Difference Between Full Frame and Crop Sensor

Full Frame vs Crop Sensor
 

The sensor is one of the most important parts of a camera. Crop sensor cameras and full frame cameras are two types of cameras that are classified according to the sensor size. A full frame camera has a sensor that is as the same size as a 35 mm film sensing area. A crop sensor camera consists of a sensor that is much smaller than a full frame sensor. Both of these types of cameras have their own advantages and disadvantages. It is vital to have a proper understanding in crop sensor and full frame cameras in order to excel in the field of photography. In this article, we are going to discuss what are full frame cameras and crop sensor cameras, their advantages and disadvantages, the crop factor of these two sensor types, their similarities, and finally the difference between crop sensor and full frame cameras.

Full Frame Cameras

A full frame camera is a type of DSLR camera with a frame size of a standard 35 mm film. To understand the advantages of the full frame camera fully, one must first have a basic understanding of the DSLR camera. The resolution of a sensor depends on the number of sensor elements in the sensor. If the same amount of sensor elements is spread over a wider sensor, the noise levels will be low, and resolution and sharpness would be higher than the small sensor.

A full frame sensor is of the size of 36 mm x 24 mm. For a lens of same focal length, the full frame camera gives a wider angle of view than the normal camera. This effect means the angular distortion due to using wide angle lenses is minimized by using a full frame camera. A full frame camera also gives a smaller depth of field compared to a crop sensor camera set to exactly the same settings and field of view.

Crop Sensor Cameras

A crop sensor camera is a type of camera that uses a smaller sensor than the standard 35 mm film size. Most cameras use the sensor size known as the APS-C. The APS-C sensor size for Nikon, Pentax, and Sony cameras is measured as 23.6 mm x 15.7 mm, and the APS-C sensor size for Canon cameras is measured as 22.2 mm x 14.8 mm. Furthermore, there are systems such as four third system and Foveon system, which uses smaller sensor sizes than the APS-C sensors. Smaller sensor sizes will give larger depth of field values.

The standard method of describing the crop sensor size is the crop factor which is given by the ratio of the diagonal of the crop sensor to the diagonal of the full frame sensor.

What is the difference between Full Frame and Crop Sensor Camera?

• Full frame cameras are always more expensive than the crop sensor cameras.

• The image quality and sharpness of full frame cameras are higher than those of the crop sensor cameras.

• A full frame sensor is larger than the crop sensor.

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