What?
What's wrong?
Oh, I see! This circle around here, yeah
that's weird...
That's what happens when you use an APS-C lens on a full-frame body like I'm doing right now
it becomes completely useless... right?
Actually! In today's video we're going to see why this might make sense for some photographers
and how using APS-C lenses on FF bodies might allow us to create things that we couldn't create otherwise
All right, this is much better! Welcome, everybody!
I'm Adrian, I'm a photographer and I specialize in black and white square images
and that last part, "square images" is the key for why APS-C lenses might make sense on full-frame bodies
but let's start from the beginning
I shot that intro using the Sony A7Rii with the excellent Sigma 16mm f/1.4
As you could see, the problem is that it was creating a lot of vignetting on the sides
and that's because this lens was designed and made for APS-C bodies
Here, on this side, is an APS-C sensor,
here, on this other side, is a full frame sensor
You already knew this, but a full frame sensor is bigger than an APS-C sensor
An APS-C lens like this one is designed to cover an APS-C sensor, so the image, the circle that it creates here
on the back is of that size, the appropiate size for the APS-C sensor
that's why when we mount it on a full-frame camera, that circle that creates on the back is not enough to
cover the whole sensor, so we get that very strong vignette
and that's one of the reasons why full-frame lenses like this one are bigger and usually more expensive
Now, not all APS-C lenses are created equal, there are some lenses out there that for whatever reason
cover more than the APS-C sensor that they are supposed to cover
Most lenses, though, will behave like the 16mm, creating a very strong vignette on the sides
so you'll have to get rid of that on your images, you'll have to do some heavy cropping
That is a deal breaker for every photographer...
Almost every photographer!
If you are like me and most of your work is in square, you are already used to heavily cropping your images
we are getting rid of the sides anyway, no matter what lens and camera we are using
So, all of a sudden, these lenses become a viable option to create images
Now, that being said, I prefer to use proper full frame lenses on full frame bodies
that's why I have a couple
because I like to have that spare room on the sides, just in case I want to reframe my image a little bit
or maybe I see a crop that I didn't see when I took the picture, I want to create a panorama or whatever it is
The thing is... when we pair this lens with an APS-C camera, it behaves like a 24mm f/2.1 lens
more or less, due to the crop
In reality, this lens is a 16mm lens and it has an aperture of 1.4
so when you mount it on a full frame body like this one
it will give you the field of view of a 16mm lens and the very shallow depth of field of a 1.4 aperture
and that is the exact reason why you might want to use a combination like this
last time i checked, there were no full frame lenses out there that could match the performance of this one
I think the closest is the Sigma 14mm f/1.8, and still, it comes at twice the weight, and four times the price
You might have noticed that I used this lens on my previous video, I made this image with this lens
and I absolutely love the way it blurs the background while still keeping an extremely wide angle
This is not the only APS-C lens i've tried on the A7Rii, these are some more examples
The one that I was really hoping it'd work was the Zeiss 16-70mm f/4
I love that lens for my APS-C camera, but a 16-70mm on full frame would be an extremely useful range
It'd be like the combination of a 16-35mm and a 24-70mm
but unfortunately, it didn't really work, it had really thick frames on all sides, and you'd have to crop the image
so much, that you'd be better off just using it on APS-C
One that works pretty well, though, is this one: the Sony 70-350mm
It covers almost the whole sensor
but the thing is that this one is pretty close in size and price to the full frame version, the 70-300mm
so unless you don't have it already, it makes no sense to get a lens like this one to use on your full frame body
Another one that works pretty well is the Sigma 56mm f/1.4
It's a tiny super compact lens and when mounted on the A7Rii
it works as a nifty-fifty with a very fast aperture and very good auto focus
The downside of this lens is that it distorts quite a bit, so depending on the subject and the scene
that you are photographing, it might not work at all
but if it works, it creates beautiful, beautiful images
There you have it! Using APS-C lenses on full frame bodies is not for everyone
but if you happen to have a few lenses around, and a full frame body, it might be worth a try
because they could be very useful for some situations
I hope this video was helpful and useful, if that was the case please give me a thumbs up
and subscribe if you haven't yet
Thank you so much for watching, and see you in the next one!