Intro to Crop Frame Vs. Full Frame Discussion
When it comes to sensor sizes, the two terms most used to classify them are “full frame” and “crop sensor”. The term “full frame” refers to a sensor size that has the same dimensions as the 35mm film format. Why is 35mm format considered to be the standard or a “full frame”? Well, the 35mm film format has been the standard in film gauge since 1909 due to its balance in cost and image quality and has stuck ever since. So which sensor type is the best fit for your photography? Let’s find out.
Difference between Full Frame and Crop Sensor
A crop sensor refers to any sensor smaller than a full frame sensor or a 35mm film frame. The common types of crop sensor include APS-C and micro 4/3 systems. Aside from the difference in physical size of the sensor, there are several other differences between a crop sensor and a full frame sensor.
Full Frame vs. Crop Sensor Field of View and Focal Length
The most visible difference between full frame and crop sensor is their field of view. In fact the term “crop” implies just exactly that. The smaller sensor’s field of view is a crop of the full frame. This means that if a full frame DSLR like a Nikon D800 and a crop-sensor DSLR like a Nikon D7100 take the same photo from the same distance, with the same lens and point of view, the D7100 will capture a tighter field of view than the D800.
Focal length measurements on lenses are based on the 35mm standard. If you are using a crop frame camera the sensor is cropping out the edges of the frame, which is effectively increasing the focal length. The amount of difference in the field of view or focal length with a crop sensor is measured by its “Multiplier.”
For example, a Nikon APS-C crop sensor has a 1.5x multiplier. When a Nikon 50mm f/1.4 lens is attached to that Nikon DSLR, the focal length is multiplied by 1.5x and effectively acts like a 75mm lens on a full frame DSLR.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Full Frame and Crop Sensors
There are several advantages and disadvantages to each sensor size. We are going to avoid the technical details and just give you the most practical and general information.
Full Frame Advantages – Generally, a full frame sensor can provide a broader dynamic range and better low light/high ISO performance yielding a higher quality image than a crop sensor. Full frame sensors are also preferred when it comes to architectural photography due to having a wider angle which is useful with tilt/shift lenses.
Finally, a full frame DSLR will have a shallower depth of field than a crop sensor DSLR, which can be a beneficial aesthetic. When shooting at the same EFFECTIVE focal length, using the same aperture settings and shooting from the exact same angle/distance to the subject, the full frame camera will have a shallower depth of field (more bokeh) than the crop sensor camera.
This is because the larger the sensor, the longer the focal length of the lens needs to be to capture the same field of view. For example, on a Canon 5D Mark III using a Canon 50mm f/1.4 lens gives the equivalent focal length or field of view as using a 31mm lens on a Canon 7D since it has a 1.6 crop multiplier (31mm x 1.6 = 50mm). Now a 31mm lens doesn’t exist of course, but you get the idea. The larger the sensor, the longer the focal length required to create the same field of view, hence a shallower depth of field is created due to the additional focal length.
Crop Sensor Advantages – On the other side, while a crop sensor DSLR doesn’t provide the same level of image quality as a full frame DSLR, it does offers major advantages when it comes to cost. It can also be very effective for telephoto photography for the extra reach gained from the crop sensor multiplier. For example, this can be very useful when shooting sports, wildlife, and other types of photojournalism. Just imagine that on a Canon crop frame body such as a Canon 7D; your Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 lens is effectively a 112-320mm lens!
Let me also clarify that this is simply a benefit, it doesn’t mean that you SHOULD use a crop sensor DSLR when shooting these types of photography. This is going to depend on your intended use, budget, and so forth. For those on a budget (which I think is most of us), the additional focal length and low cost of the DSLR are great advantages. But, for a professional, you will still get the best overall quality by having a full frame DSLR paired with a longer telephoto lens.
This is why you commonly see professional sports photographers using cameras like the Canon 1D X or Nikon D4 paired with a 300mm (Canon | Nikon) or 400mm (Canon | Nikon) low light lens. However, this is a costly setup as your lens and body are going to cost upwards of $15,000 – $20,000.
However, for the enthusiast or non-professional sports photographer, it is much more reasonable to pay $3,000 – $5,000 for a setup with similar quality using a crop sensor DSLR and a standard 70-200mm 2.8 Lens (Canon | Nikon). Not only is it more affordable, but it is also much more compact and portable as well.
Finally, as we mentioned a crop sensor DSLR is not as expensive as full frame DSLR. This is because manufacturing a full frame sensor is far more expensive and can cost over 20x that of a crop frame sensor. High-end crop sensor DSLRs can provide quality similar to that of full-frame DSLRs at a fraction of the price.
Conclusion
So in conclusion, a full frame sensor DSLR and a crop sensor DSLR have their own advantages and disadvantages. While a full frame DSLR provides a bit better overall quality, both have their uses. The important factor is the type of photography that you shoot and the budget that you have for your photography.
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Q&A Discussions
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Brent Austin
“…while a crop sensor DSLR doesn’t provide the same level of image quality as a full frame DSLR.” You’re right. Crop sensors don’t exist so this nonsense sensor size doesn’t have the same image quality because it’s nonexistent. If on the off chance you incorrectly called a normal sensor a crop sensor because you have some hubris for proving you bought the “best” camera, then you would be wrong to say that a MFT or APS-C or anything in between has a seemingly lower image quality. In fact, the C100 which has a much larger sensor than that of a BMPCC 4k, has less than a stop of dynamic range, terrible low light performance, and lack a ultra hd resolution. Dynamic range? ISO performance? Color management? Pixel binning vs. downsampling? If you dug around at all to figure out basic mechanisms of focal length to sensor size, you would find more than enough information to keep you from uttering so much bullshit. I’m not mad, I’m just tired. But as the number one search result on my feed, this definitely did not make my day.
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Brent Austin
It’s 5:09 am and I haven’t gotten sleep yet, but when I saw this article I had a gag reflex. The amount of misinformation in one post is astounding.
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Nelson Cordes
[Nelson Cordes has deleted this comment]
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Ctaya ChanI think you may also include in the conclusion: what if one has already have a FF and a DX camera and the lenses, what is better: using a DX image or cropping a FF image.
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Mary Ann Machi
I know a fair amount about photography and you are not speaking to people who know basically nothing. So many terms thrown around. One would need to know what a sensor is to start with. The text below the video was more helpful that the video.
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Lily Nola
One thing I learned from giving presentations is that you have to be careful when asking the audience if they know what something is or if they’ve ever heard of it. The photographer in this video does this repeatedly and it makes the women look dumb. It all started with “they are very smart people, but they’re not photographers, right?” and then made them agree with huge smiles on their faces.
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John Dearden
This article says “Focal length measurements on lenses are based on the 35mm standard.” This incorrect. The focal length is simply the distance from the lens to where the image in front of the lens will be focused behind the lens (even this is a simplistic answer, but way closer to being correct).
Lenses with a focal length of 50 to 55 mm are considered ‘normal’ for 35 mm film cameras. They give a field of view that is (or was) considered the most useful for normal shots. But if you put a 50 mm lens on a 2 1/4″ square camera, it would give a wider than normal view (wide angle). Or if you could put it on a 110 film camera it would be a telephoto lens (this overlooks a whole range of mechanical issues for the purpose of illustrating my point).
If you buy a camera with a crop sensor, you presumably will also get a lens that has an appropriate focal length. Since these days it seems all cameras come with zoom lens, the lens that comes with the camera should have a range of focal lengths that is appropriate for the sensor in the camera.
Even the name ‘crop sensor’ is misleading. It’s just a smaller sensor. The thing that counts in sensors is the number of pixels, the dynamic range, and stuff like that. The physical size is secondary.
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Chetan Pagariya
In the Industry 35mm got standardized since the Film/Roll photography and medium format, big format camera was based on 35mm size roll. You can google more to understand in depth.
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“…while a crop sensor DSLR doesn’t provide the same level of image quality as a full frame DSLR.” You’re right. Crop sensors don’t exist so this nonsense sensor size doesn’t have the same image quality because it’s nonexistent. If on the off chance you incorrectly called a normal sensor a crop sensor because you have some hubris for proving you bought the “best” camera, then you would be wrong to say that a MFT or APS-C or anything in between has a seemingly lower image quality. In fact, the C100 which has a much larger sensor than that of a BMPCC 4k, has less than a stop of dynamic range, terrible low light performance, and lack a ultra hd resolution. Dynamic range? ISO performance? Color management? Pixel binning vs. downsampling? If you dug around at all to figure out basic mechanisms of focal length to sensor size, you would find more than enough information to keep you from uttering so much bullshit. I’m not mad, I’m just tired. But as the number one search result on my feed, this definitely did not make my day.
It’s 5:09 am and I haven’t gotten sleep yet, but when I saw this article I had a gag reflex. The amount of misinformation in one post is astounding.
[Nelson Cordes has deleted this comment]
I think you may also include in the conclusion: what if one has already have a FF and a DX camera and the lenses, what is better: using a DX image or cropping a FF image.
I know a fair amount about photography and you are not speaking to people who know basically nothing. So many terms thrown around. One would need to know what a sensor is to start with. The text below the video was more helpful that the video.
One thing I learned from giving presentations is that you have to be careful when asking the audience if they know what something is or if they’ve ever heard of it. The photographer in this video does this repeatedly and it makes the women look dumb. It all started with “they are very smart people, but they’re not photographers, right?” and then made them agree with huge smiles on their faces.
This article says “Focal length measurements on lenses are based on the 35mm standard.” This incorrect. The focal length is simply the distance from the lens to where the image in front of the lens will be focused behind the lens (even this is a simplistic answer, but way closer to being correct).
Lenses with a focal length of 50 to 55 mm are considered ‘normal’ for 35 mm film cameras. They give a field of view that is (or was) considered the most useful for normal shots. But if you put a 50 mm lens on a 2 1/4″ square camera, it would give a wider than normal view (wide angle). Or if you could put it on a 110 film camera it would be a telephoto lens (this overlooks a whole range of mechanical issues for the purpose of illustrating my point).
If you buy a camera with a crop sensor, you presumably will also get a lens that has an appropriate focal length. Since these days it seems all cameras come with zoom lens, the lens that comes with the camera should have a range of focal lengths that is appropriate for the sensor in the camera.
Even the name ‘crop sensor’ is misleading. It’s just a smaller sensor. The thing that counts in sensors is the number of pixels, the dynamic range, and stuff like that. The physical size is secondary.
In the Industry 35mm got standardized since the Film/Roll photography and medium format, big format camera was based on 35mm size roll. You can google more to understand in depth.