Field of View Calculator

About this calculator

Angle of view follows AOV = 2 × arctan(sensor dimension / (2 × focal length)), treating the lens as a simple pinhole projecting the scene onto the sensor or film plane; the wider the sensor dimension relative to focal length, the wider the angle of view captured. Because sensor sizes vary between formats, the same focal length frames very differently on full-frame, APS-C or Micro Four Thirds cameras — a fact often summarized loosely as the "crop factor."

Photographers and cinematographers use this calculation to choose the right lens for a shot before renting or buying it, translating an unfamiliar camera body's sensor size and a lens's focal length into the actual horizontal, vertical or diagonal field it will capture, rather than relying on focal length numbers that only mean something relative to a specific sensor size.