The term visual field is sometimes used as a synonym to field of view, though they do not designate the same thing. The visual field is the "spatial array of visual sensations available to observation in introspectionist psychological experiments", while 'field of view' "refers to the physical objects and light sources in the external world that impinge the retina". In other words, field of view is everything that (at a given time) causes light to fall onto the retina. This input is processed by the visual system, which computes the visual field as the output.

Le champ visuel est l'ensemble de l'espace vu par un œil. En ophtalmologie, un examen précis du champ visuel peut détecter les anomalies du champ visuel comme par exemple des scotomes.