What's going on everybody?
Potato Jet here.
Today we are talking about crop factors.
But I think I'm gonna title this video,
Why I Don't Shoot With Full-frame Cameras
and I think that's a little bit more interesting sounding
than Understanding Crop Factors.
I don't know, I might one day switch
to a full-frame camera, so if that day ever comes
then this video will awkwardly be sitting
in my video playlist.
But I don't really like to think that far ahead.
So, we're Gucci, I probably shouldn't say that word, Gucci.
In order to be allowed to say that word,
you have to have a certain level of swag.
If you have more than that level of swag,
then you can say it all you want.
It sounds good, it works.
But if you're below that line you just sound stupid.
I'm like right there, like I could almost say it,
but it's just better for the entire planet
if I never use that word again.
What was this video about again?
Oh, crop factors.
The biggest misconception is that
all 35mm sensors are the same,
which is very much not true.
It sounds about right, right?
Like if someone says, my sensor's 35mm.
You're probably like, oh, that's probably
the dimension of the width, or height,
or something like that, but it's actually not true.
And if someone tells you their sensor size is 35mm
it could mean something very, very different.
It all goes back to before we had digital cameras,
to when everything was shot on film, those long film strip
that you imagine people in a dark red room,
snipping away, and cutting together.
35mm film is a strip, and it's 35mm wide.
Now, let's start by talking about photography.
In a film camera you take this 35mm,
you stick it on one side,
you stretch it over to the other side, close it up,
and the film goes through horizontally.
It burns that image straight onto that film strip,
utilizing as much space as it can without flooding over.
And the image you can place within that space
is about 36 by 24, and they call that 35mm
in photography because it's on a 35mm film strip,
not because of the dimensions of the photography.
So, if you hear full-frame 35mm,
it generally refers to photography, which is this size.
The Canon 1D Series, the 5D, 6D and a bunch
of other cameras out there that shoot full frame,
in photography, that's the size they're referring to.
Now, here's where people get thrown off,
is they hear Super 35, or 35mm for video,
which is actually a very, very different size,
and the main reason is because
in traditional film movie cameras,
the film gets fed in vertically, so, it goes up and down.
For example, this is a 16x9 frame that you're looking at.
Let's squeeze this down, and fit it onto a film strip.
Now, if you look at throwing it on a vertical film strip,
notice you have to compress it way down
because of the edges here.
If I go any further out this way,
then it's gonna bleed out onto the holey part.
I'm sure there's a proper name for that, I never shot film.
But let's take this same image,
throw it onto the horizontal one,
then you can stretch it way bigger.
So, that is why Super 35, or 35mm film
for video is much smaller.
In cameras that utilize the Super 35mm sensor
are like the Sony FS7, the Canon C300 Mark II,
this RED camera, a majority of Arri ALEXAs.
Now that we're going digital,
we're no longer really restricted
to this 35mm film strip
so companies are exploring these larger sensors
like the Sony VENICE, the Arri ALEXA LF,
and the RED Vista Vision MONSTRO.
But keep in mind that 99% of everything you see
on TV and theaters are still shot
on Super 35mm sensor sizes.
So to summarize, the two you're gonna
hear most often is full-frame 35mm,
which is the big one for photography,
and Super 35 which is the most common one
for video which is the vertically fed one,
so it's a little bit smaller.
Full-frame, big, Super 35, small.
Now when it comes to smaller cameras like this Canon M50,
a lot of times the sensor's smaller
and it's cropped in a bit which has crop factor.
This is one of the most common sensors,
it's an APS-C sensor which has a 1.6x crop factor.
And some cameras like the Micro 4/3 cameras
have a 2x crop factor.
So if you're shooting on the same lens,
if you're shooting with a cropped in sensor,
it just appears to be more zoomed in.
So for example, right now I have a 1.6 crop factor
on this camera and I'm shooting on a 10mm.
But since it has that 1.6 crop factor,
it looks more like a 16mm,
and if I zoom it in, let's see,
now this is a 18, it's 18 times 1.6 which is...
Someone give me an abacus, quick!
Now when we say a 1.6 crop factor for something like this,
we're saying it's a 1.6x crop to a full-frame 35mm,
not a Super 35, a full-frame 35mm.
So yeah, a 1.6 crop factor sensor is quite a bit smaller
than a full-frame 35mm sensor
but it's actually not too different
from a Super 35 mm sensor.
So the sensor size between this and this
might not actually be as big as you think.
So basically if you tag an awesome lens
on to this camera to try to get cinematic images,
the sensor size is not gonna be the thing
that's gonna limit you from getting awesome images.
I've considered going to a full-frame camera a couple times
specifically the 6D Mark II, looks pretty appealing to me.
Now aside from it being much bigger
and more expensive than this camera,
you also have to go to a full-frame lens.
This lens is much cheaper and much smaller
because it only has to cover an APS-C sensor.
Once you get a lens that can cover
the entire 35-millimeter full-frame sensor,
then you can't use this, you have to go
to a much bigger lens.
That this is big, heavy, and expensive.
Another reason why a lot of people love full-frame is
for shallow depth of field, it looks awesome.
Admit it, we're all a a little bit overly obsessed
with shallow depth of field, it looks awesome.
But have you ever tried to focus
on somebody going in and out from the camera
and trying to keep them in focus the whole time?
It is tough.
Autofocus is getting much much better on cameras
so that's becoming less and less of an issue
but there's still plenty of people shooting out there
manual focus for video for a good reason
and doing this motion with a full-frame camera
with like an F1.8 would be impossible.
You would lose focus on me so fast.
I'm definitely not saying APS-C
and Super 35mm sensors are better than full-frame,
that's just the reasons why I personally shoot
with this 1.6 crop factor camera.
Also, keep in mind that I only really shoot video.
If you shoot a lot of photography,
then full-frame makes a lot more sense.
You can go as shallow as you want in photography
because you only need that perfect,
precise focus for that split second.
You don't have to keep the subject
in focus consistently for a long period of time.
And with those big ol sensors,
they generally have really, really,
good low light capabilities.
And Arri, my absolute favorite camera company,
they make the Arri ALEXA.
People have always asked them why
they don't put more pixels in their sensors.
They obviously have the technology to do that now
but they say when they take their sensor,
throw more pixels in there,
then they have to take every pixel
and make them even smaller.
And they always say they prefer the quality
of a pixel over the quantity of it.
So, hey, Arri says big sensors are a good thing.
I do think when you go to a full-frame sensor
and get that bigger sensor,
you do get an improvement of quality.
I really really wanna test out a side by side comparison
with something like this to a 1DX or 6D Mark II
and see side by side, like how much of a difference
does it actually make when you're literally looking
at them side by side.
Is that something you guys might wanna see?
If enough of you guys wanna see that
then I might put that on the to-make video list.
My guess is that there is gonna be image improvements
but I think this is gonna come super close,
closer than most people think
'cause I do think a lot of it is also kinda mental,
like if you're shooting full-frame, you're like,
wow, this is full-frame, I'm shooting full-frame.
But I'm telling you the results out
of these little guys, pretty solid.
The sensor size obviously makes a big difference
but at the same time, it's still, again,
just a small part of the big picture.
Anyways, enough about crop factors,
I think you guys get the point
but I'm also putting together a full video course.
But I wanna hear from you guys
if there's one thing that you guys wanna hear me talk about
or answer a question, let me know in the comments
and I'll try to include as much of it
as I can in the full course.
I'll see you guys later.
I'm heading to Mexico next week, a city called Loreto.
I've never been there, don't know much about it,
but apparently it's only a two-hour flight from Los Angeles.
Beautiful beaches, tequila, should be a good time.
I'll finally be able to test this thing out,
PolarPro sent it to me but apparently,
you'd stick your GoPro in there
and you can get shots where it's half above water
and half below, should be interesting.
I'll do giveaway on this too, next time.
So yeah, see you guys later.