Why is a 24mm lens on a film camera different to a digital camera?

Question

If i wanted to have the same quality of a 24mm lens how do I know what digital lens to buy?

Answer 1

Digital SLRs, with a few exceptions, have a smaller sensor area than a 35mm film camera.  That smaller sensor acts like a magnifier, with a 1.5x factor for Nikons and a 1.6x factor for Canons.

So a 24mm lens will look like a 36mm lens (24mm x 1.5 = 36mm) on a Nikon; on a Canon digital SLR, it will be 38.4mm!

To get the same *view* on a digital as a 24mm on a Nikon film camera, you'd a 16mm focal length.  Generally, you might look at a Nikon 12-24mm, a Tokina 12-24mm, or a Sigma 10-20mm or Sigma 12-24mm.

On a Canon, you'd need a 15mm focal length and would need to find an appropriate lens covering that focal length.

Hope that explains the reason why it's different AND what you need to buy.

Answer 2

Film = 35mm wide.

Digital camera sensors are usually way way smaller (excluding full-format).

Hence the difference.

Answer 3

most DSLR camera have a 1.6 crop factor. so a 50mm lens is a 80mm on a DSLR with a 1.6 crop     50 x 1.6 = 80

Answer 4

If this is to do with focal length, then most digital cameras have smaller sensors than 35mm film. So a 24mm lens will be more like a 32mm lens.

Answer 5

The lens is the same, the camera is different.

as mentioned before, the digital sensors on evrything but the most expensive canon and nikon models (the EOS 1s Ml3 and Nikon D3) are smaller than a frame of film, so effectively most digital slrs crop the field of view, in effect creating a more telephoto result.

If you want to buy a 24mm equivalent lens then you need to divide the focal length accoriding to your camera, so that means looking at a lens that either 16mm or in which the zoom range catches 16mm I.E Sigmas 10-20mm available to fit most mounts,