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G1 Kit lens - true focal lengths?

W

wonderer

Guest
I was trying out a G1 with the 14-45mm kit lens next to a NX10 with its 18-55mm lens. These two lenses cover a similar "equivalent" focal length range (28mm to 90mm for the G1 versus 27mm to 82.5 mm for Nx10).

However while looking at the view through the viewfinder, I noticed that G1 is giving a significantly narrower view at comparable focal lengths. For example at 14mm the G1 was giving a field of view which was not more than 75% of the FOV from the samsung 18mm. And it was not just the EVF. I took test images on both and even in the captured images shown on LCD, I could see the same difference.

I first thought that the difference in sensor aspect ratio might explain the FOV difference. However the G1 view remains narrower in both horizontal as well as vertical dimension so that does not explain it either.

I even brought some regular DSLRs to the mix and results seemed similar. For example an olympus 620 seemed wider than the G1 at 45mm. Simialrly a Kx @18mm was similar to Nx @18mm and much wider than the G1.

The differences were not small enough to be explained just by typical discrepancy between inidcated and actual focal length. So any ideas what was going on there? Is the G1 lens really a 14-45mm lens or is there a major discrepancy?
 

Godfrey

Well-known member
I was trying out a G1 with the 14-45mm kit lens next to a NX10 with its 18-55mm lens. These two lenses cover a similar "equivalent" focal length range (28mm to 90mm for the G1 versus 27mm to 82.5 mm for Nx10).

However while looking at the view through the viewfinder, I noticed that G1 is giving a significantly narrower view at comparable focal lengths. For example at 14mm the G1 was giving a field of view which was not more than 75% of the FOV from the samsung 18mm. And it was not just the EVF. I took test images on both and even in the captured images shown on LCD, I could see the same difference.

I first thought that the difference in sensor aspect ratio might explain the FOV difference. However the G1 view remains narrower in both horizontal as well as vertical dimension so that does not explain it either.

I even brought some regular DSLRs to the mix and results seemed similar. For example an olympus 620 seemed wider than the G1 at 45mm. Simialrly a Kx @18mm was similar to Nx @18mm and much wider than the G1.

The differences were not small enough to be explained just by typical discrepancy between inidcated and actual focal length. So any ideas what was going on there? Is the G1 lens really a 14-45mm lens or is there a major discrepancy?
I've measured the G1 14-45 zoom lens' field of view at various settings against my Panasonic/Leica 14-50/2.8-3.5 and other Olympus ZD lenses at the same focal length settings. They're all within the acceptable range of variation for actual vs nominal focal length. The 14-45 seems a little "short" at 45mm setting compared to the Macro-Elmarit 45mm, and the 14-50/2.8-3.5 seems a little "short" at 50mm compared to the ZD 50mm Macro, but the difference is a couple of percentage points at best. Nothing unusual.

Maybe the Samsung lens is "shorter". ;-)
 
W

wonderer

Guest
hmm - thats interesting. The differences that I were observing were much more than a couple of percent. I seriously doubt that the 18-55mm kit lenses will be significantly wider than their nominal ratings. I will check back again - Maybe G1 was set to a different aspect ratio like 16:9 - and the resulting cropping was responsible for the narrower FOV.
 
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