Here’s an interesting pair that I came across at the Pentax booth at PhotoPlus 2012. That’s the Pentax Q10 paired to the K-mount Pentax DA 560mm F5.6 ED lens via the Adapter Q. The odd combo results in a roughly 3080mm reach compared to a full frame camera, which is due to the small 1/2.3″ sensor found inside the Pentax Q10.
Cool – probably need a 5 ton tripod to hold the thing steady!
Just a technical issue – the 3080mm focal length is due to the 5.5X magnification of the Adapter Q and not the sensor size of the camera. The sensor size does not impact the magnification (focal length) of the lens – it just limits the the field of view.
There’s nothing magic in the adapter. They’re just telling you that the Q format is designed with a crop factor of 5.5×. This doesn’t really change the focal length (or the literal magnification), but, assuming you print at same size, does give you many of the same effective properties as a longer-focal length lens. This is *exactly* the effect of limiting the field of view or otherwise cropping. (You could do the same by cropping the center of a full-frame or Pentax K-5ii image and expanding, except that the Q has more pixels in that tiny area.)
Interesting, I see that the Adapter Q is described as having a multiplying effect of 5.5x, but the size of the sensor does also have the effect of multiplying the focal length, equivalent to 35mm, of 5.5, by, as you say, cropping. So, is this lens really only 3080/5.5 = 560/5.5=101.8mm
It certainly looks bigger than that.
I know I’ve missed something, I have a crop sensor camera, therefore my 50mm behaves like a 75mm, doesn’t the same principle apply here?