Match camera view cone to iPhone camera

[Brad Elliott]

I thought sometime in the deep past I saw a post on how to match the view cone to a real camera for the view out a window. In this case I am trying to match it to an iPhone 5. On the internet I have found that the camera has a 4.28mm angle of view or 34mm in old 35mm camera terms. But I have no idea what this means.
I have also found this for the 5S;
The sensor size for the iPhone 5S back camera is reported to be 4.89 x 3.67 mm, with a focal length of 4.12 mm. Thus:
2*atan((4.89/2)/4.12) = 61.4 degrees wide
2*atan((3.67/2)/4.12) = 48.0 degrees top to bottom

So it seems that I should set the view cone to 61.4 degrees. Does this sound right? It looks right but it does anyway so it's hard to tell.

[Aaron Bourgoin]

there's an app called EasyMeasure - there's a free version I think and that would let you let it query your phone camera for a value.

the calibration process gives you feedback on the effective angle of view and seems to be phone model specific.

iphone 6 says 59.6 degrees.

[Brad Elliott]

Thanks Aaron,
Based on that I'm 54.22 for my iPhone 5 which is narrower than what I had before.
Have you used the app for measuring? How accurate do you find it to be?

[Aaron Bourgoin]

the jury's out on it's accuracy. I've used it a bit for landscape stuff. close enough. i don't regret the upgrade to the paid version. they update fairly regularly which is rare for this genre of apps.