cshimokita[Photo Forum Moderator]
10714
Crop vs. Full Frame Sensor...
Aug 12, 2019,05:50 AM
It's the new film vs. digital discussion... not really as it's a no brainer. Technology has reached the point where in many cases a crop sensor makes sense from a financial and quality point of view.
Full Frame refers to any camera with a 24x36 mm sensor. There is no reason why "frames" need to be 24x36 and for various reasons the camera mfgs started to produce digital cameras with sensors of different sizes, one of the most common being "APS-C"... the Canon APS-C sensor is 22.2 x 14.8 mm while Nikon, Pentax, Sony and others use a 23.5-23.7 x 15.6 mm sensor... the Fujifilm X100T comes with a 23.6 x 15.6 mm sensor.
Crop Factor refers to FOV "equivalents" of a lens depending on the sensor size vs. a full frame sensor (24x36). A 23mm lens on a Fuji x100t (APS-C sensor) will have the same crop as a 35mm lens on a full frame camera and in this case the crop factor is approx 1.5. That does not mean that the images taken with a Fuji x100t (with a 23mm lens) and a Full Frame Canon 5DII (with a 35mm lens) will be the same.
The photos below were shot using a Canon 5DII with 35mm lens and a Fuji x100t with APS-C sensor and 23mm lens (35mm equivalent). All photos at f/2.8 and ISO 200 in AP mode where the shutter speed was calculated by the camera (note: Canon shoots 1-2 stops darker than the Fuji x100t).
01: Canon 5DII 35mm
02: Fuji x100t 23mm (35mm equivalent)
03: Canon focus on the "W"
04: Fuji focus on the "W"
05: Canon focus on the digital clock
06: Fuji focus on the digital clock
The thing to note is the DOF. The full frame camera has a smaller DOF than the crop factor (APS-C) camera even though the FOV is approx the same.
There are differences when using a full frame camera vs. a smaller sensor camera, but the difference may not be significant depending on the purpose. A crop sensor camera can have cost benefits and is worth consideration...
Thanks for looking,
Casey