Crop vs. Full Frame - Which One Is Right For You? 

Comment which type of sensor you think is right for you!👇

I think you have missed one of the most important advantages of crop sensor cameras which is size and portability. As an Underwater Photographer myself, I can tell that full frame cameras inside an underwater housing are humongous and very difficult to manage, especially when shorediving, going through surge, etc. My trusty M4/3 camera rig has 1/3 of the size of a full frame.

Crop for portability, full frame for wedding, pro & studio work

While the aperture calculation is handy (roughly a stop up for APS-C, again for 4/3) I'd say it's potentially misleading for people by saying at 2:30 "You can still achieve the same depth of field you just need to do maths" when you're starting from f/4 - it makes it seem like there's no real tradeoff on DOF between each system. Your lenses are unlikely to be a full stop faster for APS-C or 2 stops faster for m4/3, so if shallow depth of field is a real consideration, FF is a real boon - both for zoom lenses and primes. A 24-70 2.8 would need to be a 16-50 f/2 on APS-C or a 12-35 f/1.4 on m4/3, neither of which exist. Same goes for most primes. There are disadvantages, of course, but if someone's new to this they're not gonna know off the top of their head that there aren't direct equivalent lenses for the smaller sensors and may well end up buying a m4/3 camera and then come back like "Ok I like the images this person gets with an 85 1.2 on a full frame, I'll take one 42.5mm f/0.6 please"

Incredible video. You not gave a perfect explanation, but you showed the differences side by side. Thanks so much!

This was an amazing video for a beginner thank you!

You forgot to mention Macro shooting as an advantage for m4/3's. My small, lightweight Olympus 60mm f/2.8 Macro lens get me twice the magnification of a 60mm f/2.8 Full Frame lens at the same subject distance. Plus, I get f/5.6 Depth of Field (FF equivalent) which is a huge benefit in Macro work. To get the same DOF with Full Frame, you'll lose two stops of shutter speed, or increase ISO by two stops. I've successfully worked as a full time professional photographer using m4/3's for the past 11 years -- so, I won't be debating which is best -- you use what works for you.

Hey, I''m a retired pro photographer and this was very informative for me! Never really thought about the crop factor/dept of field in this regard. I was primarily a 4x5, 2 1/4 studio/architectural photographer and used my stash of Nikons for annual reports and slides of architectural models and art documentation, so never really got that deep into the 4/3's type of cameras. Thanks for the info. =D= Long time customer of B&H! Oh, just purchased a Nikon D780 for the full frame sensor and to go with my PC lens selections and Micro-Nikkors for art, product uses.

At this point I have both full frame and aps-c cameras. I recently took a trip with my apsc cameras and a couple full frame lenses. I just don't like the apsc lenses I've tried and I don't like redundancy in the lenses I own. So, all of my lenses are for full frame cameras. But, I also use them on apsc cameras. It's getting to be Fall here and I'll be shooting with my full frame cameras with more megapixels. So, for me, it's a combination of using the right tool for the job and using whatever I feel like shooting.

I understand that one must multiply by the crop factor to determine focal length. Does the also apply to distortion such when using a wide angle lens?

I shoot micro 4/3, APS-C, full-frame, medium format, and large format. They all work well.

Which is the best one to go for for jewellery photography?

And smaller sensor usually has better ibis cause less area of sensor to stabilize

Hi I recently moved from aps-c to full frame camera. I wanted to expand my collection. But now I'm confused with whether I need to buy a 24-105mm lens or buy a flash going forward.

Right now I am using a canon t6s using crop but I’m looking at the a7iii for full frame along with better video quality Is this a good choice?

Thanks for the info. My Canon 60D needs repair and I am considering replacing it rather than repairing it. This information will help me decide which camera to purchase.

When shot mainly video @4k60, 6700 or a7c2?

IMHO The biggest plus factor for full-frame mirrorless cameras is cheap, high quality vintage lenses that can offset the high price of the camera. There are wonderful Zeiss, Nikon, Canon and Minolta lenses for all mirrorless cameras. I only bought 1 expensive AF lens for my camera and the vintage lenses give so much more. This approach allows me to afford a full frame sensor in building a system and crimp on the cost of lenses BUT not the quality.

My prior camera body had an APS-C sensor which was nice as far as size and weight goes. Upgrading to a 42MP full frame sensor was a game changer. It does have an optional APS-C mode which gives the same magnification (crop) as an equivalent APS-C sensor although I don't use it for stills. I prefer to shoot normal as I can always crop later in Adobe Lightroom while still having more than enough resolution as I have megapixels to burn. I can enable the camera's video APS-C mode (Super 35mm) to obtain the magnification bump when shooting video.

Sir any video on Shutter speed vs shutter angle

Nice shirt....where did you get it....but the colour was different...dynamic range...medium format😍

Call me a full-frame bigot, but I've been shooting full-frame since 1980 when I bought my Canon A-1. I talked my wife out of buying me a DSLR for Christmas 2012 when I found that her budget was a Canon T6i. With APC, I feel cheated when shooting wide angle, but nice to cheat when shooting telephoto. July 2013, I bought one of my "bucket list" cameras, a used Canon New F-1 with the AE Finder FN and AE Motor Drive FN. I mentioned to my wife that this kit was for sale at $400. She asked "Is that their flagship?" I answered "Yes, for the 80's." She responded "Buy it." Christmas 2013, I saw her browsing Canon 5D III. "You buying me a 5D?" She answered "Yes." I said "Let me check B&H." The site she was looking at jacks up the MSRP so they can offer "discounts" of 75%. B&H had a better price. I didn't need the cheapy tripod offered in the other offer, having bought a Manfrotto in 2012.

How come an apsc native lens with aperture 1.4 have a less amount of lights on an apsc body? The lens is is not meant for the full frame in the first place... ??

Regardless if ur using either rof the cameras .. it doesnt matter .. when ur shooting vommercials videos ..etc .. .. plan ur shot.. and light it well....

The smaller the "sensor" the greater the depth of field at any given focal length. In my opinion, a small sensor is useful when shooting video and not important with still photography. Why? Shooting with a 16mm movie camera, the operator could mostly pull focus themselves. On a 35mm movie camera (which is 4 perfs or half a conventional 35mm frame) a focus puller is almost always necessary if there's any movement in the picture because the depth of field is so small. Trying to shoot video on a full-frame 35mm still camera is a nightmare compared with a movie camera unless you have a good focus puller (and auto focussing won't cut it.) Shooting docos on many modern video cameras with large sensors is hard work too because the sensors can be so large compared with a 16mm frame. But for still photography, where a shallow depth of field is often required, stick to the biggest you can get.

What about plane spotting?

Hi there. Let me ask you something. if I take a picture with my full frame sony a73 and I enlarge that picture do I have the same result and quality than if I take that same picture with a crop sensor? Thanks

So maybe can you advice me what camera body should I upgrade. TLDR; sony a6700 vs sony A7III I'm amateur photographer and I take my camera for travels, family parties and my cooking vlog. I own sony zv-e10 with single lens - sigma 18-50 f2.8. And since last year I fully produced (took much more) 10k images and 5h of video and I'm very happy with my gear. But after this time I decided to upgrade my camera to have some stabilisation build in sensor, weather sealing and some better AF features. In future I'm planing to try some longer range photos to compress background with long focal length. And now I'm split between apsc sony a6700 and full frame sony A7III. They both the same price currently in my country, but FF has some advantages but is more costly and typically much more heavier to carry in backpack. Is it worth for amateur to dive into FF or just stick with apsc? What would you recommend?

You'll see people say they are 'upgrading' from apsc to full frame - well I upgraded from full frame to apsc. If you're a portrait guy and bokeh is all you're after and your still telling yourself ai won't replicate beautiful bokeh in a few months, go nuts but I decided to stop chasing the costly full frame system and sell my Sony a7riii kit for apsc to do things like: Afford 1st party high quality glass - everyone says glass is important.. Then they slap the cheapest 3rd party lenses on their FF system to keep costs down, get second bodies for video, weddings or modding, actually take more trips to put myself in front of beautiful locations to shoot, be able to keep up with innovation and not have to upgrade bodies 6 years later when the used market let's me, reduce weight and size of lenses for hiking, travel and camping, be able to actually bring a larger suite of lenses. There's almost no difference in image quality and ai and denoise tools are making the cost of full frame look crazy. If you're not wealthy enough to buy your kit outright and are currently saving for lenses.. Are you creating anything or are you just waiting? I'm going to grab my gear and be off shooting way more than lugging around my Sony. I'm having way more fun with my fuji setup and I'm out shooting way more because of it.

How do you feel about having a crop body as backup to full frame? Does it make sense. Portraits/family/events

Full frame and then crop in on picture if needed.

the f does not change, regardless of the sensor

Well i need a fullframe-APSC Camera.. where can I get it

Most of us start off with a crop sensor camera. It makes sense you cannot immediately afford to purchase the lenses needed to get the most out of a full frame camera particularly the 70-200 F2.8 lens which is a great lens no matter which brand of camera you choose and makes taking good photos a lot easier. The other advantages of full frame cameras is they are better for wide photos because of the larger sensor and because of the extra stop of light you can take photos and video at F1.4 again these lenses are expensive. The crop sensors cameras are great for reach as the crop sensor turns a 200mm lens to a 300mm lens, while you use your full frame camera to do this in a crop mode the crop sensor cameras are normally lighter and certainly cost much less to purchase. The lenses for crop sensor cameras cost less, are smaller and lighter than full frame camera lenses making them much easier to use on a day to day basis because the camera bag weights less. Crop sensor cameras are also much easier to use when you are travelling smaller, lighter easier to manage on a plane. Cost less as the risk of damaging losing or having your camera gear is greater when travelling so it is better not to travel with full frame gear.

I am a nature and wildlife photographer and I've been using the Nikon D780 for years, it has all the features I need and it helps me achieve great images; however, there has been times when I am in a cafeteria or something like that and I wish that I had a camera on my, either the place looks cool or there's a great sunset outside. So, a couple of weeks ago I decided to get a Nikon Z50 to have it in my backpack all the time whenever I am going out to do more casual-normal stuff and I am loving the combination of full frame for professional work and crop sensor for more casual day-to-day stuff.

Cameras using a traditional 35mm sized sensor have grown too large and gotten too expensive for me. While they do offer tremendous features and quality, the same results are obtained with an APS-C sensor, and at a price I am comfortable spending. For me, a camera body, a small selection of lenses, and a couple of batteries fit into a small bag at a weight that works well. I specifically will not state one is "better" than the other-- but great results and images that are outstanding are obtainable for me without the expense of the larger cameras. Others may well feel differently. But my current kit from Fujifilm works fine for me.

informative concise video.

2:12 The Panasonic and Fuji looks better than the Sony. IMO.

what do you call sensors that are larger than 36 x 24 ?

Regarding the "extra reach" of Micro 4/3 or APS-C cameras - Full frame cameras generally allow you to crop their sensors in-camera very easily so I'm not sure that is a valid point in favor of the smaller sensors

4:14 dangerous situations, private property, non-traversable areas

Full Frame

Most important decision in your life!!!! Seriously???

I have no idea what this man said 😵‍💫

I'm disappointed that you keep using the term "reach" You do NOT get more reach. 100mm is 100mm focal length, it doesn't change. All you get is a different crop. When you use the term reach to a new photographer they get the idea they are getting longer focal length and they are "Not". C'mon B and H, you are better than that.

A lot of very info BUT I wish he spoke a touch slower. I had to "rewind" numerous times to re-listen to many things he said. For example, the part about depth of field varying with sensor size was new to me and it took many rewinds to try to understand it.

Neither… Medium format only.

The more experienced of us will understand what you mean when talking about lenses being equivalent to longer ones as you mount them on a smaller sensor equipped body rather than a full frame one but since this video is aimed at beginners, pushing this false information will confuse them in the long run instead of helping them, photography is already technically complicated as it is!

The smaller sensor in a m43 body DOES NOT mean less technology is put into those cameras and hence the cheaper prices. This is an absurd statement from a "professional" photographer at 4:20. m43 invented mirrorless in 2008. They have the best sensor stabilization tech for all cameras. They are constantly innovating to offset the perceived notion that full frame is better in everyway.

If you need more reach with a full frame camera change it to DX mode. A 47 megapixel camera will still be 20 megapixels in DX. Your 70-200mm becomes a 105-300mm.

I'm shook...had not occurred to me that aperture is also affected by crop factor 🙄

Maybe if you can afford a f/2 lens....

10 years I've been seeing the same debate Oh my God one day it'll end. One day. There has got to be a better way to communicate small sensors versus large sensors without needing a thousand RU-vid videos.

It is not a crop sensor. It is smaller than full frame but none of an image is cropped. What your doing is convincing people they should get full frame because crop sensor eliminates part of the image. Cheap trick.