In article <31FE51E5.3084@mhnj.sbi.com>, bchuah@mhnj.sbi.com says...
>Bob Neuman wrote:

>> projects the image. Also, the 50mm "normal" lens was derived from the
>> conventional format-normal dimension of the diagonal of the film image
>> (43-44mm), later upped to about 50mm (perhaps for convenience
>> of construction?).
>> Hope This Helps

>I discovered that a 70+mm focal length offers the same maginification as
>my eyes (tested with one eye thru the viewfinder and one eye direct at
>the object). Why is it a general consensus that 50mm is "standard"?
>Anybody has the same experience?

The image size as seen in a camera viewfinder is a characteristic of the
VF optics only, and tells nothing about your own eye, uh, "magnification".
(Actually, your eye has no magnification - think of it as being like
a camcorder CCD chip and lens set: the chip could be any size [with the
lens scaled to fit, giving the same angle of view and "magnification"],
with the electrical signal fed to any size TV screen which actually
determines the magnification.)
Hope This Helps