

One advantage is that wide-angle lenses designed for full-frame 35 mm retain that same wide angle of view. When used with lenses designed for full frame film or digital cameras, full-frame DSLRs offer a number of advantages compared to their smaller-sensor counterparts.

The ratio of the size of the full-frame 35 mm format to the size of the smaller format is known as the " crop factor" or "focal-length multiplier", and is typically in the range 1.3–2.0 for non-full-frame digital SLRs.Īdvantages and disadvantages of full-frame digital SLRs 35 mm lenses Īn APS-C format DSLR (left) and a full-frame DSLR (right) show the difference in the size of the sensors. The edges are cropped off, which is equivalent to zooming in on the center section of the imaging area. When a lens designed for a full-frame camera, whether film or digital, is mounted on a DSLR with a smaller sensor size, only the center of the lenses image circle is captured. If the lens mounts are compatible, many lenses, including manual-focus models, designed for 35 mm cameras can be mounted on DSLR cameras. This equates to 10K horizontal resolution in full-frame size. Kodak states that 35 mm film (note: in " Academy format", 21.0 mm × 15.2 mm) has the equivalent of 6K horizontal resolution, according to a senior vice president of IMAX. Historically, the earliest digital SLR models, such as the Nikon NASA F4 or Kodak DCS 100, also used a smaller sensor. Many digital cameras, both compact and SLR models, use a smaller-than-35 mm frame as it is easier and cheaper to manufacture imaging sensors at a smaller size. The full-frame DSLR is in contrast to full-frame mirrorless interchangeable-lens cameras, and DSLR and mirrorless cameras with smaller sensors (for instance, those with a size equivalent to APS-C-size film), much smaller than a full 35 mm frame. Historically, 35 mm was one of the standard film formats, alongside larger ones, such as medium format and large format. The sizes of sensors used in most current digital cameras, relative to a 35 mm formatĪ full-frame DSLR is a digital single-lens reflex camera (DSLR) with a 35 mm image sensor format ( 36 mm × 24 mm).
