Thread #4462866 | Image & Video Expansion | Click to Play
File: Screenshot 2025-08-26 at 2.35.32 PM.png (23.5 KB)
23.5 KB PNG
Who the fuck likes this focal length? What is its purpose?
172 RepliesView Thread
>>
File: DSC_3097.jpg (3.5 MB)
3.5 MB JPG
28mm filters out the bokehfags and gearfags, if you need 100mm f0.95 to make good pictures you suck
>>
>>
>>
>>
File: ContactSheet-001.jpg (1.3 MB)
1.3 MB JPG
>>4462866
28 is dope
>>
>>
>>
>>4462893
Tag me properly you retarded fatass. No one is using ad-hominem. You presented a photo, it fucking sucks. Everyone can see it fucking sucks. I tell you it fucking sucks, and that the rest of your photos fucking suck. I also tell you that your argument would be more compelling if you presented relevant information, and that there is no evidence that you have relevant information (good photos). Fucking think for once, you post like Brian Griffin. Everything goes over your head and you strut around like a winner. It's small wonder that recent poll put you as the most hated person here.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
File: 469359951_922410480018472_1455236380368102627_n.jpg (103.1 KB)
103.1 KB JPG
>>4462898
>Someone actually defending me
>mfw
4462903
Ad hominem isn't criticism it's just called being a faggot
>>
>>
>>
>>
File: MDR_7747-edit-BW-7-6.jpg (1.7 MB)
1.7 MB JPG
I honestly haven't used it much and I'm having a hard time adjusting to it for some reason. I actually find it easier to go wider, and I don't even do that very often. Picrel is the "best" 28mm shot I've taken lately.
>>
>>
>>
>>
File: DSCF6691bw.jpg (1.1 MB)
1.1 MB JPG
i like 28 for groups of peopel and close quarters
>>
>>
File: Garry.jpg (248.7 KB)
248.7 KB JPG
>>4462866
It is better than 35mm that is never enough wide or tight. At least 28mm is always wide enough to pack everything in to frame. 35mm and 50mm is for photographers than can not take a good picture so they rely on the dof to save them.
>>
Utter garbage, the Winogrand length and phonefag length. Snapshittery is all it's good for. It's one of the many reasons Leica Q pix sux so much. K3k!
The underwater photo is good because being underwater actually changes the effective focal length by a 4:3 factor. A 28 underwater behaves like a 37 outside, roughly 35. In other words, a 28 is what you need to be uncle Terry in the depths.
>>
>>
>>
File: 1137c-0832.jpg (873.9 KB)
873.9 KB JPG
>>4463129
>Gear made this photo good
Spoken like a true gearfag, Helmut Newton and Daido Moriyama worked in 28mm, do they suck too?
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
File: comment_16099568776W3lWJSSx6wwv8D8hrTf9y.jpg (71.1 KB)
71.1 KB JPG
>>4463192
>>4463193
>a-anyone who says it didn't get magically hacked is schizophrenic guise!!!
Why not just accept the obvious truth that literally no one likes you. No need to do mental gymnastics about how "the site got hacked by your stalkers" when the explanation is obvious. People who try to steer the discussion of an anonymous photography forum to be about themselves, their life, and how special they are, are generally socially stunted man-children. People just don't wanna hear from you.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>4463157
Helmut mostly shot longer lengths, 28mm is far from representative of his work. Moriyama does indeed suck.
I reject your gearfag claim, it's the AoV/perspective and even if your gear was brushes and paint it would be the same.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>4462866
28mm is the 40mm of wide angle. it's a youtube consoomer cattle focal length. so boring and mediocre phone makers decided to use it as the standard fov for their consoomer cattle phones.
if you shoot 28mm you lack any soul. you're consoomer cattle. you don't deserve the gift of life. throw yourself under a freight train. disgusting cattle.
>>
>>
>>4462927
only 28mm nikon makes is a plastic trash tier consoomer lens for those Zf cattle. nikon knows that 28mm is a trash focal length. just like 40mm. that's why they make only joke lenses in that format. they're laughing in japan about all the faggots who unironically buy those lenses. it's a phone focal length for teenage girls sending dickpics to niggers
>>
>>
>>
>>4463124
>At least 28mm is always wide enough to pack everything in to frame.
lol spoken like a true duning kruger beginner retard. "ITS ABOUT PACKING EVERYTHING INTO THE IMAGE. THE MORE THE BETTER" kek the absolute state of /p/ cattle m00
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>4469229
using the right tool for the job without preconceptions of what a "good" or "bad" focal length is makes me the same as people who refuse to train their bred-to-be-violent dogs? fuck me for wanting to take a group photo in a small space I guess.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>4469239
What makes something worthwhile in your mind? If I want to take a close-ish corner shot of my house 28mm is just the right focal length. If I want to get multiple people in frame while being relatively close to them it's a fine focal length. If I'm taking a landscape shot it's a length I might consider. What is the obsession with 28mm being bad and likening it to poor pet ownership?
>>
>>
>>
>>4469250
>What is the obsession with 28mm being bad and likening it to poor pet ownership?
That's just typical 4chan retardation. You have to use the /p/ approved focal lengths and camera brands, or else you have no ability to take good photos whatsoever and people will keep debating you as if their life depends on it.
>>
>>
>>
File: clankers.jpg (39.1 KB)
39.1 KB JPG
This whole thread is just bots talking to one another.
sudo rm -rf
>>
>>
I haven't used my 28mm prime very often. Every time I try it again, I end up preferring something much wider or narrower. However, when I adapt the lens to my M43 video camera, my focal reducer's crop factor of 1.28 makes the FOV closer to 35mm.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
File: 17038641582542977543055653095112.jpg (81.9 KB)
81.9 KB JPG
>>4463307
>>Samefags himself in agreement
The single snoy essay schizo on this board is the worst culprit of this
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
Based photography: A Technical Guide
By A. Non
Alright sniggers, you need to buy nothing but prime lenses because zooms suck the sovl out of your penis.
You must shoot these things with these lenses:
>Portraits at 16mm
>Building corners at 400mm
>Birds at 50mm
>Landscapes at 1200mm
Yes. You must be a 1200mm lens otherwise you are in fact NOT based and you cannot use that to shoot birds. That's what the P320 is for.
>>
>>
>>4472255
>Rocks at 200mm (preferably f/2 so nothing is in focus)
>Leaves are for the classic 24mm so you can get more leaves per pixel
>Clouds deserve 135mm so you can prevent the faces in them from having werid distortion. Rock Kockwell taught us faces look more natural like this.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
File: 139406455_3970232879688736_3674269708462010522_n.jpg (499.9 KB)
499.9 KB JPG
>>4472192
>Nobody likes 28mm. Theres a reason why 35mm is the most popular, then 24mm. 28mm is the wide angle no mans land.
I own 24, 28, and 35 ... in multiple formats (35mm and 6x7 equivalent). 28mm is the most useful by far. Wider than 35 while still not too exagerated so it's still "general purpose".
24mm is entirely different, 24 is where it starts to really look artificially wide. Which is a plus if that's what you want. But for "general purpose", the widest is 28mm
Pic related, made with a 55/3.5 Pentax 6x7, equivalent to 28/1.7 in full frame terms.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>4472922
I went to the camera store recently and picked up a 28mm lens for my Minolta X-700.
I was a little annoyed at first because I really wanted a 35mm lens, but I bought the 28mm lens anyway because why not.
Honestly, I've been enjoying using it. It is a really nice focal length imo.
I took a bunch of pictures of my town today, and I plan on using the 28mm lens in the city this weekend.
>>
File: 987698.jpg (138.6 KB)
138.6 KB JPG
>>4462891
These are almost all posed. I hate posed shots and you need to be posed to use 28mm because the camera is 2 inches from their face.
I think phones have ruined 28mm. 28mm photos are just too ubiquitous.
>>
>>4462866
28mm is for when you have a girlfriend and you want to take sexy photos to stock your coffers for the rest of your life. It's good for photos of people when you're 2-8 ft away. Phones have made it the easiest focal length for dummies to pick up. If you have a subject and beautiful natural backgrounds to put them in front of it's great. xf18mmf2 gets shat on for edge quality but it stays on my x-t2 and I hardly want to take it off.
>>
>>
It's a zoom focal length. You're not going to get great DoF anyway, so you may as well keep the flexibility of a zoom. 50mm looks very different on primes vs zoom, 28 does not.
>t. sold my 28mm prime because i never used it
>>
>>
File: onion.png (240.7 KB)
240.7 KB PNG
>>4475765
>can only get good compositions with telephotos
ngmi my dood
Also,
>>4475762
>You're not going to get great DoF anyway
Wider FLs with bright apertures don't exist to get some magical bokehwhoring dreamy creamies, they exist to get lots of light on the sensor. At the same focus distance, a 28mm (or anything in the 16-35mm range really) with have more in focus at f/2.8 than a 100mm will at f/8. Three stops of light for the same DoF is great, it just comes down to if that FL is useful to you or not in the first place.
>t. favourite lens is a 16-35 f/4
>>
>>4475769
>Wider FLs with bright apertures don't exist to get some magical bokehwhoring dreamy creamies, they exist to get lots of light on the sensor.
Yes, but that advantage is nowadays greatly diminished by great IBIS. There are still cases when it is very helpful, but much less so than it was 10 years ago. Bright apertures on normal lenses actually make your subject stand out because of bokeh, which is something that we'll probably be able to replicate with digital processing in a few years down the line, but can't really be replicated well at the moment.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>4475860
This, that makes it quite passable when it comes to microtonal harvesting, although most experts would agree it's surpassed by the 30mm plastic lens found on so many disposable cameras. You know, it's basically the 28 with decorative vignetting. That makes the microtones in the cone of attention stand out so much more.
>>
>>
>>4475964
"zoom with your feet" is autisimish for "no I don't understand how focal lengths influence distortion and background compression, why do you ask?"
It works with normal lenses because they look, go fucking figure, normal, and they're a short enough focal length that you can still use them for average snapshitting.
"zoom with your feet" falls apart at wide and tele lengths because you either can't frame the way you want to or framing it with the focal length prime you brought with you looks odd. Yeah we can take a group portrait guys let me just zoom my 300mm prime with my feet into the next post code.
>>
>>4475969
>I don't understand how focal lengths influence distortion and background compression
Yeah I'm quickly finding that out
I did have less trouble when I got started out with a cheap kit lens, although most of my shots were at 24mm
>>
>>4475983
>>I don't understand how focal lengths influence distortion and background compression
>Yeah I'm quickly finding that out
>People casually find out something very fundamental which ought to be figured out from the beginning of learning photography.
Sad. gearfags even fucked up people's very basic knowledge.
People should always think in distance between camera and subject instead of muh focal length.
>>
File: 28 meter.jpg (66.7 KB)
66.7 KB JPG
I think one of the disasters of AF lens design is that people stopped giving a fuck about distance.
Because you don't need to look up to it and the camera will give it a fuck for you so you can just shutting without a cell of your brain.
>>
>>4475983
Primes have their place and sometimes it's nice to have one over a zoom for general shooting. I will freely admit that. But the amount of scenes that will line up their composition for you and the single focal length you brought out that day is minimal; you'll miss more good shots with a prime, but you'll gain some IQ overall for all your snapshits.
Basically, primes are for snapshits and carefully curated scenes like studio shots.
>>4476011
Holy fuck fine.
DISTANCE to subject influences distortion, and FOCAL LENGTH influences background compression. There. Christ the pedantry is numbing.
Filling a subject for two given focal lengths will require difference distances to subject which is where the link comes from.
>>
>>4476014
>DISTANCE to subject influences distortion, and FOCAL LENGTH influences background compression
Actually it's distance alone. It's perspective compression, not actually "telephoto compression". It's most noticeable when a telephoto lens does the cropping for you, but it's not the one doing the compression. Zoom with your postprocessing :^) and you'll see it's true.
However, the type of picture one typically takes with a tele is more compressed than the one you typically take with a wide because you naturally use the tele for things that are far away.
>>
>>4476011
I'm still somewhat getting started, so forgive my retardation there. I got into this 3 months ago and I've been absorbing a lot of conflicting information that I'm trying to put into practice at times. I do admit I did buy compulsively into something I saw high recommendations on and a low price (mainly because I had to give the first camera with a kit lens I used back to its owner).
>>4476014
I'm guessing one of the reasons why primes are recommended over zoom ones so often is because decent zoom lenses are generally pricier. I grabbed this Sigma 30mm f/1.4 for 180€ and I don't feel it was pricey at all, but I'm not taking as many shots as I used to. I gotta say though it's pretty good on low light conditions.
>>
>>4476026
>I'm guessing one of the reasons why primes are recommended over zoom ones so often is because decent zoom lenses are generally pricier
Yes and no. Any consumer prime made in the last 10+ years is going to btfo even modern consumer zooms and come with brighter apertures*, but zooms normally come with image stabilisation which evens the playing field against primes without stabilisation**. Professional zooms will be on par or better than consumer primes so long as there's rough parity in age (a 20 year old pro zoom may lose against a modern prime for example). Then finally your pro primes like the beefeater 85mm f/1.2's will decimate all else.
*Wider apertures allow you to shoot with faster shutter speeds which help freeze the motion of moving subjects. Good for portraits, cars, birds etc.
**Image stabilisation allows you to lower your shutter speed and still avoid shake blur, but IS does nothing to help with moving subjects. The tradeoff is because you "gain" light with a longer shutter instead of a wider aperture, your depth of field is greater so more is in focus. Good for landscapes, buildings, still life etc.
>I gotta say though it's pretty good on low light conditions.
Having at least one prime for exactly this is a good idea. Cheap 50mm primes are a, ahem, prime candidate. Huehuehue.
>>
>>4476029
>Having at least one prime for exactly this is a good idea. Cheap 50mm primes are a, ahem, prime candidate. Huehuehue.
Yeah, good thing I got this mainly because the brightest shit I'm going to look at is christmas lights, the sunny days are likely gone over where I live for quite a while.
>>
File: _DSC2233.jpg (3.5 MB)
3.5 MB JPG
>>4475416
fuck pictoralism
t. straight photography
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
File: nikon 135mm.jpg (70.4 KB)
70.4 KB JPG
>>4476014
>DISTANCE to subject influences distortion, and FOCAL LENGTH influences background compression.
Not really. And that's what i'm talking about how people became so ignorant.
Distance tricks perspective. Focal length tricks mere field of view.
Take picture with 28mm, crop the center in 50mm or 100mm or 1000mm and compare with actual 50 or 100 or 1000 lens's picture.
The only difference will be the field of view, how wide or narrow the picture.
In other words, in wide picture there is narrow focal length's 'compression' always. You just have to crop it to make it prominent to notice.
It's like people saying people using umbrellas causes rain.
Same in muh Portrait Lenses.
The real reason why 75~135mm are called PL is because the distance you take with them creates appropriate perspective for portrait.
Then
>Why not just shoot 18mm and crop it to 135?
Because of the resolution.
Lastly, there is another micro difference between different focal length lenses. Minimum and Maximum focus distance.
28mm lens has maximum focus distance at 2(or i would say 8) meters>>4476013
. And 135mm it's 20 meters.
Which means with a 135mm lens you can be precise to focus a subject at 10m or a subject at 20m and 28mm can't do the same thing.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
File: DSC_0934.jpg (3.4 MB)
3.4 MB JPG
being the "1x" angle of view on cellphones, the answer to your question OP is that literally everyone uses it every single day, by far the most widely used focal length on the planet. Its purpose is to capture the scene around you in a normal way.
>>
>>
>>4483253
Yeah this is kind of bullshit. UWAs are for putting the viewer into the photographer's shoes. "Normal" isn't something applicable to this style of photography because most photographers dont shoot at UWA FLs regularly. If you mean less distorted, then fine but that's not what you said.
28mm is just about the widest you can get without having heavy distortion, but it's also short enough that getting a large aperture doesn't require a big aperture (total mm).
It's literally the path of least resistance and that's why it's popular in phones. Cheap to make, wide enough, normally supplemented with digital zoom... it's a snapshit generator focal length.
>>
>>
>>
>>4483451
>28mm isn't UWA, it's 7mm less than 35mm. It's normal wide, not ultra wide.
Which if you weren't some Bangladeshi ESL, you'd understand I wasn't claiming it was.
>If you're standing on the street and there's something a few feet in front of you, and you point a 28 at it, you'll capture that thing and a bit of context around it
This is just weak reasoning too. That would apply for literally any focal length between 24 and 80~ish it only depends on how close you are and how big/small the subject is.
Wides are cheap to manufacture and can be supplemented with digital zoom. That's literally it. The fact everyone settled on 28mm was purely because they were following the leading product at the time, the IPhone.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>4483516
Things that make this photo good
>Lighting
>Subject
>Pose
>Makeup
>Background
>Naked woman+++[TOPMINT]
Things that do not make this photo good
>Focal Length
This could be taken on anything between 24-100mm with no significant difference. In fact this looks more like 50mm or maybe even 80mm. The only change would be the distortion on the subject which there isn't any so it's not that wide, and the amount of background seen. Considering very little of the window is actually viewable and the "perspective" is from the edge of the bed I'm voting for 50mm.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
File: Naked woman.jpg (210.6 KB)
210.6 KB JPG
>>4483531
>a-anon-kun... do you really think i'm +++[TOPMINT]? >.<
>>
>>
File: 26701574926_6b359dc582_k.jpg (615.2 KB)
615.2 KB JPG
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
Its just a standard wide.
If you get it as a prime, it will be fairly wide and sharp.
If you use it to make panoramas you will have less distortion than a wider lens and retain more detail.
I had one for a couple of years, but, admittedly, didn't use it much.
>>
The main issue I have with a 28mm as a noob is because it's so wide it feels like more of a balancing act to frame shots. Like with a 50 or a 135 it's much easier to focus on something specific and blur everything you don't want, but the 28 seems to thrive when you have most things in focus and properly balance them. That or you treat it like a 'short 50' and just get closer to everything you want to shoot.
>>
>>4488557
You are struggling with the right thing. Lots of noobs take garbage shots with wide angles. It's hard to compose good shots with them. 50mm is harder than 135mm too. The main thing beginners get wrong is not being able to take simple and clear photos, teles make this easier and wide angles make this harder.
>That or you treat it like a 'short 50' and just get closer to everything you want to shoot.
Read about perspective distortion, "zoom with your legs" is not actually a thing.
>>
>>
>>
>>4488624
Learn to compose and look at and analyze more wide angle photography. Some places (the woods for example) rarely look good with wide angle. Time of day and quality of light matters much more with wide angles, so only shoot golden hour or in interesting weather.
>>
>>4488727
The day I bought the lens I took it to my local park to test it and every picture ended up boring as fuck. Also it isn't super fast so I can't really shoot it at night. I'll look at some other wide-ish shots and study the composition.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>4488750
Get 28mm vision in your mind.
It usually can be acquired by getting closer to subject and observing the environment before shootong.
Wide angles are difficult because our vision is usually much narrower.
But some dudes mentioned about
>muh zooming with your feet
It's a meme. If you make a change in the distance between camera and the subject, you will get different result. It just doesnt work.
On this matter, i recommend to think of composition based on the distance between you and the subject, rather than focal lengh of your lens and the subject.
>>
File: DSC_0706.jpg (149.7 KB)
149.7 KB JPG
>>4462866
trash at my sensor and i got no swabs
>>
File: 1769255005780732a.jpg (220.4 KB)
220.4 KB JPG
>>4495117
Here, i got the shits removed for you.