Cropped Sensor vs. Full-Frame Camera

Photographer: Al Jurina

If you own an SLR camera, you may have heard the term, "Full-Frame" or "Cropped-Sensor" camera somewhere before. What are these terms, and how do they apply to us?

Well, first of all, we need to understand the idea of what a sensor is. Simply put, the sensor is the part of the camera that captures your image.

A full-frame sensor is a sensor that is of comparable size to a piece of 35-mm film. These sensors are larger in surface area, and have a tendency to show up in more expensive cameras, which are mostly used by professional photographers.

A "cropped-sensor" camera is a camera with a sensor that has a surface area that is smaller than that of a 35mm piece of film. These kinds of sensors are used in most entry-level and prosumer SLR's. Because of their smaller surface area, there are several effects that happen:

1. Your image in the viewfinder looks relatively closer than that of a full-frame camera.
2. You get more of a Depth of Field from your aperture choice (ie, f/1.8 gives your more depth of field, than on a full-frame).
3. Your camera is compatible with more lenses (which is because there are lenses specifically manufactured for cropped-sensor cameras, plus these cameras can utilize full-frame lenses too).

The above information on cropped sensors may look like huge advantages, but not necessarily. Full-frame sensors enjoy the benefit of having better light-gathering capabilities, therefore producing much better results at high ISO settings. Full-frame cameras can also achieve a softer and easy-to-obtain shallow depth of field, which the pro's love. Additionally, full-frame cameras give you a wider angle of view. If you are into landscape photography, or are looking to take more wider angle shots, then Full-frame cameras will allow you to get this.

Much of the difference in choice of these cameras comes down to preference. Because so many professionals own full-frame cameras, there has been a tendency created by fans of those professionals to lust after these kinds of cameras. In reality, both types of cameras do amazing jobs of producing photos, and for general use, neither one is going to let you down.

There are a lot of other in-depth information about these two types of sensors that we can go into, but that would required several posts to give it all sufficient explanation. Hopefully, we have helped you with some basic differences, if you ever hear the terms used.

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