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Hello, and welcome to GMax Studios.
In today's episode, we are going to talk
about the various sensor sizes that
are available on different cameras
and how they affect our photography.
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For everything in the world there is a set standard.
And in photography this standard has
been set as the 35 mm film format, which
means that the standard that you take in photography
is equivalent to the 35 mm negative
that you used to exist.
Not that there weren't other formats.
There were formats like medium format and large format.
But still the 35 mm was considered
to be a standard, since it was such a popular medium.
So in modern technology any sensor
that equals the negative of a 35 mm film which is 36 mm by 24 mm
is considered to be a full frame sensor.
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Full frame sensors came pretty late to the digital scene
because the technology to manufacture such big sensors
just did not exist.
So before full frame sensors came into being,
sensors were made in a format which
was known as the APS format.
And this format was roughly one and a half times smaller
than the size of a full frame sensor.
APS-C sensors, which stands for Advanced Photo System Classic,
are approximately 24 mm by 15 mm in size
and are roughly one and a half times smaller
than a full frame.
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And the sensors usually put in your point and shoot cameras
are even smaller.
And the ones in the mobile phones can barely be seen.
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Of course, there are sensors larger
than 35 mm still being made today,
which are called medium format sensors.
Companies Ike Phase One, Hasselblad, and Fuji
specialize in making these kind of sensors.
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Now the question is how does sensor size affect
our photographs?
Before we get into how sensor sizes affects of photographs,
let us understand what is an image circle.
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The image that the lens projects onto the sensor
is called the image circle.
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So the first thing that gets affected by different sensor
sizes is the focal length of the lens that you are using.
Since most lenses were made according to the 35 mm
full frame sensor size, if your camera is a full frame sensor
size, there is obviously no change.
But if you are using a camera with a smaller sensor,
it is able to capture only a portion of the entire image
circle, therefore, seeming as if the image has been zoomed in.
This effect it's called crop factor or focal length
multiplier.
Now since an APS-C crop sensor is about 1.5 times smaller
than the full frame sensor, the zoom
or the crop in the focal length is also 1.5 times.
So for example, if you use a 50 mm lens on a cropped sensor,
on like an APS-C, it would become a 75 mm lens.
Similarly, if you were to use 100 mm lens,
it would become 150 mm lens.
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Similarly, Olympus and Panasonic developed a sensor size
of their own, which was approximately half the size
of a full frame sensor.
And they called it a micro four thirds sensor.
Now, the focal length multiplier of this sensor
is two times that of a full frame sensor.
So if you put on a 50 mm lens on this sensor
it would become 100 mm.
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So to avoid all this confusion, most lens manufacturers,
along with the format of their lenses,
they write a 35 equivalent focal length
alongside the written focal length on the lens.
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Terminology wise, Nikon calls their full frame cameras
FX and their crop sensor cameras DX.
Similarly, Cannon's full frame cameras are EF
and the crop sensor are called EF-S.
And Sony had developed an E-mount earlier
which still exists, but is not very popular.
But they developed an E-mount with their NEX series,
and now the full frame sensor is called the FE-mount.
Since crop sensors are cheaper to produce,
obviously, the cameras which have crop sensors
are obviously cheaper in price.
But that does not mean that they are not good.
In fact, a lot of photographers use this crop factor
to their advantage.
A lot of photographers use crop sensor bodies deliberately
to increase the reach of their lenses,
because if you put on 300 mm lens on a crop sensor body,
it would become a 450 mm lens, thereby increasing your reach
and enabling you to get closer to your subject.
A thing to remember that sensor size
is not everything in a camera.
The color science as well as the camera processor
has a very important part to play in how
your final photograph looks.
Now traditionally, it is taught that higher megapixels
are better.
But while higher megapixels give you more resolution and detail
in a photograph, they also cause an increase in noise,
especially at higher ISOs.
This is the reason why Nikon's top end
DF has got just 20 megapixels and Sony A7S2, which
is supposed to be the low light King,
has just got 12 megapixels.
Now if you cram these higher megapixels
into even smaller sensors, the inherent danger
of producing noise becomes even more.
Sensor size also affects the depth of field
apart from the aperture, of course, as you
must have seen in episode 7.
So for example, if you put a 50 mm 1.4 lens on a micro four
thirds camera, your focal length would be equivalent to 100 mm.
But the depth of field would also double.
Therefore, it would become closer to 100 mm 2.8 lens,
rather than 100 mm 1.4 lens.
So technically, if we keep the same frame,
we will see that the smaller sensors produces
a deeper depth of field.
And for this very same reason, when you take pictures
with mobile phones, everything seems to be in focus.
It is not because of anything else,
but due to a very, very small sensor.
There is a lot more to sensors.
But we shall talk about the advanced stuff
at a later stage.
Till then share this video with your friends.
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Until the next video, take care.
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