2020 Vision | The Closer I Get To You

September 11, 2020

It has only taken me seven years.

That long to understand something very important about how I see.

Because I see out of one eye, my vision is wonky. With one eye closed, my field of view is 18mm - 28mm full frame 35mm equivalent.

So that’s my “normal wide shot”.

My normal 50mm field of view is the XF50mmF2 - this equates with a 70 mm on a Full Frame. I tested this today and it just felt perfect. No matter where I stood, the images were in proportion to my distance in terms of depth and width.

I was always confused as to why my 50mm on my FX D750 “felt slightly wide and slightly deep”. Especially as I heard that 50mm is the normal angle of view to normal vision.

Well, my vision and optics is far from normal. I suffered Coates Disease as a boy on my left eye and it’s also it’s a lazy squint. So my only good eye is my right eye which happens to be short sighted - more so now because I wear glasses.

This has completely screwed up my vision for the correct focal length when using my camera.

I accept the fact that my normal sight is completely off. I also accept that a 50mm on a full frame gives a normal perspective.

What has become critical to me is understanding just how my eyes behave in relationship to the Lens I use.

If I want a normal 50mm field of view, I will use my Nikon 50mm on my Crop Senor and my Fuji 50mm F2 on my Xpro Body. This feels perfect. My distance from the subject feels perfect.

Nothing extraneous in my frame.

This zone is important because I now know that my positioning for framing and composition will be much better. I may still need to zoom a litre with my feet but that’s ok.