Full Frame/1.6 Crop Frame

AndyBorzi

AndyBorzi

AndyBorzi

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Someone asked me the other day what is the advantage of having a full frame dslr and the 1.6x/1.5x crop. I had no idea!!

What are the advantages of a full frame over crop frame?
 
A full frame camera will always have 'true' wide angle and telephoto results.

However, a 1.5 or 1.6 crop factor will add that much on top of every focal length, be it wide, standard or telephoto.

Digital users always find that their smaller sensors give them more reach, i.e. a 50mm lens will become an 80mm lens, a 22mm lens will become 35.2mm and a 75-300mm lens will become a 120-480mm lens.

But that gives a disadvantage to anyone who wishes to take landscape photography, or indeed anything which involves wide angles.
 
Gamefreak501 said:
A full frame camera will always have 'true' wide angle and telephoto results.

However, a 1.5 or 1.6 crop factor will add that much on top of every focal length, be it wide, standard or telephoto.

Digital users always find that their smaller sensors give them more reach, i.e. a 50mm lens will become an 80mm lens, a 22mm lens will become 35.2mm and a 75-300mm lens will become a 120-480mm lens.

But that gives a disadvantage to anyone who wishes to take landscape photography, or indeed anything which involves wide angles.
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I knew about the loss of the wide-end and the gain at the telephoto end but didn't know if there was anything else?

So I guess the question is: is wide-angle at 10mm rather than 16mm worth the difference between a 30D (£810) and a 5D (£1700)? (Ignoring the pixel count!)
 
AndyBorzi said:
I knew about the loss of the wide-end and the gain at the telephoto end but didn't know if there was anything else?

So I guess the question is: is wide-angle at 10mm rather than 16mm worth the difference between a 30D (£810) and a 5D (£1700)? (Ignoring the pixel count!)
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If you can afford the extra for the 5D, you should get it! But really, quality does fall off towards the ends of lenses anyway. Also, nearly all my lenses are standard ones and I only have one digital only lens. If you just buy standard lenses, they can normally be used on both digital and non digital camera bodies.

I suppose one thing to also mention is, by getting standard lenses, you are taking full advantage of the glass. If you then use the standard lens on a digital 1.5 or 1.6 body, you still get uniform quality but I think all lenses suffer from a fall of quality towards the edges, the full frame just shows this up a lot more.
 
I dont think whats been posted is the exact truth.

You don't lose out on zoom with a full frame, all the 1.6crop factor does is crop the centre part of the image! I.e. if you take the same picture on the same lens with a full frame and a 1.6crop all you need to do is crop the centre of the picture taken on the full frame and then you have the same image. The "extra zoom" is not a + point for 1.6x! You've just got an automatic digital zoom taking place.

Well thats how i understand it anyway.

EDIT
I'm currently considering whether I think its worthwhile going full frame at the moment. I want to upgrade some time this year and the choice is 30D or 5D, but is the 5D worth the extra cost?!?! Something thats going to take a lot of thinking about.
 
Gamefreak501 said:
If you can afford the extra for the 5D, you should get it!
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Ooh I wish it was a consideration for me, tis more of a dream! I wasn't really looking into getting one, just didn't know what the fuss is over the full frame!

I still love my trusty 300D and won't be parting with it for a good while yet.

Gamefreak501 said:
I suppose one thing to also mention is, by getting standard lenses, you are taking full advantage of the glass. If you then use the standard lens on a digital 1.5 or 1.6 body, you still get uniform quality but I think all lenses suffer from a fall of quality towards the edges, the full frame just shows this up a lot more.
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If I was going to spend £1700 on a camera, I wouldn't buy standard glass, I would buy L glass!
 
yak.h'cir said:
I dont think whats been posted is the exact truth.

You don't lose out on zoom with a full frame, all the 1.6crop factor does is crop the centre part of the image! I.e. if you take the same picture on the same lens with a full frame and a 1.6crop all you need to do is crop the centre of the picture taken on the full frame and then you have the same image. The "extra zoom" is not a + point for 1.6x! You've just got an automatic digital zoom taking place.

Well thats how i understand it anyway.
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Aah...that kinda makes sense and I see why this could be an advantage over the 1.6x crop. Just have to stand further back to get it all in! :)
 
Also a smaller sensor effects the DOF. A smaller sensor will give you a larger DOF at a given aperture than a FF sensor will. Another thing is noise, bigger sensor, less noise.
 
I am a Minolta user. Sadly, I do not see Sony developing a full-frame digital camera which is kind of disappointing.

So far, I have not really found any major problems with the 1.5 crop factor my Konica Minolta 5D has, although should Sony develop and release a full frame digital camera, I will be a happy guy.
 
If it were me I would want the 5d. I love wide angle stuff and clean images so the 5D's ISO50 would be great (also has a more broader range of ISO's).
Its also built beautifully with some weather sealing.

For me with my 20D I would use my 50mm F1.8 if it were true 50mm, but its cropped to about 80 with the sensor. My zoom is my 100 - 400 and I find it too far zoomed at the wide end and I rarely push it past 300 anyway.
 
yak.h'cir said:
I want to upgrade some time this year and the choice is 30D or 5D, but is the 5D worth the extra cost?!?! Something thats going to take a lot of thinking about.
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For me absolutely not. The 5d in my eyes has no redeeming features whatsoever, but it wasn't designed for the sort of stuff I do so hardly surprising :)

No weather proofing, still need a battery grip, slow FPS, lose the crop factor benefit, horrible camera, get a 30D, or better still a 1D MkII N :p
 
To save the cost of upgrading my 300D to a 5D for the wide-angle landscape shots I just stand 1.6x further away.....








;) :o
 
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