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Help with camera lens and Field of view.

Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2014 2:19 am
by Rikk The Gaijin
I have to match a render of a face I'm working on, with a photograph. I took the photo, so I have all the info and settings about the camera I used, which are:
Canon EOS Kiss X7
55.0 mm
EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM
f/5.7

So, what's the best why to match Octane Field of View with my camera lens?
For the conversion, I found this webpage: http://www.tawbaware.com/maxlyons/calc.htm which is cool and all, but I don't really know where to put my 55mm and what field should I look at...

Any help? :?

Re: Help with camera lens and Field of view.

Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2014 3:14 am
by roeland
You have to look up the Focal length multiplier and the aspect ratio for your camera, and use the Angular Field of View Calculator. In Octane you enter the horizontal FOV.

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Roeland

Re: Help with camera lens and Field of view.

Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2014 4:12 am
by Rikk The Gaijin
roeland wrote:You have to look up the Focal length multiplier and the aspect ratio for your camera, and use the Angular Field of View Calculator. In Octane you enter the horizontal FOV.

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Roeland
EDIT: found it, thank you Roeland! 8-)

Re: Help with camera lens and Field of view.

Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2014 11:57 am
by riggles
I've always wondered why Octane doesn't support film/sensor back dimensions and focal lengths. I mean, it doesn't matter in the plugins (which is what I use, not the standalone) but I'm still curious.

Re: Help with camera lens and Field of view.

Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2014 1:52 pm
by linvanchene
roeland wrote:You have to look up the Focal length multiplier and the aspect ratio for your camera, and use the Angular Field of View Calculator. In Octane you enter the horizontal FOV.

--
Roeland

In short:


Is it possible to include that Angular Field of View Calculator inside OctaneRender standalone in one of the next updates? :?:

To me it also seems a bit "uncomfortable" that the only option is to enter field of view.

As an user experienced in photography I would welcome alternative input methods that let me enter values like focal lenght, crop factor, sensor size.

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The longer version:
For those with patience to invest more time to read about my ideas on this topic. ;)


Alternative input method: add options to select crop factor and Focal lenght

As an user experienced in Photography I know that
the crop Factor of my full-frame camera with a 35mm sensor with an aspect ratio of 3x2 is 1.
the crop Factor of my APS-C camera with a 23.4 × 15.6mm sensor with an aspect ratio of 3x2 is 1.5.


So for me it would allready be a huge help if inside OctaneRender standalone I could
- enter the crop factor
- enter the focal lenght


and the value in the Field of View would automatically be calculated and updated in real time when I adjust the crop factor and focal lenght values.

Meaning the variables crop factor, focal lenght and field of view are linked in OctaneRender standalone.
If one field is changed by the user the others are automatically updated.

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Alternative input method: add options to select sensor size and Focal lenght

For users who are not familiar with the variable crop factor it might be interesting if the users actually could select different camera models with a specific sensor size.

User with at least a little experience in photography may know if the are using an full frame 35mm or an APS-C camera.
If they are shooting on film they may know the film size.
They may also know what focal lenght they are using.
But they may not know what a crop factor is.


For those users it would allready be a huge help to
- select the sensor size of the camera / the film size
- enter the focal lenght


This means the variables sensor size / film size, crop factor, focal lenght and field of view are linked in OctaneRender standalone.
If one field is changed by the user the others variables are automatically updated.


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I observed and participated in a lot of arguing about camera values lately.

To me it seems the solution is not to provide one or the other input method but to provide as many different input options as possible. :!:

Users with limited photographic background my want simple sliders like field of view.
Users with advanced photographic background desperately need advanced options like sensor size, focal lenght, crop factor in order to match their real life footage with computer graphic images in the most time efficent way.

That way each user can adjust the values based on his current knowledge without having to worry about what kind of calculations happen behind the scenes.

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If you want more information how those formulas are calculated and all those values are linked please have a look at

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angle_of_view

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