What Is A Full Frame Camera?

Hi everybody. Welcome to Episode 51 of the Photography Explained podcast.

I’m your host Rick McEvoy and I explain one photographic thing per episode in plain English in less that 10 minutes without the irrelevant detail. I have well over 30 years of experience in photography so I do know what I am talking about!

In this episode - What Is A Full Frame Camera?

Here is my answer
A full frame camera has a sensor size which is 36mm x 24mm. This is exactly the same size as the film in a 35mm film camera. Typically SLR cameras used 35mm film, so when digital cameras were introduced the camera film was replaced with a sensor of the same dimensions. Full frame cameras used to only be DSLRs, but now you can get full frame mirrorless cameras.

Listen for more, or check out the transcript and even the blog post - so many ways to find out more!

What’s next?
Episode 52 - What Is A Micro Four Thirds Camera Explained In Less Than 10 Minutes

Transcript

"What is a full frame camera? Hi, everybody, a very warm welcome to Episode 51 of the photography explained podcast. I'm your host, Rick, and in each episode I will explain one photographic thing in plain English in less than 10 minutes without the irrelevant details. 10 minutes ish.

I explain things in just enough detail to help you and I with our photography, what I tell you is based on my lifetime of photographic experience, not Google.

Okay, full frame cameras

Bit of a baffling term, not the only photography term that's baffling. There is a reason for it. There is a logic for it. But if we were starting again from scratch, would we call the full frame camera a full frame camera?

I don't think we would.

So what is a full frame camera? Let's do the answery bit.

A full frame camera has a sensor size which is 36mm x 24mm. This is exactly the same size as the film in a 35mm camera. Typically, SLR cameras used 35mm film, so when digital cameras were introduced, the camera film was replaced with a sensor of the same dimensions.

Full frame cameras used to be only DSLRs, but now you can get full frame mirrorless cameras.

So there you have it an odd but logical evolution, I think.

Why is a full frame sensor the same size as a 35 millimetre film?

Well, it's just the evolution of photography. And as I'm sitting here looking at this, I'm thinking to myself, why is 35mm film 36mm x by 24mm, it’s not even 35 millimetres?

It is more of a mystery. As I like to keep saying, it's really not relevant (though) is it?

So why as a full frame sensor the size of the 35 millimetre film?

Well, if we think about it logically, in the days before digital cameras, a 35mm camera with a 50mm lens on it, that was the norm. 50mm is what you call standard view, standard field of view.

50mm (focal length) is pretty much how our eyes see things. So it's called standard for a reason, 50mm is a standard lens.

If they changed the size of the sensor, and the geometry and the optics and everything, then 50mm could become anything.

So going from film, to digital, it was a logical evolution. I'd say it sounds an odd thing, but at the same time, it makes absolutely perfect sense.

Yeah. And what I've written here is anything else would have changed everything in photography, and nobody wants that! (but they still did it).

Evolution

So SLR becomes DSLR. And this was back in the very late 1990s. I believe the Nikon D1 was the first fully integrated DSLR. When I say fully integrated, I mean, made from the ground up as a DSLR.

And yes, I will thank Google for that one - the rest of it's all my own knowledge, by the way.

So that's it really - full frame is full frame a camera with a sensor the same size as the 35mm film (camera).

Right then we don't need to worry about that a lot too much.

But why is this important? And (more importantly) what am I going to talk about for six minutes? Well, I'm glad you asked (if only people did).

So is a bigger sensor better?

Well, to answer the question, why is sensor size important, snappy title. I know. Checkout Photography Explained episode eight when I go into this - see I've already covered it. I just wanted to come back and talk about full frame on its own.

So is the bigger sensor better?

Yes, the bigger the sensor, the better. It is, I was gonna say the better the photos is but the better the capability to capture an image at a higher quality is, in theory.

And the bigger the sensor the more expensive the camera, generally.

These are big generalisations, but I hope you'll get the idea. Now obviously both of these you need to be comparing like for like, as in quality, manufacturer, and the rest of it.

Quickly, for other sensor sizes, please go back to Photography Explained episode eight, but not until you've listened to this one, and subscribed and all that good stuff. Sorry. I was shameless there wasn't I?

• Full frame
• Cropped sensor, also known as helpfully APS-C. Let's call it cropped (I think in the other episode, I called it APS-C all the way through, which is possibly a mistake).
• And then there's micro four thirds.

Now, these are the three most common consumer level sensor sizes. There are other ones, medium format, large format, and phones have smaller sensors.

But I'm talking about full frame cameras here.

So the sensor on a full frame camera is bigger than a cropped sensor (camera). A cropped sensor (camera) is bigger than a micro four thirds sensor. That's it.

So what else?

Depth of field

Well, a full frame camera has a narrower depth of field than a crop sensor when comparing equivalent focal lengths.

Let's just think about that one for a second.

Okay, that was my second. And the more I think about it, I never ever can get me nut round this one. I can't work it out. I can't explain to you why.

And that, for me is the point of this podcast or one of the points (I hope there's more than one point).

Do I need to know this??

I don't need to know this. Knowing this will have no impact on me won't change anything, won't help me.

And that's what I want to do in my podcast, I want to explain the things I think you need to know and tell you the stuff I think you do not need to worry about. And in my opinion, we do not need to worry about why a full frame camera has a narrow depth of field than a cropped sensor camera.

There you go. See people might disagree, but I ain't got time for all this nonsense.

So what else? Focal lengths

The Focal length stay the same. This is the point of the full frame camera and like I say 50mm on a film camera is 50mm on a (full frame) digital camera. You put it (50mm lens) on a crop sensor and your 50mm is effectively 80mm because you got a crop factor - I'll come on to let another time.

Put a 50mm lens on a Micro Four Thirds camera, and it's 100mm equivalent. This has to do with the sensor sizes, geometry, optics, and stuff that I'll never ever understand.

That will be a short episode, believe me.

So photography is pretty much built around the full frame camera, which evolved from the 35mm camera.

One last question - why are there different sizes of camera sensor?

Why not? Why is there more than one type of car? Why is there more than one type of beer? There's endless variables and cameras and sensor sizes prices, what people want what people need.

So, so why not - variety and options are good.

What do I use?

I nearly forgot that one. I use a Canon 6D. That is a full frame camera. Yes, I'm still using a Canon 6D from back in the day, 2014 I think it was released. And it's still a great camera. Let's be clear about that. It was a great, great camera when I bought it. And it's a great camera now.

I also use a micro four thirds Olympus EM5 Mk 2. That is also a great camera, but in a different way. Do you need a full frame camera?

Sorry, I was going to go through the list of full frame cameras and tell you what they all are, then I thought, you can do that yourselves. That's just basic information.

The hard bit about all these things is, like I said earlier, is what do you need to know, what's going to help you and what you don’t need to know.

Do you need a full frame camera?

Yes and no. Or the universal answer in photography - it depends. It depends on what your budget is, what your aspirations are, what you're taking photographs of, what lenses you have, and lots of other good stuff but that's the main point.

Back to me

Now I need a full frame camera - I use a Canon 6D with a Canon 17-40mm lens. And on my architectural photography, I take most of my photos at 17mm as this is the focal length that works for me and it's helped to give me my style.

If I put the 17-40 lens on a crop sensor camera, the 17 would have a crop factor of 1.6 applied to it which is, well it's somewhere between 26 and 34 isn't it? Let's not worry about it too much it'll be about 31 millimetres.

Now that has a big impact on what I'm photographing.

If I put the 17mm lens on an mft camera - micro four thirds sorry - the 17mm would in effect be 34mm (with a crop factor of two).

The other reason I like my full frame sensor is that it is a very good sensor and it captures a lot of data.

I could say in general terms a full frame sensor, when compared with an equivalent crop sensor or micro four thirds (sensor) will give you better images, better quality, better resolution, more range of details shades lights and everything.

Image quality is my number one priority

I mean that's why I still use the Canon 6D. It only has 11 focus points, it's not that quick, it hasn't got all the bells and whistles but if you saw the way I took photographs you'd see that it's got everything I need and it takes fantastic photos, day in, day out, endlessly.

I must stop praising it too much - it's going to fall over isn't it??

One last thing

Back in the day full frame cameras were DSLR (dslr digital single lens reflex) cameras - that's definitely one for another episode - now you can get mirrorless (as in a DSLR has a mirror, a mirrorless camera wait for it doesn't) so you can get mirrorless and DLSR full frame cameras.

I think next time I'm going to talk about, or am I gonna do it, yes I am - next episode I will tell you what a mirrorless camera is and it's going to be slightly more than “a mirrorless camera is a camera without a mirror” – no I'll do better than that trust me.

Post podcast recording note – I need to explain what a camera with a mirror is first so mirrorless will follow that.

Right I'm done - my one line summary

A full frame camera is a camera with a sensor which is 36mm by 24mm. A 50mm focal length on a full frame camera is 50mm. You can buy mirrorless and DSLR cameras with full frame sensors.

Next episode

While I'm going back to what my podcast was meant to be about stuff like this one thing explained so next episode as I alluded to earlier I will tell you what a mirrorless camera is (no I won’t).

Things you can do to help me

If you enjoyed this episode and you want to help me please leave a nice review and rating wherever you get your podcast from, also subscribe so you don't miss an episode, and share my podcast with anybody you think might enjoy it.

These things all help me

Thank you

Thank you for listening to my small but perfectly formed podcast

Rick McEvoy Photography

Please check out my website, Rick McEvoy Photography where you can find out more about me and my architectural and construction photography, work and also find my photography blog. It's really good honest (I've actually written it's really good honest - think I'll take that off the next script).

Photography Explained Podcast website

There is also the Photography Explained Podcast website - I nearly always forget that – I don't know why as I have just finished building it so, let's not forget the Photography Explained Podcast.com where you can find out all about my podcast, what I'm going to answer, and ask me a question of your own

Phew – nearly there

this episode was brought to you very much by the power of me suffering with a window closed on a hot March day with no fresh as a neighbour is cutting the lawn so I'm out of here

I've been Rick McEvoy, thanks again very much for listening to me and for giving me 14 (sorry) minutes of your valuable time. I'll see you on the next episode.

Cheers from me Rick (not eric as the transcript says, or Greg as it says in the intro!).

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

millimetre, full frame camera, sensor, camera, full frame sensor, photography, episode, dslr, crop sensor, explained, podcast, focal length, lens, crop factor, film, size, photographs, mirrorless camera, mcevoy, mirrorless".