lens perspective question?

[stradibarrius]

If I had a 135 format lens of a given focal length, say 50mm, and had the equivalent focal length in medium format and in 4x5, would there be a difference in the overall perspective or "the way the print looks"???
This is assuming of course that the subject, the shooting position, the time of day, f/stop, the film, the paper and everything else were the same.
I am not asking if one print would be "better" or not only if there would be a difference in how the final print looked comparing the 3 formats.
If there is a difference can you try to explain what the difference would be?

Again, I am not asking if one format is superior to another, only if they would look different?

[Jim Jones]

The perspective would be about the same.

[timparkin]

The perspective would be about the same.

s/about/exactly/

[Brian Ellis]

I'm not sure how you're using the term "perspective" but without cropping I don't know how you'd make a print from 35mm film look like a print from 4x5 considering the different aspect ratios. Ditto for "medium format" depending on exactly what medium format you mean (e.g. 645, 6x6, 6x7, etc.). But perhaps I don't understand your question.

[BetterSense]

Lenses do not 'have perspective'. Perspective has nothing to do with lenses, only with where you stand compared to where the subject is.

We can't really address your question until everyone agrees what we are talking about.

[E. von Hoegh]

Lenses do not 'have perspective'. Perspective has nothing to do with lenses, only with where you stand compared to where the subject is.

We can't really address your question until everyone agrees what we are talking about.

+1.To continue, a 90mm lens and a 300mm lens will give the same perspetive, if used on the same format and at the same location. If the negative from the 90 is cropped, the prints will be identical.

[Steve Smith]

Lenses do not 'have perspective'. Perspective has nothing to do with lenses, only with where you stand compared to where the subject is.

+2

Perspective is dependent on your position relative to the subject. Your choice of lens and format controls which rectangle of reality gets recorded on the film.


Steve.

[E. von Hoegh]

If I had a 135 format lens of a given focal length, say 50mm, and had the equivalent focal length in medium format and in 4x5, would there be a difference in the overall perspective or "the way the print looks"???
This is assuming of course that the subject, the shooting position, the time of day, f/stop, the film, the paper and everything else were the same.
I am not asking if one print would be "better" or not only if there would be a difference in how the final print looked comparing the 3 formats.
If there is a difference can you try to explain what the difference would be?

Why don't you take a 35mm with a 50mm lens, and your 5x4 with a 150mm lens, and find out for yourself?

Again, I am not asking if one format is superior to another, only if they would look different?

[Ken Lee]

As others have pointed out, perspective depends on distance only - but that's an over-simplification of sorts.

Lets say we make a photo of an automobile, and we want to fill the frame with the car. We put a 50mm lens on our 135 camera, and we stand 12 feet from the car. With a 4x5 camera and a 150mm lens, we can also stand 12 feet from the car, and fill the frame.

Because we are standing 12 feet from the car in both cases, the perspective will be the same in both shots.

Now let's put a "wide angle" lens on the 135 camera: a 25mm lens. To fill the frame now, we need to stand 5 feet away. With the 4x5 camera, we change to a 75mm lens, and to fill the frame, we stand 5 feet away.

Because we are standing 5 feet away in both cases, the perspective will be the same in both shots.

As a rule of thumb, lenses for 4x5 are 3x the length of lenses for 135.

[Ken Lee]

Subjects appear "flat" when we view them from far away. Subjects appear "foreshortened" when we view them close.

Consider a portrait: From 6 inches away, the 2-inch distance from the nose to the eyes is considerable. From 60 feet away, that same 2-inch distance is negligible.