A Full-frame vs Crop sensor camera | The Complete guide

Full frame vs Crop sensor

Camera sensors are very important if you’re a professional photographer or it’s important if you’re looking for a need camera or it’s even important if you’re just a photographer.

Hello guys, today in this article I’m sharing something meaningful, and it’s about Full-frame vs a Crop sensor camera.

When I started my photography career, I don’t know anything about these words.

but after some time, I found these words, and these two words really helped me to improve my overall thinking about the sensor of the camera.

and believe me, you guys also love the basic theory on Full-frame vs Crop sensor cameras.

so without making you curious, let’s get straight to the point…

A Full-frame vs Crop sensor camera | The Complete guide

before we start, let me tell you something important, in this article you found many words like full-frame and crop sensor.

this thing refers to sensor size.

here are some basic definitions of a Full-frame camera and a Crop sensor camera.

hope you can assume the basic definition of these camera sensors.

first of all, let’s talk about Full-frame cameras.

The full-frame camera sensor contains a full size 24mm X 36mm size, and the dimension of this sensor is the same as the 35mm film frame, and remember it’s a standard size.

yeah, you’re guessing right, full-frame camera sensors based on file photography.

now let’s talk about Crop sensors, so these are the sensors that are cropped.

that means any sensor which is smaller than the 35mm file frame or we can say any full-frame camera.

known crop sensors are APS-C and micro 4/3.

if your camera is not that much expensive then it must contain one of this sensor, check that.

If you are using a crop sensor camera then your camera sensor is basically cropping out the edges of the frame, which increases the focal length, we’re talking this point in-depth later in this article.

here is the image which helps you to know the difference between Full frame camera sensor and crop sensor camera..

full frame vs crop sensor

source: digital-photography-school

still, confuse? just remember this simple example.

assume you own a two different camera, one contains a crop sensor and another one is a full-frame sensor.

so when you capture one simple object with two different cameras, with a full-frame camera you’ll get a wide image and with a crop sensor, it’ll give you a cropped image compare to full-frame.

capture one image with two different camera sensors then crop sensor gives you a cropped image.

here is the simple image which helps you to imagine how the actual image looks when you capture using a full-frame camera or crop sensor camera.

source: digital-photography-school

now let’s know the basic advantages and disadvantages of these two different types of sensors.

Advantages and disadvantages of Full-frame cameras

The very first advantage of the full-frame camera is performance.

you can capture full-size images & it also gives better image quality while you’re doing low light photography.

if you love to capture landscapes or animals ( wildlife) or even architecture photography then you can buy a full-frame camera.

this camera body also helps you to capture sharp images with a good blurry background (bokeh).

you can read more about this difference in depth later in this article.

I found one major disadvantage of a full-frame camera, and it’s a budget.

if you are a professional photographer and earning some real money then you can go and buy one of these full-frame camera bodies.

but if you’re a beginner then you can use crop sensor cameras to capture some good shots.

Advantages and disadvantages of Crop-sensor camera’s

very first advantage is the disadvantage of full-frame cameras, yeah it’s budget.

the best camera for beginners and intermediate photographer, who wants to learn photography and like to capture some cool shots.

the image quality of the crop sensor camera is less good then a full-frame camera, also the overall camera body weight is a bit less than a full-frame camera.

you can still capture some cool shots with the crop-sensor camera, you can do portrait, sport, wildlife, etc kind of photography with these cameras.

Why Full frame cameras are better in image quality then Crop sensor cameras?

as we know full-frame cameras contain more MM then crop sensor, this thing also affect when you buy any new lenses.

the most common ratio between these two sensors is 3/2, which is 1.5x.

Mostly all Canon and Nikon cameras contain around this sensor size.

  • Nikon has two different sensor sizes
    • full frame & and cropped one 1.5x.
  • Canon has three sensor sizes
    • full-frame, 1.3x, and 1.6x ( called an APS-C sensor).

there is one another sensor available, especially for Microphotography and its sensor size is 2X, and it is used by the MFT system ( micro 4/3 system).

do you know what is this 1.5x, 1.3x & 2x?

let me explain this scenario with one simple example…

if you’re capturing one simple portrait with your 50mm nifty-fifty lens + crop sensor camera then to capture the same image with the same distance you need a 75mm camera lens for your full-frame camera.

as we know crop sensor cameras are less than 2/3 of a full-frame camera, do the simple math, 50 X 1.5, or 2/3 = 75mm.

hope your all doubt is clear now 🙂

and this is the main reason for the better sharpness and blurry background you’ll get when you’re shooting with any full-frame camera.

that simply means the larger the sensor, the longer the focal length.

so, that’s all about Full-frame vs Crop sensor camera, I hope you guys find something intresting today.

which helps you to improve your career in the photography field, have a good day keep learning and sharing, thank you 🙂

Hi, I'm Manthan I'm a professional photographer and founder of photographywith.com. this site hosts all of my writing on photography stuff like blogs, reviews, editing, and much more. whatever I learn new, I publish here as a blog with some good and easy examples. Cheers, Manthan

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