Camera simulators can be helpful for many reasons whether it be to help learn camera settings, deciding which zoom lens has the range you're looking for, or seeing how your new full frame lens will look on your crop sensor camera body. Below is a collection of useful camera simulators. These are not very mobile friendly so please view on your computer for the best functionality. In this post you will find:
Field of View Simulator
Crop Factor Simulator
Aperture, Shutter Speed, & ISO Simulator
Bokeh Simulator
Canon Lens Simulator
camera simulator, Canon Lens Simulator Online Cameraplex
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The Canon camera lens simulator lets you choose between an array of lenses including Telephoto Zoom, Standard Zoom, Portrait, Macro, and Ultra-Wide Zoom.
With this lens simulator you can view how the field of view will change as you zoom through the various focal lengths of the lens.
Nikon Nikkor Lens Simulator
camera simulator, Nikon Nikkor Lens Simulator Cameraplex
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The Nikkor lens simulator from Nikon seems to a bit more responsive and easier to use. It also includes the option to choose you camera format to compare lenses across different sensor sizes.
camera simulator, Tamron DOF Comparison Simulator Tool Cameraplex
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The depth of field simulator by Tamron is quite excellent, providing open and closed aperture comparisons as well as an orange highlighted list of lenses capable of your current setting criteria.
To use this simulator click and drag the tiny triangles along the X and Y axis choosing the focal length and aperture. To learn more about depth of field see a comprehensive visualization here.
MICRO Four Thirds Matching Simulation
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Firstly a much more appropriate name for this sim would be the "Micro Four Thirds Camera Builder". The MIRCO Four Thirds matching simulation lets you couple any MIRCO Four Thirds sensor camera with a matching lens and accessory. I made a totally practical Leica DigiLux-3, with a Olympus Zuiko Digital ED 50-200mm F2.8-3.5 lens, and an Olympus EE-1 Red Dot Sight as pictured above.
Though the images are very low quality, you can see how your creation would look from 5 different angles. They even have a leaderboard with the top ranked combinations. Currently the winner is the OM-D E-M1 with the Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 7-14mm F2.8 PRO seen here.
camera simulator
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An educational tool, the camera simulator by CameraSim has an easy to understand user interface with Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, and Manual shooting modes. The image moves, simulating the slight camera shake one might have whole trying to hand hold a camera.
It's quite well thought out when you break down the elements of the composition. The camera is shaking, your subject is swaying back and forth, close enough to the camera to have a nice shallow depth of field, and the toy windmill is spinning.
This is a great composition of elements because in every setting you choose you will be able to see the effects somewhere in the simulated image, whether be depth of field by the bokeh or a blurry capture of the windmill blades.
Bokeh Simulator & Depth of Field Calculator
Bokeh Simulator Cameraplex
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The bokeh simulator & depth of field calculator by Michael Bemowski is similar to the CameraSim version but with full emphasis on lens setting rather than camera settings. With focal length options from 24mm to 300mm, and 20 preset sensor size choices, this simulator is probably where you will find the answer to most of your questions.