Full frame vs Crop sensor: can you tell the difference?
Oct 3, 2017
Dunja Đuđić Kalinin
Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, concerts, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.
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Many photographers with crop sensor cameras dream of switching to full frame sensor. But is it really essential for raising your work to a next level? Photographer Manny Ortiz has created a real-world comparison of the photos taken with a full frame and a crop sensor camera. He shot with a full-frame, $5,000 Sony A9 paired with Sony 85mm 1.4 G Master lens. His crop sensor camera is $1,400 Sony A6500, paired with Zeiss 55mm F1.8. Can you tell the difference between the results?
Manny notes that he post processed the photos because you’d also do it for a client, and they are all edited the same way. He shot both in good and in poor light and got almost the same results with both cameras. Here are the photos he made. You can compare them and try guessing which camera he used to make them, and the answers are in the video:
Of course, Manny points out there are some advantages to full frame cameras. They give you a better dynamic range, better color and shallower depth of field. They also produce more detail, which clients won’t notice, but you might as you zoom in. Still, this doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll level up your work.
At the end of the day, things that really make a difference to your photos are retouching, composition, and lighting. A good lens, more than a full frame camera, will help you produce good photos. So, upgrade your skills instead of upgrading the gear.
I must say that the point of this video isn’t to undermine full frame cameras or photographers who use them. After all, Manny uses them too, and they have their purpose. This is rather a friendly reminder that you can just use what you have, try doing as much as you can in-camera, and you’ll still get great shots. And if the budget doesn’t allow you to upgrade to a full frame body, I hope this video will make you grab that crop sensor camera and go make some awesome photos.
[Full frame vs Crop sensor | A REAL WORLD COMPARISON! | Manny Ortiz]
Dunja Đuđić Kalinin
Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, concerts, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.
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75 responses to “Full frame vs Crop sensor: can you tell the difference?”
Yes.
Yes
I wouldn’t care if I could if it’s a strong image. They have different uses.
No,
“So, upgrade your skills instead of upgrading the gear.”
If you need to “upgrade your gear” to switch to FF you probably are not a professional in the first place.
For example, shoot the moon with a 400mm , I think apsc is good
Franco Ho Yup, did that and it was fine in Afrika
https://www.flickr.com/photos/gipukan/21129061124/
I think + €2000 for the body and + €2000 for the lens for the most photographers is a apsc or m4/3 good enough.
Absolutely
There’s total light effect everywhere
yes i can but not always matters, the background perspective(lens compression)
Even my phone takes stunning pictured in Good Light Conditions: The differences are easily spotted in “real” low light.
With the above said: I am the first to admit to be taking more and more pictures with my phone rather than my camera.
If my phone was shaped like a dslr I’d probably do the same, but it’s not, and the DR is terrible.
What’s an iPhone got to do with the difference between a cropped and full frame sensor!
That’s not so true anymore about full frame having better low light capabilities. My 7Dii is better in low light then the 5dii
If you take a full frame shot and you crop it to compare it to a crop sensor shot you are ridicolous
Definitely
There is a very visible difference between the two, but if you can’t afford full frame APS crop still takes a decent picture.
And if you can’t afford medium format you can buy full frame and so on, sensor size is totally irrelevant, light and composition are far more important factors to producing an image..
Nope. Sensor size isn’t totally irrelevant. On the other hand, light and composition are indeed important parameters to consider when trying to catch the desired picture.
I believe you misunderstood my point Enne. There is a real difference in the results all other variables being the same. However a good photographer can overcome the shortcomings of the other camera and still come out with a picture that’s worthwhile.
https://petapixel.com/tag/cheapcamerachallenge/
It depends on what you want your final outcome to be. Enlarging images for trade show displays almost dictates a full frame sensor.
Alexandre, I absolutely understood your point, for I made my comment on Mark Snelling’s one. ? Have a nice day!
Good, I had misunderstood. Thanks for clarifying.
Only if you do the pepsi challenge
Lol take it into a club in lowlight then show me the result
I don’t know, for learning is any camera is good .
For job delivery all Pro I know have high end full frame and on top medium format
Generally very close, but that tiny little bit of dof edge does all the magic, in situation like this.
Tiny
There’s no right or wrong answer to this choice. Crop vs. full frame is relative to what your goals are as a photographer. In addition to sensor size, the advantages of a full frame are the number of mega pixels, high ISO with less noise, and resolution. Each level of camera has its advantages and its limitations. If you want to become a professional photographer, then buying a full frame is worth the investment. But remember, technology alone does not create a quality image – you do.
If both photographs weren’t cropped and shot at the same distance I believe the one on the left is the crop framed
Moved from the 7d to the 5d4. I can see difference yes. Primarily in ISO and Noise especially in evening or morning shots. But the 7d served me well while living in East Africa.
I have an old 50d and a 5d mk iii what difference in quality of photos 10 by 15 or larger
Can only say noise levels. But i loved the crop on my 7d. With good light it could do it.
Who fucking cares
The window behind the model is larger on the left. A for sure giveaway.
It’s like… why buying Nike when you walk the same way with crocs? Well, it’s about self respect, about the feeling while shooting, about image and nonetheless about the result! If you wanna walk with big dogs you need to learn to p*ss in high grass!
Way too many people are hung up on gear. Just the other day I did a photoshoot where if you closely look at the photos in their full resolution, the eyes aren’t quite there focus-wise. That’s a limitation of my current gear. But what was the purpose of the shoot? To create circa 2-inch wide headshots for a website. Do you think the client complained? Quite the opposite, she loved all of them. It fit the purpose and we were both happy. So know your gear and what are its strengths and weaknesses, and remember that it isn’t “what with” but “what for”.
These days, photos can become TOO sharp. A little softness can be okay.
IMO it is either a naive or stupid question depending on the intent.
It isn’t just if you can tell the difference between the results that are rigged to try to look the same yet pretty clearly were taken at different apertures. It is what do you have to do to get the same results. i.e. use a different aperture, stand closer, stand further away, buy a wider lens, buy a longer lens. This kind of comparison is typical of what makes it difficult for some people to understand the real differences. It is better to point them out than to muddle them IMO.
But it works both ways. What do you need to do on full frame if crop sensor gives the result you are after?
The main reason to own a full frame these days in my opinion is if you are shooting landscapes or billboards. How many megapixels do you need on someone’s face?
Pixel dimensions is resolution based, not physical sensor sized.
Even for landscape, architecture and product/still life you can go with a small sensor like MFT – if you have a camera with pixel shift/hires mode like an OM-D EM-5 MkII, which gives you a 60MP Raw file out of a 16MP sensor (“real” resolution is less than 60MP, but results look stunning nonetheless). Or you can stitch several shots together to get more resolution (the “Brenizer Method”). Not usable for fashion, though …
Congratulations on getting my point but not actually understanding that you did. I didn’t say which camera I was describing and described plus and minus of both.
I assume the FF were the bottom images.
She looks hunched on the left and right back straight hmmm biased images
If you have a crop and you shoot in ideal lighting and you want better images upgrade your lenses. If you have a crop and you find yourself in a lot of low light situations upgrade to full frame. It drives me nuts when new photographers think that upgrading to full frame will solve their issues. Um, no not unless you’re shooting in low light ??♀️
Do we always need to repeat that question? Yes there is a difference. Ok it is minor on those examples. But there is one.
With its own lens, the diff is minimal. But I have only FF lenses, there is big difference in framing. Crop sensor will produced, well, cropped picture.
The main differences are dynamic range, low light and the ability to crop and still get details. Full frame will do better BUT, if you take the D3 for example and you compare with the new Nikon D500 I would think that the D500 will have better dynamic range, low light ability and more details.
It is never a clear answer.
Given that these two are cca. 10 yrs apart from each other, it is no big wonder… ;)
True, that’s why there is no clear answer. We shouldn’t care anyway. I bet the D500 produce same quality photos as the D750.
Comparing an 85mm with a “chopped in” 55mm
It’s still a 55mm and you can see the difference in the photos, but unless you compare side by side it would be very hard to pick it.
So… why does the author not give a answer to which of these is which?…. I assume the ones with more bokeh are the Crop Censor.
Plot twist. They’re both shot on the same camera.
Sorry can’t get my eyes off the model. What’s the question again?
I’m always annoyed by articles that purport to offer special insight into some question and then muddle things badly. For something like this, all you need to do is follow the possible answers to their respective logical conclusions. If there were no advantages to larger sensors, we would all be using itty bitty cameras. The only question that is meaningful is the question of what are the compromises of the smaller sensor, and how severe are they. This article made no effort to answer this question honestly. With most cameras that use “crop sensors” (a very idiotic term, by the way), the actual resolution of the captured image is nowhere near the seonsor’s inherent resolution, because the smaller sensor means that the lens has to provide greater resolution density in the image circle. I.e., the same total amount of information, in the image that is projected onto a smaller area. To insure that you’ll not encounter extreme difficulty obtaining images with true resolution greater than 5 – 10 megapixel is to use a camera with a FF sensor. Of course if you shrink your images down to the size of the image samples included in this article, you’ll never see the difference. And if the detail you get with a good APS-C sensor is all you need, then an APS-C sensor is good enough except for the DOF thing and except for the great many everyday shooting scenarios where you are constrained to an EV that is weak and introduces image noise and compells you to select a high ISO to get a correct exposure.
Can’t see much on my phone but ff on left
No
IMHO total bullsh*t … comparing photos from two different lenses (and since I do not care about digi cameras I can’t tell for sure, but, I guess there might also be difference caused by different bodies (not the sensor size)) As stated in multiple comments: better gear does not make you better photographer. Go and shoot film, develop it and put it on paper (and yes … no PS post-process). Are you good? Do you suck? Go and find out :)
I perfectly agree about the part of upgrading the skills, lighting, composition and post processing abilities. However it’s very important, that the lens was not shot wide open on the full frame body. He used 2.8, instead of the 1.4 aperture.
There would be immense difference if he shot both the 85 and the 55 wide open on the respectable body.
However the client will never notice the difference, I guarantee that.
You can get award winning shots with a cheap A6000 and 50 1.8 if you have the lighting, composition and post processing skills.
I have been shooting with a T3i for years (I don’t have the money to upgrade) and my only real complaint is that is has poor performance in low light. But otherwise I really like my little crop sensor.
Full frame sensors matter only in the way that they treat the working focal length of any given lens.
Full frame sensor have less depth of field… this is the biggest thing.
Yes I can. I can see the difference between my D5000 and D750 taken with the same lens.
The REAL difference is the photographer
Where’s the medium format? Both, apsc and FF will look mediocre compared to MF :D
Canikony don’t do one, so can’t possibly include that…
Yes, the position of the hand. :))):
I feel that the type of photography one does is just as an important factor. Wildlife photography is a great reason to use cropped sensor cameras whereas landscapes might be perhaps better captured on a full frame camera. As a forensic photographer, I would primarily use full frame but when capturing images of butterflies, you’ll always catch me using a cropped sensor. Just another way of looking at the discussion.
Any photo shown in a computer screen at the size you are showing is going to look the same. I print my photos and many times I print 24X36 inch or bigger. Why don’t you guys do the same and see the real difference.
No differences for any 800 pixel Facebook posts, of course, but how about this real world comparison: print out of camera a 30×40 inch print and then tell me again that there is no difference! Likewise for 3200 ISO Milky Way shots. Either way, the most important information is missing: who is that gorgeous model?
can you compare the full frame and crop sensor using the same lens (not equivalents) and same settings (not the equivalent) so that we can see the actual/full potential of the full frame body.