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  1. Member
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    I plan to purchase the Canon XA10 and it will be my first 16:9 camcorder. I have limited space in the room I will be shooting video in and I'm worried about how far from left to right that the new camera will be able to see.

    Someone told me this:

    1/3" sensor -16/9-4.2mm-10' = FOV 11' 4" x 6'4"

    Does this mean that with the camera zoomed all the way out, that it will see 11'4" from left to right on the wall in front of it? If so, does that apply to its "peripheral vision?" In other words, if there's other stuff in the room on the sides of the room, will it see that too? Sorry, it's really hard to put my question into words =(
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  2. "Does this mean that with the camera zoomed all the way out, that it will see 11'4" from left to right on the wall in front of it?"

    I am assuming that when you say zoomed all the way out, you mean no zoom at all. And the field of view gets larger as you move away from the wall. When you look through binoculars in your room you see the wall but when you look out the window you see the whole mountain. So field of view changes depending on how far you are from the object.
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    So what I'll probably end up doing is physically moving the camera closer to the subject, and zoom in more as well in order to narrow that field of view. What I'm trying to avoid is the camera seeing anything but what it's supposed to see, i.e. the backdrop and the subject. Since this is my first widescreen camera, I just don't know what to expect, or if it will even be a problem at all..
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  4. Member edDV's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by sdsumike619 View Post
    So what I'll probably end up doing is physically moving the camera closer to the subject, and zoom in more as well in order to narrow that field of view. What I'm trying to avoid is the camera seeing anything but what it's supposed to see, i.e. the backdrop and the subject. Since this is my first widescreen camera, I just don't know what to expect, or if it will even be a problem at all..
    The problem with consumer (and prosumer XA10) cameras is how wide is the wide end of the zoom. To make a wide view in a small space the lens needs to get physically larger. Pro cams need large lenses for this reason.

    Consumers want small camcorders so the trade off is constricted tunnel vision at the wide end of the zoom. The manufacturers promote 10x 20x or more at the telephoto end to distract you from what you should want which is a wider wide. The same thing apply s to still cams.

    The typical solution is to fit a wide adapter over the lens but these add barrel distortion to the image corners. Better than not using the adapter.

    Click image for larger version

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    http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/751265-REG/Canon_4892B001_WD_H58W_0_8x_Wide_Converter.html
    Last edited by edDV; 27th Jan 2012 at 20:42.
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  5. The camera's view is a rectangular cone with the camera at the apex. Assuming the 11.4x6.4 foot numbers are correct, viewed from overhead (not to scale):

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    The camera can't see anything outside that cone. It has no "peripheral vision".
    Last edited by jagabo; 27th Jan 2012 at 19:09.
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  6. Member
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    Thank you for the explanation. I went ahead and ordered the XA10 and I'm excited for its arrival in a few days!
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