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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!harpo!seismo!rochester!ritcv!kar
From: kar@ritcv.UUCP (Ken Reek)
Newsgroups: net.rec.photo
Subject: Re: wide-angle lens distortion
Message-ID: <961@ritcv.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 20-Mar-84 16:56:04 EST
Article-I.D.: ritcv.961
Posted: Tue Mar 20 16:56:04 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 21-Mar-84 08:43:20 EST
References: <2587@rabbit.UUCP>
Organization: Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY
Lines: 12

Wide angle lenses do not distort straight lines (not counting fisheye lenses).
Any distortion you think you see in the final print is a result of viewing the
print from the wrong distance.  The distance at which a photograph should be
viewed is proportional to the focal length of the lens with which it was made.
Take one of those "distorted" pictures made with a wide angle lens and look at
it from a distance of a few inches -- if you can focus your eyes that close,
you'll find that it suddenly looks fine.  The same holds true for the strange
foreshortening you see in photos made with a long telephoto lens -- if you
view them from a large distance, they look perfectly normal.

	Ken Reek, Rochester Institute of Technology
	seismo!rochester!ritcv!kar