Re: Lens Whopper

[T3D john bercovitz <bercov@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Canon sez:

> Remember short lenses enhance perspective and long lenses
> flatten it.

Paul Boyer sez:

> I hope that everyone here realizes that the quoted saying is
> essentially a fallacy: perspective is a function of object
> distance; lens length merely changes the angle of view.

I think they're misusing the word perspective and that it is a
very (all-too) common misuse.  What they mean is that since it's
a short lens you can stop down to a tiny aperture and still have 
a high enough relative aperture to take a picture.  With that
stopped down aperture, you get things near and far into focus.
When you view this short-lens photo, you will view it from too
far away, a long way out from the perspective point.  This will
make the near objects all out of proportion to the far objects.
This gives a sense of enormous depth in the scene.  And that, I
think, is what they mistakenly call perspective.  I think of 
perspective as a mathematical concept so this way of thinking
about it grates on me a bit.

John B


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