 mm wide) and 25.1 degrees on the Canon-size one (22.3 mm wide). That is a gap of about 1.5 degrees, which matches the crop factors of 1.53 and 1.62.
Horizontal, vertical and diagonal
Spec sheets do not always say which angle they quote. For 50 mm on full frame, the tool gives 39.6 degrees horizontal, 27.0 degrees vertical and 46.8 degrees diagonal. The diagonal is the largest because the sensor's diagonal, 43.27 mm on a 36 x 24 mm frame, is longer than its width or height.
Use one measure when you compare lenses. At 5 m, the 39.6 degree horizontal angle covers a scene 3.60 m wide.
FAQ
Why does the same lens look different on two cameras?
The field of view depends on the focal length and on the size of the sensor behind it. A smaller sensor records a narrower part of the image the lens projects.
What does the full-frame equivalent focal length mean?
It is the actual focal length times the crop factor. It gives the full-frame focal length with roughly the same field of view. For example, 50 mm on a 2.0 crop sensor gives the view of a 100 mm lens on full frame.
Should I compare horizontal or diagonal angles between lenses?
Either, as long as you use the same one for both. A diagonal figure is always larger than the horizontal figure for the same lens and sensor, so mixing the two gives a false comparison.