Lens Breathing Tests Wrapup and Takeaways - Lens Breathing Ep. 14

[@drtnrao57]

Good investigation.Thanks.

[@dima1353]

As a photographer, I like lenses that breathe forward, simply because historically that's the most expected behavior for classic primes. Now they started making primes that don't breathe. New generation of Fuji lenses, Panasonic, some Sony G-Master, Canon VCM. But after all, working for decades, say, on 85 1.8 at portrait distances, we were actually working on 95mm or so. And a new lens may simply not feel the same. Working with the new 85 1.8 with "corrected breathing" you can actually work at a real focal length like when working with a Pentax 77 1.8 or say with something like "50 mm on a 1.5 crop". And this is a big difference. Big enough to take into account when buying. A person may not buy, for example, a Samyang 75 mm lens considering it not long enough, he may think that he needs those same "magic 85 mm", but in fact, the magic has always been 95 mm. And having bought a new 85mm with corrected breathing, he will get the same Samyang 75mm at portrait distances.

[@dima1353]

As for prediction - I would say you can make rough guesses based on the minimum focusing distance and magnification specifications. For example, let's compare Sigma and Tamron 70-200 (for DSLRs) Sigma sport: Minimum Focus Distance - 1.2 m Maximum Magnification - 0.21x Tamron V2: Minimum Focus Distance - 95 cm Maximum Magnification - 0.16x This hints at a significant difference in breathing pattern, doesn't it ?