Full Frame vs Crop Sensor

[tevo]

Can someone explain Full Frame Sensor vs Crop Sensor to me like I'm 5 years old? Honestly, I have spent a great deal of time trying to figure out what the advantage to one vs the other is, Zoom factor, etc., and I still cannot grasp it fully. I'm sure someone on this website has an excellent, understandable description of it, just as they do for almost every other question I have asked


Thanks in advance!

 

[kundalini]

 

[tevo]

hahaha :lmao:

 

[analog.universe]

A full frame sensor is the same size as a piece of 35mm film (like 36x24mm). A crop sensor is smaller than that by some factor. Nikons are 1.5 times smaller, Canons are 1.6 times smaller. As a result, the crop sensor only picks up a portion of the image projected onto it 1.5 or 1.6 times smaller than a full frame sensor would. It effectively 'crops' the excess pixels around the edge.

This changes the effective field of view and depth of field at a given focal length. When someone says a 50mm lens behaves like an 80mm when you mount it to a crop body, they're referring to the field of view. Since you're discarding the edge of the frame, a lens appears to be 'more telephoto' than it would otherwise.

The depth of field at a given focal length and aperture will always be shorter on full frame, this is one reason why they are preferred. It's easier to get a blurred background with a given lens if you have a larger sensor.

The other primary advantage to full frame is that each pixel is larger, allowing better dynamic range and lower noise. As a result, full frame cameras almost always have better ISO performance than their same generation crop counterparts.

 

[KmH]

The pixels of the full frame sensor tend to be bigger, because the image sensor itself is bigger.
Digital Camera Sensor Sizes: How it Influences Your Photography

If you have 12,000,000 pixels and you put those pixels on a 36 mm x 24 mm image sensor, each of those 12,000,000 pixels are bigger than each of the 12,000,000 pixels on a 23.6 x 15.8mm (1.5 crop) image sensor.

The bigger the pixels are, the more light (bigger signal) they can gather. The more light (bigger signal) they can gather, the less image noise there is.

Be sure and take those Physics classes.

 

[tevo]

A full frame sensor is the same size as a piece of 35mm film (like 36x24mm). A crop sensor is smaller than that by some factor. Nikons are 1.5 times smaller, Canons are 1.6 times smaller. As a result, the crop sensor only picks up a portion of the image projected onto it 1.5 or 1.6 times smaller than a full frame sensor would. It effectively 'crops' the excess pixels around the edge.

This changes the effective field of view and depth of field at a given focal length. When someone says a 50mm lens behaves like an 80mm when you mount it to a crop body, they're referring to the field of view. Since you're discarding the edge of the frame, a lens appears to be 'more telephoto' than it would otherwise.

The depth of field at a given focal length and aperture will always be shorter on full frame, this is one reason why they are preferred. It's easier to get a blurred background with a given lens if you have a larger sensor.

The other primary advantage to full frame is that each pixel is larger, allowing better dynamic range and lower noise. As a result, full frame cameras almost always have better ISO performance than their same generation crop counterparts.

This makes perfect sense, thank you!

The pixels of the full frame sensor tend to be bigger, because the image sensor itself is bigger.
Digital Camera Sensor Sizes: How it Influences Your Photography

If you have 12,000,000 pixels and you put those pixels on a 36 mm x 24 mm image sensor, each of those 12,000,000 pixels are bigger than each of the 12,000,000 pixels on a 23.6 x 15.8mm (1.5 crop) image sensor.

The bigger the pixels are, the more light (bigger signal) they can gather. The more light (bigger signal) they can gather, the less image noise there is.

Be sure and take those Physics classes.

So both have the same pixel count, but the pixels are sized differently to fit the sensor. Got it, thanks KmH! I am actually in Physics, we have not covered this yet.

 

[dots]

Can someone explain Full Frame Sensor vs Crop Sensor to me like I'm 5 years old?

Not really.

Thanks in advance!

You're welcome.

 

[tevo]

Can someone explain Full Frame Sensor vs Crop Sensor to me like I'm 5 years old?

Not really.

Thanks in advance!

You're welcome.

Hey, analog did a great job of it !

 

[Derrel]

Can someone explain Full Frame Sensor vs Crop Sensor to me like I'm 5 years old?

The Story of the Full-Frame and the Crop-Sensored Cammies: A Story For Childrensez:

"The full-frame sensor is Daddy's BIG-PICTURE taker camera. It has a big picture-catcher inside it, like a television in reverse. Instead of showing us pictures, its "catches" the light, and catches a picture!"

"The crop-frame sensor is Daddy's SMALLER-PICTURE taker camera. It has a smaller picture-catcher inside. The full-frame camera is the one Daddy payed a LOT of money for. The crop-sensor camera is the one Daddy bought for Mommy at Best Buy for $1100. The end"

Okay Tevo--which do you want for lunch--a grilled cheese or a tuna fish sandwich? And do you want apple juice, or milk? Apple or banana? Okay then, son, you got it! Now, go wash your hands, lunch will be ready in 10 minutes!

 

[tevo]

Can someone explain Full Frame Sensor vs Crop Sensor to me like I'm 5 years old?

The Story of the Full-Frame and the Crop-Sensored Cammies: A Story For Childrensez:

"The full-frame sensor is Daddy's BIG-PICTURE taker camera. It has a big picture-catcher inside it, like a television in reverse. Instead of showing us pictures, its "catches" the light, and catches a picture!"

"The crop-frame sensor is Daddy's SMALLER-PICTURE taker camera. It has a smaller picture-catcher inside. The full-frame camera is the one Daddy payed a LOT of money for. The crop-sensor camera is the one Daddy bought for Mommy at Best Buy for $1100. The end"

Okay Tevo--which do you want for lunch--a grilled cheese or a tuna fish sandwich? And do you want apple juice, or milk? Apple or banana? Okay then, son, you got it! Now, go wash your hands, lunch will be ready in 10 minutes!

.....can watch spongebob?

 

[molested_cow1]

Other than the sensor size difference, I am starting to feel the pain of owning a full frame camera. LACK OF AFFORDABLE GOOD LENS!!!!!

There's lot's of DX lens on the market, but very few FX ones. Take ultra wide angle for example, I am stuck with my old AF-D 20mm F2.8 because the 14-24 AF-S is out of my price range. Whereas I just bought the Tokina 11-16mm for my sister who uses D90. Since DX is the main stream, I don't see the trend reversing in the future.

 

[paul85224]

The pixels of the full frame sensor tend to be bigger, because the image sensor itself is bigger.
Digital Camera Sensor Sizes: How it Influences Your Photography

If you have 12,000,000 pixels and you put those pixels on a 36 mm x 24 mm image sensor, each of those 12,000,000 pixels are bigger than each of the 12,000,000 pixels on a 23.6 x 15.8mm (1.5 crop) image sensor.

The bigger the pixels are, the more light (bigger signal) they can gather. The more light (bigger signal) they can gather, the less image noise there is.

Be sure and take those Physics classes.

So in other words, a 12MP D700 would produce a better image than a D90 and possibly a D7000 (even with the larger MP count)????

I have been eyeing the D700 for a little while.....

 

[paul85224]

Other than the sensor size difference, I am starting to feel the pain of owning a full frame camera. LACK OF AFFORDABLE GOOD LENS!!!!!

There's lot's of DX lens on the market, but very few FX ones. Take ultra wide angle for example, I am stuck with my old AF-D 20mm F2.8 because the 14-24 AF-S is out of my price range. Whereas I just bought the Tokina 11-16mm for my sister who uses D90. Since DX is the main stream, I don't see the trend reversing in the future.

Is it possible to use a DX lens on an FX camera?

 

[2WheelPhoto]

Other than the sensor size difference, I am starting to feel the pain of owning a full frame camera. LACK OF AFFORDABLE GOOD LENS!!!!!

There's lot's of DX lens on the market, but very few FX ones. Take ultra wide angle for example, I am stuck with my old AF-D 20mm F2.8 because the 14-24 AF-S is out of my price range. Whereas I just bought the Tokina 11-16mm for my sister who uses D90. Since DX is the main stream, I don't see the trend reversing in the future.

I have a few choice FF lenses, I'm "still holding out" for a newer version of the D700 and its getting old! Now if you want to work out a deal I'll trade you a DX D7000 and some cash for your FF..

 

[Trever1t]

Yes, you can run a DX lens on a FF body but it totally defeats the purpose and you lose MP because you effectively crop the sensor.

There are very affordable FX lenses, you don't need to spend $1600+ but it's worthwhile to do so for the most part.

The D7000 is pretty close to the D700 in dynamic range, I believe I read that the D700 starts to excel over ISO 800 in comparison but otherwise IQ is very close.