Crop Sensor Explained

A frequent question in photography circles is `What's the difference between a "full frame" camera and a "crop sensor" camera?`

Well, there are a lot of differences.  A "crop sensor" camera has a smaller electronic sensor which captures less light.  Less light generally means your picture quality is reduced.  Does that mean you can't get good quality pictures with a crop sensor camera? No way.  Crop sensor cameras today have tremendous ability to produce quality images.

The term "crop sensor" came from the fact that your sensor is only capturing the middle part of your image.  In other words, the image is "cropped" by the camera.  Take for example the following two photos.  Both were shot from the same position with a 70-200 f/2.8 at 135mm.

Canon 5d Mark IV.

Canon 7d Mark II

As you can see in the top photo, you get a bigger field of view with a full frame camera.  On wide angle shots this is great!  For something you want to get close to, a crop sensor camera has a built-in 1.6x (on Canon) zoom.

Which is better?  It depends.

A crop sensor camera is better than a phone!  It is also better for when you need the extra reach without getting a bigger lens.  This is going to be better for things like wildlife photos and sports outdoors.

A full frame camera is going to be better when it comes to inside sports with less light, portraits, and night photography.