wide-angle lens

optics

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July 15, 2026

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A wide-angle lens is a camera lens that captures a broader field of view than standard lenses. These lenses have a shorter focal length relative to the camera's film format, allowing them to cover a larger angle, typically between 70° and 90°, or even more for ultrawide-angle lenses. This wider perspective is useful for capturing expansive scenes. Some extreme wide-angle lenses, known as fish-eye lenses, can cover angles of 140° to 210°, often intentionally introducing distortion for artistic effect or for scientific applications like sky observation. Distortion, such as barrel distortion, can occur at the edges of images taken with wide-angle lenses.12345

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technology of photography
Wide-angle and retrofocus lenses
Short-focus, wide-angle lenses are usually mounted near the film. Single-lens reflex cameras need a certain minimum lens-to-film distance to accommodate the swinging mirror. Wide-angle (and sometimes normal-focus) lenses for such cameras therefore use retrofocus designs. In these the back focus is appreciably longer than the focal…
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Short-focus, wide-angle lenses are usually mounted near the film. Single-lens reflex cameras need a certain minimum lens-to-film distance to accommodate the swinging mirror. Wide-angle (and sometimes normal-focus) lenses for such cameras therefore use retrofocus designs. In these the back focus is appreciably longer than the focal…
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Frank Schlesinger
…pioneered in the use of wide-angle cameras for determining photographically stellar positions and proper motions (the apparent rates of change of position across an observer’s line of sight), formerly measured by laborious visual methods. Fifteen volumes of the Yale Zone Catalogues, which were prepared under his direction, give results for…
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…pioneered in the use of wide-angle cameras for determining photographically stellar positions and proper motions (the apparent rates of change of position across an observer’s line of sight), formerly measured by laborious visual methods. Fifteen volumes of the Yale Zone Catalogues, which were prepared under his direction, give results for…
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germanium
…in optical devices, such as wide-angle lenses for cameras and microscope objectives. The toxicology of germanium and its compounds is poorly defined.
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…in optical devices, such as wide-angle lenses for cameras and microscope objectives. The toxicology of germanium and its compounds is poorly defined.
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