How was this not reported yet? Or was it, and I'm just blind?
If you look at something far away, probably about 15 chunks away, and your render distance is 16, it will cause it to fade when you look at it. If your crosshair goes directly at it, it fades almost completely, as if it is >16 chunks away, but when you set your FOV to Quake Pro (optional) and look as far away from it as you can without it leaving the screen, the blocks look totally clear. This has been in the game for a very long time, (since before 1.5, I've only been playing it since, like, 1.5 or 1.4), but I didn't see it reported. This may be intended, but it should be changed, since the direction your body faces compared to your head should not affect how things look in the distance.
I am attempting to record a video with a small part of the clip in it, but since I have a 10:1 ratio of how long it takes for me to upload a video compared to how long the video is, and the video is 31 minutes, it will take about 310 minutes. I will get the link as soon as the video finished uploading.