dSLR Education: Full Frame versus Crop Sensor
If you’ve been friends with me or followed this blog for a while now, you’ll know I love photography. If by chance you’re new to these parts, let me tell you now, I love photography. Now you’re up-to-date :).
I bought my first dSLR September of 2009 before I really even knew what a dSLR was. In fact, I had to research it after my first photography class I took because they were talking about it in the class and I didn’t know what dSLR stood for. Sad but true. I feel like I’ve come a long way since then, but I’ll tell you that there is still a ton more to learn.
Photography is one of those things that newbies and oldies can learn something new, if nothing else, a different camera and how it works.
A couple years ago when we were looking to upgrade my Nikon D90 I couldn’t decide between a crop sensor or a full frame sensor. I knew nothing about the difference really. I did some research but I really didn’t know the difference still. Finally I came to the conclusion through my photography, a camera body was more expensive or a lens was more expensive. Other than that…. I didn’t know the difference and couldn’t decide what to do.
After weighing all my options I decided to go on to get another crop sensor camera. I upgraded to the Nikon D7100. I truthfully didn’t feel like I got jipped by going with the crop sensor, really you just compensate for it. I can tell you my D7100 has a crop factor of 1.5. So if I shoot with a 50mm lens, it’s like shooting with an 85mm lens, to get more like a 50, I’d have to back off to a 35 mm lens. I’m still not sure what that 1.5 means, I can just tell you that’s what it is.
So with a full frame, if you shoot with a 50mm lens, it’s like shooting with a 50mm lens. Wow, like that explanation?
So what does all that mean, really? Again, I wasn’t sure. A friend of mine had a Canon Mark 5D Mark II. It is a full frame camera in the Canon series. So I sent her a text asking if I could come play with her dSLR sometime to get the difference. She told me to come on.
Before I made it out there, I actually got to shoot with a Nikon full frame, it is the D610. Upon a little more research, the D610 is extremely similar to my D7100 except well, it’s full frame. So let’s let some pictures tell the story.