Full Frame vs Crop Sensor Cameras Explained for Beginners

Explaining the merits of full frame vs crop sensor cameras, when's the right time to make the upgrade (if ever), and what it all means! If you're a beginner photographer looking to understand more about camera types, this video is for you.

////I'M ON THE INTERNET////

////MY FAVORITE CAMERA GEAR////

[gaby]

Hey Josh. But the printing size doesn’t depend on if the camera is crop sensor or Full frame, that depends on the megapixel capability.

[anitaunderwood]

Thanks for explaining this subject in simple and effective language. You did an excellent job.

[JavierArellano]

I like your advice about first use and dominate your crop before go with full frame

[lillywhy]

I really appreciated the way you described all of this in such detail, and with so many visual aids. I've heard mentions of sensors, and crop sensors, and crop factors for years but I didn't know what it all meant. Now I get it! And that barbie camera mention was so funny, I used to have a little camera like that where they gave you a USB cable to transfer images to the computer. It was a terrible little camera unfortunately, it crashed our computer and erased the camera's memory. XD

[lewisy]

Great advice man! Been dead set on buying an 80d for a few weeks now and halfway through I switched to thinking of buying a 5D mark III. But I think I may just wait and build my lens collection as you say as it should still perform well in low light!

[alexstevensen]

For every doubling of sensor area there's a 3db improvement in signal to noise ratio. The same for a doubling of exposure time/aperture. That's because there's a thing called shot noise which increases 3db with every 6db of extra exposure. 3 db is 1.4x and 6db 2x btw. So there is a difference between larger and smaller sensors but not that much. It's a square root relationship. So going from a full frame 840 to 43 square mm phone camera there's a factor 20 which makes a factor 4.5 which means 4.5 times more noise or slightly more then 12db. To compensate for that you need to expose 20x longer. So the 1.4 more noise factor when going from full frame to aps-c translates to a 2 times longer exposure to compensate. So in that sense it is 'two times better'.

[qthenz]

Great video and very simple to understand especially for some who is new to photography like me. Thanks and more power to your channel.

[osasenoma-owens]

Great video! Regarding the high ISO comparison, it depends on what brand of camera you're shooting with. I shot a portrait of a girl at ISO 8000 on my Nikon D5300 (which is impressively good in low light) and I didn't have any problems with grain. I feel that Canon crop sensor cameras are the reason why people think that crop sensor cameras aren't good in low light XD

[matttrant]

I have a Fuji xt2 and I will happily use iso 6400/8000 and get a very good low grain image

[othomsen]

The reason why big sensors often are good performers regarding noise is not the sensors size. It’s the kind of pixels used on the sensor.
You can have a very small sensor but with big juicy pixels which are great in low light.

[catalinaaragon]

Thank you for this video. (: Very informative and to the point.

[natbrownizzle]

Thank you Josh, I will buy the Sony Alpha 7ii now. :)

[LEXPIX]

Good stuff man. I did the very topic a few years back and updated it recently

[peacetea]

i have a question. if you have a crop sensor camera and want to fit more into the shot, can't you put a wide angle lens on the crop sensor for the full frame sensor effect??

[denisgerard]

Hi. Just wanted to point out that noise has nothing to do with sensor size. Size of the photosites is the most important. If you put big photosites on a crop sensor, you, ll have less megapixels but good low light capability.

[joevalenza]

I think I’m gonna upgrade to the canon 80D from my current sl1. I want to learn all the features included with that one that the sl1 is lacking before going full frame.

[EggyDavi]

Thanks for this thorough explanation! Well done! :)

[alanlever]

very helpful and well explained thanks

[seanomoluabi]

Awesome video... That was the perfect Instagram plug!

[pandoraseiji]

Welps one thing to point out. More megapixels does not mean better lownlight peformance. Ususally it means worst as theres more pixels to take in light, causing grains to appear more frequently. But full frames has better low light capability due to the size of the sensor, as there is more grain per pixel, casing the grains to beore compacted together resulting in "better" low light quality. I have a Nikon D2H. 8 megapixels full frame camera, yet I can comfortably shoot at 1250 ISO with not much noise issue.