Full vs Partial Frame Size

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Hi

I'm thinking of buying a new camera (as my current Panasonic Lumix FZ38 doesn't have hot shoe) and have been advised to consider 'full vs partial frame size'. But I'm not entirely sure what this means - could someone advise which is best for portraiture please?

Thanks very much
 
Full frame camera's are as close to 35mm film camera's, APS-C size are a cropped sensor, i'm not too sure about portraits but it really does depend on what you are shooting and what camera you are buying, also your budget. Full frame is not always best.

I was just reading an article on this funnily enough.
 
Digital cameras are now so good that both can be equally good but Full Frame usually means better quality for much larger pictures and lenses have a FOV equivalent to their real focal length.

I have a Canon 1Ds Mk II and find that the simple Canon 50mm f1.8 gives excellent portraits.

.
 
petersmart said:
Full Frame usually means better quality for much larger pictures and lenses have a FOV equivalent to their real focal length.
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Not quite true, the focal length is always the focal length. You get different fields of view depending on what sensor/film size you put behind it but that's a different matter.

Most things are measured vs. the 35mm film FOV but it doesn't need to be the case.

Anyway, essentially, unless you're going to drop £1500 on a camera (and then a similar amount on lenses) then this debate isn't really necessary.
 
Full frame & partial frame (or cropped as it is usually called) refer to the size of the sensor in the camera. A full frame has a sensor the same size as 35mm film while cropped sensors are smaller and come in lots of different sizes.

A larger sensor can give you reduced depth of field which is good for portraits where you want to have the face in focus but the background, and foreground, blurred.

The difference between your present camera and a DSLR is quite large:
Your present camera has a sensor 8.8mm*6.6mm a Nikon cropped sensor is 23.7mm*15.7mm (Canon cropped sensors are slightly smaller AFAIK) which is a big jump and will enable you to create the reduced depth of field, albeit not quite as much as a full frame.

The difference between a full frame sensor and a DSLR is not such a jump, 23.7mm*15.7mm for a cropped Nikon and 36mm*24mm for a full frame sensor.

As has already been said however the full frame DSLRs are a lot more expensive. I believe that the cheapest Nikon full frame is the D700 which is about £1800, the next cheapest :) is about twice that.
 
Suvv said:
Full frame & partial frame (or cropped as it is usually called) refer to the size of the sensor in the camera. A full frame has a sensor the same size as 35mm film while cropped sensors are smaller and come in lots of different sizes.

A larger sensor can give you reduced depth of field which is good for portraits where you want to have the face in focus but the background, and foreground, blurred.

The difference between your present camera and a DSLR is quite large:
Your present camera has a sensor 8.8mm*6.6mm a Nikon cropped sensor is 23.7mm*15.7mm (Canon cropped sensors are slightly smaller AFAIK) which is a big jump and will enable you to create the reduced depth of field, albeit not quite as much as a full frame.

The difference between a full frame sensor and a DSLR is not such a jump, 23.7mm*15.7mm for a cropped Nikon and 36mm*24mm for a full frame sensor.

As has already been said however the full frame DSLRs are a lot more expensive. I believe that the cheapest Nikon full frame is the D700 which is about £1800, the next cheapest :) is about twice that.
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Good post. :thumbs:
 
an addition to what have been said, the full frame is good for landscapes because of the wide range
 
Crop factor applies to aperture too (e.g f/2 on a dx gives the same depth of field as f/3 on full frame) , this is why it's impossible to get shallow depth of field on a compact camera - their sensors are tiny!
 
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So in the same way that a larger aperture allows the light to spread out more, the larger sensor has the same effect?
 
Suvv said:
The difference between a full frame sensor and a DSLR is not such a jump, 23.7mm*15.7mm for a cropped Nikon and 36mm*24mm for a full frame sensor.
Click to expand...

It is quite a big jump - a full frame sensor covers 2.5 x the area of a Nikon DX one
 
I think the main advantage of a full frame system comes with the big clear viewfinder. At the right focal length a full frame system is much closer to what your eye sees than a croped sensor. This makes composition much easier as you do not have to copensate for the crop factor
 
NW_Weddings said:
I think the main advantage of a full frame system comes with the big clear viewfinder. At the right focal length a full frame system is much closer to what your eye sees than a croped sensor. This makes composition much easier as you do not have to copensate for the crop factor
Click to expand...

I think the big view finder is certainly one, but I don't think its the main one. A full frame image has a quality that for portraits isn't there for DX. Thats the big advantage
 
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