#Crop sensor vs frame image quality full

I’ve also shot photos where details appeared lost in the shadows, but I was again able to pull those details out. I’ve shot photos with my Sony A7R where the sky appeared blown out completely, but with some minor tweaking in Lightroom, I discovered that I had actually captured details such as clouds.

#Crop sensor vs frame image quality full

With a full frame camera and its higher end sensor, you stand a better chance at pulling out details that you thought were lost. The easiest way to see this in action is to process a photo (using Photoshop, Lightroom, or any equivalent software) taken with a full frame camera with areas that appear either too bright or too dark. As a result, the full frame camera will produce an image with higher dynamic range than a cropped frame camera will. At the time of this writing (August, 2016) a full frame camera is going to house a better sensor than a cropped frame camera. Dynamic range is a broad topic, but essentially it refers to the amount of light and dark detail held in the pixels of a photo. For me personally, I enjoy “blue hour” and night photography, so the ability to use ISOs as high as 3200 frees me up from having to use a tripod if I’m doing something like taking random shots in a city (because my shutter speeds can still remain relatively fast).ĭynamic range comes into play here as well. Dealbreaker on the cropped sensor camera? It really depends on how you plan to use the camera. On a cropped sensor camera, I’d be hesitant to go anywhere over 1600 ISO. I already know that the image produced might have some noise, but it will be perfectly acceptable. For example, on my Sony A7R, I never think twice about going as high as 3200 ISO. Simply put, full frame cameras can better handle low light situations and higher ISOs while maintaining a more acceptable image quality. A full frame sensor has a real advantage when it comes to low light and high ISO. However, there’s really no other way to put it – full frame cameras produce richer images than cropped frame cameras do. They are also generally much heavier.īased on what you just read about lenses, you might be thinking cropped frame is the way to go. Keep in mind too that full frame lenses are far more expensive than their cropped frame counterparts. Other cameras will allow you to mount the lens, but you’ll see an ugly black ring around the edges of the images you take (you’ll see this in the viewfinder as well). Some cameras, like Sony’s A7 line of full frame cameras, will automatically adjust the camera body and add the required 1.5x crop factor when a cropped sensor lens is attached. In fact, if you bought something like a Canon Rebel and it came with a couple of lenses, chances are those lenses are cropped frame lenses which won’t work properly on most full frame cameras. You might be thinking that if camera bodies are built with cropped frame sensors, wouldn’t that mean there must be cropped frame lenses as well? Yes indeed, there are.

APS-C cameras introduce a 1.5x crop factor. The difference between full frame and APS-C cameras when using a full frame lens. The image below is a visual representation of the difference between a full frame and an APS-C camera. That also means that a 300mm lens now becomes a 450mm lens! So for some people, such as wildlife or sports photographers, a cropped sensor camera can actually be an advantage. Is it a dealbreaker? Maybe, maybe not, but this essentially means that a 50mm lens now becomes a 75mm lens on an APS-C camera. This means the image will appear 1.5x closer to the camera than it would have on a full frame camera, meaning you’ll need to stand further away in order to get the same shot that the full frame camera was able to capture. On an APS-C camera, the image will be cropped by 1.5x. Cropped frame cameras will cause your image to be cropped by varying amounts depending on the sensor size. Put that 50mm lens on an APS-C cropped sensor camera body ( Canon Rebel T5i or similar)…now it’s a different story. Put that 50mm lens on a full frame body, and your camera will use every bit of those 50 millimeters. A lens such as a 50mm was originally intended to be used with a film camera. Using a full frame camera body, you are able to take full advantage of the focal range of a full frame lens. So what’s the difference? There are actually several differences, which I’ll outline below. A “cropped frame” camera refers to a camera that uses a sensor that’s smaller than 35mm film. The term “full frame” refers to cameras that use a sensor that’s essentially the same size as 35mm film (36 x 24mm).

Basically it all boils down to the size of the sensor on the camera body. If you are reading this and have no idea what I’m referring to, don’t worry, I didn’t know what they were talking about either. I remember when I first got into using a DSLR and the terms “cropped frame” and “full frame” kept popping up.