Going Wide: How To Use A Wide-Angle Lens

David W. Scott
April 1998

How many of us question how wide our camcorder lenses will go? Most serious hobbyists are up on zooms--even the beginning videographer will demand a 15x lens (with 30x digital, please.) In the meantime, there's a whole wide world hidden right in front of us. We don't need the probing zoom to unlock it--we need a wide-angle lens to free our vision.

A camcorder lens pulled all the way back to its widest position is the definition of a normal view through a camera. This is usually similar to the view you'll get through your point-and-shoot still camera, though there is some variation in the widest settings in consumer camcorders. Any view that is more magnified than this widest setting is said to be "zoomed." Any wider view than that offered by your regular lens is considered wide-angle. To see really wide vistas with your camera, you will likely need a new lens accessory called a wide-angle adapter. (See the accompanying sidebar for a list of manufacturers that make wide-angle adapters for consumer camcorders.) These clip-on units work with your original camera lens and gather in a bigger panorama than its normal view.

Many photography instructors told us that the normal view through a lens mimics what the human eye sees. It doesn't. The only comparison we can make between normal lenses and wide-angle lenses is based on what our own eye actually sees--and I don't know about you, but my eyes see much more than what is visible through the average camcorder lens.

The wide-angle lens, then, can be a tool to capture reality. The wider view may seem unfamiliar on a TV screen, but it's very familiar to our eyes. It captures more of the surroundings and subject; it presents them to us all at once in natural relation to each other. Think of the last footage you shot of a mountain; how realistic would it have been to videotape the mountain one tiny spot at a time?

The wide-angle lens needn't be a slave to reality, however. Some of the most stunning video comes from errors, or distortion made by a really wide lens. When the corners of the image curl around, and more of the world is visible than your eyes thought possible, the effect is striking and we transcend our normal perception. The wide angle can both represent and overcome the very human limits of our vision.

Sometimes you need to really grab your video audience. You want to thrust them into a situation that they can't ignore. The uncanny sense of reality provided by a wide-angle lens might be just what your video requires.

How does this work? By taking in an entire vista in one shot, the viewer's eye is free to roam. All of the detail, all of the encompassing sense of a location, is available to your viewer. Like in real life, the audience must decide what to glance at and focus on.

We've all had the sense, in a wide-angle shot, that we could step forward and be engulfed inside the scene. This can be comforting (in a scene of a child's nursery), exhilarating (on a craggy mountaintop) or intimidating (in the establishing shot of a rough biker bar).

One creative way to use wide-angle shots is to establish a first-person point of view. By cutting wide-angle shots with reverse angles showing someone's face, our experience becomes that person's point of view. In this way, we create a sense of connection between the actor and the audience.

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