# What's your focal Length???



## HighOutput (Jun 29, 2014)

Did anyone see the video where photographer Erik Almas talks about what focal length you see? It's basically the focal length of preference when you take a picture. Check it on his blog at around 10:09 min in the video.




Now, we do use everything in our bag, but here is what I noticed... At the cottage this weekend, I brought only my 16-35mm (use 35mm a lot for landscape)and realize that I cropped every picture of people, that I liked. After reviewing most of my pictures in the last year, I noticed that I tend to shoot at 70mm the most (mostly because my favourite lens is a 24-70mm). On my 70-200mm lens, I shoot at 90mm and 200mmm the most. So in photography terms I envision a focal length of about 70-90mm...Might have to start considering an 85mm lens. It's a cool thing, I never even noticed it, until I looked at my picture data in PS Bridge, as it also a searches my specified parameters, even focal lengths.
What's your focal length?


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## Derrel (Jun 29, 2014)

On FF, I often find 113mm useful. And around 92mm. And 132mm. Weird. But those are EXIF data numbers that pop up a lot.


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## baturn (Jun 29, 2014)

500 mm. Wish I had more.


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## pixmedic (Jun 29, 2014)

baturn said:


> 500 mm. Wish I had more.



dont we all.


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## 480sparky (Jun 29, 2014)

I couldn't care less what I shoot with the most.  It's a metric that has NO value to me.

And I don't see what value it has to anyone else, either.  What good does knowing your most common FL do you?  Are you gonna sell all your other glass and shoot just that one FL range?


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## runnah (Jun 29, 2014)

I went through my Flickr, and found the average focal length. It was 57.3.

Then I went on my 500px page and using the rating system I segmented and averaged the focal length vs rating. Sure enough I found that my highest rated photos were around 22mm. The lowest rated photos were in the 45-55mm range.

I wish we could do it with the entire flick and 500px database. Be interesting to see those stats.


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## runnah (Jun 29, 2014)

Sorry my data might be skewed as I didn't take into account that some where shot FF and others crop.


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## HighOutput (Jun 29, 2014)

480sparky said:


> I couldn't care less what I shoot with the most.  It's a metric that has NO value to me.
> 
> And I don't see what value it has to anyone else, either.  What good does knowing your most common FL do you?  Are you gonna sell all your other glass and shoot just that one FL range?



It's to know if you are wondering what kind of lens you want to try next. I don't sell any of my glass, I just buy new ones. And I agree, if I'm going to shoot a landscape shot, I will still use my 16-35mm. But if you are in the market for a prime, this could help you narrow it down...especially with the cost of lenses. My 2 cents.


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## CAP (Jun 29, 2014)

A Sigma 200-500mm f/2.8 at with 2x Teleconverter at 1000mm f/4

I borrowed this lens from a friend and i wish i had one its my favorite focal length and aperture.


1000mm f/4


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## Trainwizard (Jun 29, 2014)

I'd say mines is about 70-85mm cropped.


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## Vince.1551 (Jun 29, 2014)

28, 85, 135 & 300(more if I could)


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## gsgary (Jun 30, 2014)

I only shoot 28mm, 35mm and 50mm all primes


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## Ido (Jun 30, 2014)

Flicked through my entire Lightroom catalog. Here's what I found (in 35mm equiv.):


100mm - 305 photos
600mm - 230
50mm (currently, my only prime lens) - 205
24mm - 179
All other focal length (and narrow ranges) are under 100 photos each.

I'm lusting over the Panasonic 35-100mm f/2.8, but Lightroom basically tells me to:

Get the Olympus 45mm (90mm equiv.) f/1.8;
Wait for the Olympus 300mm (600mm equiv.) f/4 (it will probably be expensive);
Get an ultra-wide zoom lens (because 12mm (24mm equiv.) is sometimes not wide enough for me).

So I see mostly in telephoto, but also quite a bit wide!


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## Didereaux (Jul 22, 2014)

"What's your focal Length??? 				"

I went and checked....it's roughly the length from the sensor to the front lens glass.


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## petrochemist (Jul 22, 2014)

On our club shoot tonight I used from 10mm (fish-eye) to 300mm, with a number of lengths in between, (but nothing between 17 & 70 tonight).

 Overall I've not done much longer than 1000mm (a few with a telescope, or teleconverters work out longer, but diffraction becomes a problem, so they're not up to much).
(All focal lengths on APS-C)

I have taken a few with a Kaidan-360 too (FOV ~140° high x 360° wide) focal lengths not really relevant there.

All depends on the subject & the effect wanted.


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## petrochemist (Jul 22, 2014)

Didereaux said:


> "What's your focal Length???                 "
> 
> I went and checked....it's roughly the length from the sensor to the front lens glass.



But in many cases it's nowhere near this.

My 10mm focal length fish-eye would probably be over 100mm from front of lens to sensor (>45mm to the mounting flange).
My 600mm mirror lens is around 150mm.

These are extreme cases, but it doesn't even hold true for most old SLR 50mm primes (nearer 75mm).
 Wide angle lenses typically the measurement is more than the focal length (retro focus design) with the focal length being less than the distance from *back* of the lens to sensor.
Telephotos are technically lenses that the length is less than the focal length (not all long focal length lens are telephotos)


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## D-B-J (Jul 22, 2014)

85. I use that lens all the time! 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## jake337 (Jul 22, 2014)

Whichever I choose between 28mm, 50mm, 85mm, 100mm and 135mm.


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## Tailgunner (Jul 22, 2014)

I've got a couple focal lengths that I use for certain subjects, 135mm for our son's basketball games for example but generally speaking what ever focal length that gets me the capture I want is my favorite.


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## runnah (Jul 23, 2014)

i love the 85mm on a FX body.


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## Mach0 (Jul 23, 2014)

It depends on what lenses I'm using but it's either 50mm for walk around. Other than that- 85mm-90mm and 125mm-135mm. 


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## dennybeall (Jul 23, 2014)

Guess I've been around too long. I use mostly zoom lenses and just whatever focal length fits the shot is what I shoot. Only regular part is that since I try to be as far away as possible and still get the shot, I'm frequently at the end of the zoom.


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## hamlet (Jul 24, 2014)

I like the focal length that gets me my shot.


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