I have always been confused how to get accurate true to life Camera Lens Settings for Poser (I just so happen to be working in Version 6). Would anyone by chance know the settings for a default 50mm lens. It would be nice if someone was very knowledgeable created a chart for all the lens settings to post it here in the forum.

Quote - I have always been confused how to get accurate true to life Camera Lens Settings for Poser (I just so happen to be working in Version 6). Would anyone by chance know the settings for a default 50mm lens. It would be nice if someone was very knowledgeable created a chart for all the lens settings to post it here in the forum.

... would NOT use BLACK type making the post very difficult to read.

Sorry, this is one of Doc's pet peeves.

You might have a better chance of getting a response if the post were more easy to read, n'est pas? :huh:

cheers,
dr (bob) geep
;=[

Well I apologize Mr Geep The last time I posted here was when the users could set their own preferences ... I took it as being default

For you conveyance (and failing eye-sight) I have reposted in white...

I have always been confused how to get accurate true to life Camera Lens Settings for Poser (I just so happen to be working in Version 6). Would anyone by chance know the settings for a default 50mm lens. It would be nice if someone was very knowledgeable created a chart for all the lens settings to post it here in the forum.

What size film/sensor/camera are you looking to emulate.

I believe (and my get corrected) that the raw Poser Focal Lengths are for a 35mm film camera. At least, this is how it looks to my eye... and I own both 35mm and 2 1/4 square cameras.

Attached Link: Sensor format

Quote - I believe (and my get corrected) that the raw Poser Focal Lengths are for a 35mm film camera. At least, this is how it looks to my eye... and I own both 35mm and 2 1/4 square cameras.

I think I actually read it somewhere that's how the Focal lengths work.  The type of camera lens is set by adjusting the Focal Lengths.

Quote - I believe (and my get corrected) that the raw Poser Focal Lengths are for a 35mm film camera. At least, this is how it looks to my eye... and I own both 35mm and 2 1/4 square cameras.

That is how I understood the focal lengths and I started photography many, many years ago.  When I started, most cameras, the 35mm at least, came with a standard 50mm lens.  It is less than a norm these days as the introduction on digital cameras, with different sized image capture devices, has meant the focal length needs to be adjusted accordingly.

As to what focal length should be used, well it can vary.  Fot instance when I was doing portrait photography I often used 135mm as this meant you could get a good 'head and shoulders' shot with little or no distortion without having to stand in the models comfort zone.

Some years ago I moved over to digital using an Olympus E1 with a series of lenses which I still use.  However, most my photography is now wild life so the focal lenths are way past 50mm.

I Poser the only time I play with the focal length is wide scenes where I need to get everything in.  Without Depth of Field on the cameras are hardly real world anyway.

After 10 years on Poser, all my cameras have evolved to 52- 55 focal... I don't have the science as to why but I suspect it ma y be a quirk from older versions. So, 35mm is closer to 52mm in set in Poser, etc. Higher focals like 95mm seem to not only flatten the render but bend the corners up as well.  Something seems wrong. I just think you have to work around this to your own liking.

I do not own a camera so, mho.

Hi

I too am pretty sure that Poser is based on a 35mm camera.

A 35mm camera is designed to see approximately what your eye sees when using a 50mm lens.

Anything with a lower number is considered Wide Angle, i.e. 18mm, anything with a higher number i.e. 300mm, is considered to some degree to be Telephoto.

A wide angle exaggerates depth, and at a certain point will start showing a lot of distortion, straight lines will curve etc but it expands field of view.

With a telephoto lens depth is minimized, things in the distance appear closer but also they will seem closer together, and of course the field of view is reduced.

Mike

According to post by bagginsbill, Poser's focal length doesn't correspond with 35mm full frame - it's off by a 1.4x crop factor. So for a 50mm focal length it should be set at around 35mm (although that would actually give 49mm).

Yup - assuming you're basing your focal length on a 35mm camera equivalent, as most photographers still do even when using a camera with a different sensor size - Poser's cameras' focal lengths are 0.7x that. 

In other words, to get a field of view similar to a 35mm film camera with a 50mm lens, set your Poser camera to 50 x 0.7 = 35mm focal length.

Citation: Bagginsbill says so here and here, and elsewhere too. ;)

(I have reason to believe the exact value might be the reciprocal of root 2).

Quote - A wide angle exaggerates depth, and at a certain point will start showing a lot of distortion, straight lines will curve etc but it expands field of view.

I've always wondered how this is handled in CG...  In 3D programs, straight lines seem to always be drawn straight, as edges drawn from vertex to vertex.  I haven't seen, or at least have not noticed, visible curvature as a result of lens angle.

:)

Set a lens for 8mm and see what happens! ROFL. Pretty comical!

Quote - Yup - assuming you're basing your focal length on a 35mm camera equivalent, as most photographers still do even when using a camera with a different sensor size - Poser's cameras' focal lengths are 0.7x that.  In other words, to get a field of view similar to a 35mm film camera with a 50mm lens, set your Poser camera to 50 x 0.7 = 35mm focal length.

Citation: Bagginsbill says so here and here, and elsewhere too. ;)

(I have reason to believe the exact value might be the reciprocal of root 2).

Poser is a very old program. Parts of it were written when Edward II ruled over England. But Edward II did not know about meters; he measured things in inches, feet, and yards. Therefore there are imperial units are scattered around in poser all over the place. The virtual camera is no exception. It uses a virtual film size of exactly one inch (which is 25.4 mm in metric units). So if one is accustomed to small format cameras (which use the 35mm film and an actual image size of 24x36mm), one needs to get that factor into account to get the same field of view. That factor (36mm/25.4mm) is 1.417323 which is very close to 1.4142 (the square root of 2), although not exactly the same. Not that this would matter much when one uses only Poser, the difference is only 0.3%; but cannot be neglected when one wants to do pixel exact composition of a poser render with a render of a different graphics program (but there are other factors which make life even harder...)

Nice one millighost. My suggestion of root two was purely a guess since that factor seems to be implicated in so many other areas. I hadn't considered that the virtual camera would be using a one inch sensor. That makes perfect sense.

I expect you're right about Edward, since he laid down the legal definition of an inch as the length of "three grains of barley, dry and round, placed end to end, lengthwise". Although common usage of that measurement dated back to the Norman conquest, so as so often in English history we have to ask ourselves "what did William the Conqueror ever do for us?" :)  

Quote - ...so as so often in English history we have to ask ourselves "what did William the Conqueror ever do for us?" :)

Rather less than the Romans I think :)