Fuji 23 1.4 WR as ‘35-50mm’ zoom

Jeff Biscuits wrote:

GMacF wrote:

The one thing that you would lose however is the change in perspective that different focal lengths give you. This is something I’ve really only come to appreciate lately but it can make a massive difference when composing your shot - particularly where subject in relation to background perspective is important. You would be surprised at the difference 23mm and 35mm focal lengths make to the background in relation to the subject.

Eh? Focal length doesn’t change perspective. If you crop a 23 to the equivalent of a 35 then the only differences are (a) reduced pixel count compared to a using a 35mm lens to project onto the whole sensor and (b) you end up with depth of field equivalent to using a stop or so down if you had used the 35. It’s basically using a 23mm lens on a Four Thirds sensor: it’s (near enough) a 50mm full frame equivalent, the same as a 35mm lens of APS-C or 50mm on full frame. The perspective depends only on where the camera is.

Apologies if my wording was out, this is what I meant. As in, there's a significant difference between simply cropping a shot and reframing a similar shot(s) at native 23mm & 35mm focal lengths respectively - however I do understand this isn't specifically what the OP was asking about.

And yes the depth of field difference is quite noticeable as well.

To my mind the only issue with sports finders and cropping (assuming that you don’t take it so far that the image quality crumbles) is that I like to see the final image in the viewfinder, not a load of stuff around it even if there are framelines, because that throws me off when it comes to visually balancing the image.