American Cinematographer - April 2016 - 92

◗

Practical Optics: Testing Different Sensor Sizes

tion. Short focal lengths have wide
angles of view; long focal lengths have
narrow ones. The field of view is the
width (or height or diagonal) of the
image at a given distance.
A focal length's angle of view is
different for different sensor sizes. With
a given sensor size, the angle of view
never changes, while the field of view
increases with distance.

Above: This
test chart
indicates the
relative sizes
of 36x20mm,
Super 35mm
and Super
16mm, all
with a 1.78:1
aspect ratio.
Right: Frame
lines on the
Leica SL's
viewfinder
screen.

C. Super 16mm - 12mm x 6.75mm
As a reference for a small sensor,
we chose the Super 16mm dimensions
defined by Arri (www.arrirental.com
/pdf/format_guide.pdf ). When cropped
to Super-16 size, the Leica image is
close to HD resolution, which is still
good enough for evaluating perspective.
We made a test chart with
Photoshop that displays the three sensor
sizes relative to each other. We printed
the chart, shot it, and then traced the
frame lines on a piece of clear tape on
92

April 2016

the viewfinder monitor as a framing
reference.
The Leica Vario-Elmarit-SL 2490mm zoom we used has a maximum
aperture of f4 at the long end. We therefore shot everything at f4, to keep the
aperture constant, even though that
implied more depth of field than T2.8
or T2.
4. Angle of View and
Field of View
Every focal length is defined by
its angle of view from the camera posiAmerican Cinematographer

5. Constant Field of View
In each of our five series of tests,
we kept the same field of view at
Marion's distance from camera.
Another way to think about it is to
imagine Marion standing against a
window shaped like the 1.78:1 frame; in
each series of tests, the camera lens or
position varied, but we always framed
Marion in the same "window" - the
same field of view around her. This
means that Marion's size and position in
the five series of frames remains similar
even as we varied sensor size and focal
length, or sensor size and camera
distance.

➣



http://www.arrirental.com/pdf/format_guide.pdf http://www.arrirental.com/pdf/format_guide.pdf

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - April 2016

Contents
American Cinematographer - April 2016 - Cover1
American Cinematographer - April 2016 - Cover2
American Cinematographer - April 2016 - 1
American Cinematographer - April 2016 - 2
American Cinematographer - April 2016 - Contents
American Cinematographer - April 2016 - 4
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American Cinematographer - April 2016 - 64a
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