Choosing between crop and full frame, the newcomer is left alone with this difficult question, or receives a categorical and simple answer in the spirit of “what is more expensive is better”, which does not take into account the needs of the photographer / Source: unsplash.com [ad_1]
What is better to choose — a camera with a full-frame matrix (full frame) or cropped? And what is it anyway? If you thought about it and delved into the topic, then you came across professional photo forums, where the discussion began for health, and ended in meaningless disputes on abstract topics.
We figured out this difficult topic, found out the difference between a full frame and a crop, and collected the pros and cons of both full frame and underestimated crop cameras.
Choosing between crop and full frame, the newcomer is left alone with this difficult question, or receives a categorical and simple answer in the spirit of “what is more expensive is better”, which does not take into account the needs of the photographer / Source: unsplash.comWhat is crop and how is it different from full frame?
What are megapixels in a matrix
Crop or full frame? Pros and cons
Pros of cropped cameras
Minus cropped cameras
Who is a cropped camera suitable for?
Advantages of full frame cameras
Cons of full frame cameras
Who should use a full frame camera?
What is crop and how is it different from full frame?
Crop cameras are cameras with a “cropped”, that is, as it were, cropped, reduced matrix. The matrix is the most important, expensive and complex part of the camera. It is on it that light enters the camera through the lens, which it converts into an image.
The bluish square that is visible behind the lens mount is the camera’s matrix / Source: unsplash.comThe progenitor of the matrix is the film in old cameras. One frame of film is a 36x24mm square. It is this physical size of the matrix that is taken as the starting point and is called the full frame (also called the full frame). All cameras with a matrix size of less than 36x24mm are cropped.
Simply put, for crop cameras, the matrix is, as it were, “cut off” at the edges. Visually, it looks like this: if you take pictures from the same distance and at one lens on a crop camera and a full frame, you get the impression that the photo from the full frame seemed to have been cut off on the sides with scissors and a crop turned out. Because of this, it seems that the crop seems to “shoot closer” — the focal length of the lens increases. So the “classic” 50mm lens on the crop will produce a portrait image, as if you are photographing at 80mm, and the portrait lens completely turns into a telephoto lens.
What are megapixels in a matrix
By the way, novice photographers are confused by the fact that often full-frame and crop matrices are different in size, but the number of megapixels is the same. And sometimes you can find models where crop cameras have even more. Is it good or bad? Should it be pursued? Read more about matrices and pixels in this text, and we will briefly recall below.
The matrix consists of light-sensitive elements — diodes or pixels, as they are called in the “digital space” — in phones, on computer monitors and laptops. They are responsible for “catching” the light that enters the camera. The larger the physical pixel size, the better.
Pixels are like cells of balconies in a house. The more windows and the larger they are, the more light enters the room (on the camera matrix) / Source: unsplash.comIt turns out that crop matrices, even with the same number of megapixels, will catch light worse and in smaller volumes. By the way, this is why modern phone models with a huge number of megapixels in the camera characteristics still give noticeably worse quality than cameras. And so we came to the main thing — the pros and cons and cons of crop cameras.
Crop or full frame? Pros and cons
When choosing between crop and full frame, weigh your needs, budget, and the frequency and type of your shoots / Source: unsplash.comPros of cropped cameras
+ The camera photographs “larger”, increasing the focal length of the lens. Don’t like it? Buy a special adapter — a speedbooster. It not only completely or almost completely eliminates the crop factor (how much the camera crops and zooms in), but can also increase aperture. And so from one lens you get two.
+ More optics options. Full frame lenses fit cropped cameras. The reverse process (when a crop lens is suitable for full-frame cameras) does not work for all manufacturers (for example, Canon) — if you put a crop lens on a full frame, you will break the camera.
+ Compactness. Cropped cameras tend to be much smaller and lighter than full frame cameras.
+ Budget. Often, for the price of just one “carcass” (“naked” camera without optics) of a full frame, you can buy a crop camera and a lens (or even several) in addition. Lenses, by the way, are also cheaper than full-frame ones.
+ Photo may appear sharper. This is because a full frame has a wider field of view, and lenses often lose sharpness around the edges.
Minus cropped cameras
- Noise, if you shoot in poor lighting conditions and at night. This is where small matrices lose to the full frame.
- Difficult to get ultra-wide angle.
- Worse background blur, harder to get bokeh than full frame.
- Already dynamic range. That is, when compared with full-frame cameras, details in shadows and highlights are lost.
Who is a cropped camera suitable for?
A crop camera is a small and mobile “machine” that is great for getting started / Source: unsplash.com- You are a beginner who has just started taking pictures. You don’t know yet whether you will do it, whether it will capture you? Then there is no point in spending money on an expensive full-frame camera, which will then gather dust on the shelf.
- You have a limited budget. The sooner you move from theory to practice, the better. It is impossible to become a photographer without a camera. It is better to buy a crop and start shooting than to wait until you have the right amount.
- You are an amateur. You don’t need a camera every day, you don’t plan to make money on this business and take pictures purely for yourself. You don’t need flashy quality to print in magazines and billboards.
- You want a compact camera to take with you occasionally on family outings and travels, and you don’t need a huge colossus that weighs several kilograms with a lens.
- You only take pictures in studios. Light — especially pulsed — works wonders. Thanks to him, you will get a good quality picture even with a budget camera and lens.
Advantages of full frame cameras
+ Beautiful blur and bokeh.
+ Less noise if you are photographing with poor or insufficient light. Also, as a rule, the working ISO value of full-frame cameras is higher. This means that the frame will be brighter, and there will be less noise.
+ Wide dynamic range. That is, the photographs will have more information in the highlights and shadows. For example, when shooting landscapes, there is less chance of getting a beautiful sky and “knocked out” into black water / field / forest belt.
+ Deeper colors. This means that the camera captures more shades and midtones. This is especially important if you like when there are few contrasts, colors and shades in the photo, you are drawn to minimalism and black and white photographs.
+ Ultra wide angle. You can use the ultra wide-angle lens without fear of the camera cutting off the edges.
Cons of full frame cameras
- Price. For the price of one full-frame camera, you can assemble a complete beginner’s starter kit with a crop camera, a lens and a couple of “gadgets”, such as flash drives, a photo backpack or a tripod to boot.
- Vignetting and drop in sharpness at the edges of the frame. Lenses are not perfect. Because of this, often the edges of the frame are slightly darkened — a vignette appears, and sharpness also drops. In crop cameras, this is imperceptible — the cropped matrix simply “cuts off” these shortcomings.
- Weight and size.
Who should use a full frame camera?
Without skills and experience, a full-frame camera may not reach its full potential / Source: unsplash.com- Portrait photographers, weddings. A full frame camera will give you beautiful blur and deep colors.
- Reporters. You often photograph in difficult conditions where there is little light. It is better to have an ISO margin than to fail the shooting. Moreover, not everywhere you can use the flash.
- Landscape painters who value a wide dynamic range. So that the details are both in the bright sky and in the shade of the trees. To be fair, the fullframe does not completely solve this problem. Most likely, you will have to photograph several frames of different brightness from a tripod and combine them in Photoshop. But, in any case, the quality will be higher.
- You often take pictures in the evening or at night, you want to do astrophotography.
The most important thing to remember is that the most valuable thing in photography is not technique, but your skills, vision and experience. They can also be obtained on a crop camera. Give a person who has never held a camera in their hands the most expensive medium format body in the world with a top lens. Will he get a masterpiece that will immediately go to a photo exhibition?
Read also:
When a small sensor outperforms a full frame
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