Full frame vs. Half Sensor

[randrx2]

Please help my mind out here.

I shoot with a Nikon D70 now with a non DX lens 80-400mm. If I put that on a full frame sensor like the D3, will I not "see" as far. I know I will have a true 80-400 instaed of a 120-600, but will I see that in the viewfinder?

Thanks.

 

[Mike_E]

Yes. The same as with a film camera. (+/- a few%)

 

[S2K1]

Yes you will. Since you are viewing the full frame in the viewfinder, you'll see the true 80-400.

Edit: Mike beat me to it.

 

[randrx2]

I guess I have to "see" this for myself. I understand the field of view would be narrower on the D70. But I still don't get it.

 

[Sw1tchFX]

no, you've got it backwards. It would be wider because the sensor isn't cropping down the image like the DX's are.

 

[EOS_JD]

Please help my mind out here.

I shoot with a Nikon D70 now with a non DX lens 80-400mm. If I put that on a full frame sensor like the D3, will I not "see" as far. I know I will have a true 80-400 instaed of a 120-600, but will I see that in the viewfinder?

Thanks.

Your lens is NT a 120-600 at all. It's still an 80-400 no matter what camera you use. However what a crop senror does is crop some of the image that a FF camera would have.

Think about it this way. Draw 2 x 3:2 ratio rectangles. One inside the other and the larger 1.5x the smaller. Now think of an image placed over the large rectangle as a full frame field of view and the crop sensor the smaller field of view. Using a full frame camera all you have to do is crop the extra pixels away to get the same image.

The image below from digitalpicture.com shows the canon crop factors.

 

[randrx2]

So the maginification is the same, its just cropped? So when someone is advertising a lens, 200-400 for example, and they say, for digital, it's like a 300 to 600, that is a bunch of bull?

Thanks for all the info BTW.

 

[Helen B]

The full-frame equivalents are merely there because many people have a good feel for what the focal lengths mean in terms of full-frame 35 mm, and because there are so many different sizes of sensor.

A 200 mm lens does not become a 300 mm lens when you put it on a D70, but a D70 with a 200 mm lens has the same angle of view as a full-frame camera has with a 300 mm lens.

Best,
Helen

 

[EOS_JD]

So the maginification is the same, its just cropped? So when someone is advertising a lens, 200-400 for example, and they say, for digital, it's like a 300 to 600, that is a bunch of bull?

Thanks for all the info BTW.

Yes. As Helen says it's only the field of view that changes. There are other differences though like pixel density. In larger sensors the pixels are bigger, gather more light meaning less noise and better quality images although if you compare a 5D image cropped to the same field of view as a 20D image, the 20D will have a higher pixel density.

There are trade offs but the FF will have better quality than the cropped cameras but the crop cameras are still excellent.