APS-C - Advantages and Disadvantages

Advantages and Disadvantages

Compared to the full-frame format, APS-C sensors offer some advantages and disadvantages. Currently, digital SLRs using full-frame sensors are mostly used by professional photographers and advanced amateurs. This may be because SLRs with APS-C sensors are considerably cheaper than full-frame cameras. They are also lighter and smaller. Apart from these differences, there are two other important factors. The first is image quality. Theoretically, a larger sensor produces a better image, i.e. one with more detail and less noise. In practice, the difference may not be obvious and may depend on the use of a high quality lens and on the photographer's skill. The other difference is the crop factor. The smaller APS-C sensor effectively minimizes the field of view by about 1.5, so that a 300mm lens has the same field of view as a 450mm lens on a 35mm. While this crop factor is often called a focal length multiplier, it is important to note that there is no magnification benefit, only a smaller field of view. This means that, although it is possible to use lenses made for the 35mm format on APS-C cameras, lenses designed for 35mm may lack sufficient resolution to get the best from smaller formats.