Hi. When you look at the camera’s settings, there is the Lense setting. What are the units that it is measured in? If I boost it up to 200, is that equivelant to a 200mm lense or if I bring it down to 50, is that like a 50mm lense? Or is the Lense setting on a completely different scale?
Thanks.
-Laurifer
It’s in mm.
Martin
A Lens value of 32 can see an object 1 unit across that is 1 unit away
A Lens value of 16 can see an object 2 units across that is 1 unit away
A Lens value of 64 can see an object 0.5 units across that is 1 unit away.
The actual angle this gives is applied to the larger of the SizeX and SizeY values, so if the output render is wider than it is tall, then “across” above means “side to side”, if the render is taller than it is wide then “across” means “top to bottom”
Oh. Okay. So it is like a physical lense. Also, thank you for those numbers, they will some in handy.
-Laurifer
i took those numbers and created a formula:
fov = 2*arctan(32/lens)
that’s in radians
I believe the rule is, “50” (55?) is “normal.” Values smaller than that are wide; bigger are telephoto. Basically like a 35mm camera.
In photography, F-stops are never really an absolute scale. “55 is normal” only for a “35mm” camera. But the key idea is that there is always some figure that is “normal,” with figures to either side of it being either wide or tele. And I think that’s basically how the Blender implementors used it. Blender’s “camera” is not as sophisticated as in other 3D programs.
With my current model, a human, I put the lense setting to 55. It looks very odd when I do a close up of the head. This is what I would like it to look like, but it is Ortho mode:
But this is what it looks like in perspective mode:
In my opinion, the first one looks more realistic, like what you would see with your eyes, but the second one has perspective, which I will need. What can I do to combine the two?
-Laurifer
You meant normal for 35mm film, right? I’m sure you did. 
To get the perspective not so strong, you should have a lens set as telephoto (higher numbers, like 100). And place the camera away from the subject.
Wide lenses (small numbers, like 20) give a very strong perspective effect.
50 lens give a mild perspective effect.
My father knows a lot about photography and it was a big hobby of his, so I asked him if you converted your eye to a camera, what would be the lense setting. He said anywhere between 50 and 65mm. So I tried all between these in Blender. (55 is what I posted above.) But then I looked at myself in the mirror this morning. I got really close (I almost hit my nose on the handsome devil in the mirror 
) and I realized I see the same kind of distortions.
Rangel - Thanks. I will try a more telephoto setting.
-Laurifer