Lens Settings

Lens Settings

Although it is not labeled as such, and although After
Effects displays previous camera settings by default, the
true default lens preset in Camera Settings is 50 mm. This

contains kilograms, parsecs, or bunny rabbits. This is the
median lens length of a 35 mm SLR camera, the standard
professional still image camera.

Motion picture cameras are not so standardized. The
equivalent lens on a 35 mm fi lm camera shooting Academy
ratio itself has a 35 mm length. A miniDV camera, on
the other hand, has a tiny neutral lens length of around
4 mm. The length corresponds directly to the size of the
backplate or video pickup, the area where the image is
projected inside the camera.
Lens length, then, is a somewhat arbitrary and made-up
value in the virtual world of After Effects. The corresponding
setting that applies universally is Angle of View, which
can be calculated whether images were shot in IMAX or
HDV or created in a 3D animation package.