In digital photography, a crop factor is related to the ratio of the dimensions of a camera's imaging area compared to a reference format; most often, this term is applied to digital cameras, relative to 35 mm film format as a reference. In the case of digital cameras, the imaging device would be a digital sensor. The most commonly used definition of crop factor is the ratio of a 35 mm frame's diagonal (43.3 mm) to the diagonal of the image sensor in question; that is, CF=diag35mm / diagsensor. Given the same 3:2 aspect ratio as 35mm's 36mm x 24mm area, this is equivalent to the ratio of heights or ratio of widths; the ratio of sensor areas is the square of the crop factor.
This ratio is also commonly – but wrongly – referred to as a focal length multiplier ("FLM") since multiplying a lens focal length by the crop factor or FLM gives the focal length of a lens that would yield the same field of view if used on the reference format. For example, a lens with a 50 mm focal length on an imaging area with a crop factor of 1.5 with respect to the reference format (usually 35 mm) will yield the same field of view that a lens with a 75 mm focal length will yield on the reference format. It is important to note that the focal length of the lens does not change by using a smaller imaging area; the field of view is correspondingly smaller because a smaller area of the image circle cast by the lens is used by the smaller imaging area.
The term format factor is sometimes also used, and is a more neutral term that corresponds to the German word for this concept, Formatfaktor.
Read more about Crop Factor: Introduction, Estimating Sensor Performance, Digital Lenses, Crop Factor of Point-and-shoot Cameras, Magnification Factor, Secondary Effects, Common Crop Factors
Other articles related to "crop factor, crop factors, crop":
... The sensor is 35% smaller in area (2.0x crop factor) than APS-C (1.5x crop factor, or 1.6x for Canon-APS-C) sized sensors and 75% smaller (i.e ... quarter of the area) than a full frame sensor (1.0x crop factor) (35 mm equivalent), which can mean lower image quality when all other variables are the same ... A larger crop factor (2x multiplier versus APS-C's 1.5x) means greater depth-of-field for the same equivalent field of view and f/stop when compared with APS-C and especially full frame cameras ...
... Crop factor figures are useful in calculating 35 mm equivalent focal length and 35 mm equivalent magnification ... Some common crop factors are Type Height (mm) Crop factor 1/2.5" (Many Superzoom and point-and-shoot cameras) 4.29 5.6 1/2.3" (Compacts and Superzooms like Canon Powershot SX Series) 4.62 5.2 1/1.8" (High-end ...
... When used with a Canon APS-C (1.6x crop) DSLR camera or APS-H (1.3x crop), the field of view of this lens is similar to a 320mm or 260mm on full frame camera ... This is due to the crop factor inherent with APS-C or APS-H (crop) sensor digital SLR cameras ... full sensor space for a cropped image rather than having to crop afterwards, thus utilizing parts of the sensor that would have otherwise been wasted ...
... sensors, either around the size of a frame of APS-C film, with a crop factor of 1.5-1.6 or 30% smaller than that, with a crop factor of 2.0 (this is the ... On September 2011, Nikon announced their new format CX, whose size is 1" (2.7 crop factor) ... small sensor, typical of compact cameras it is the Pentax Q, equipped with a 1/2.3" sensor (5.62 crop factor) ...
... the f-number inversely in proportion to crop factor – a smaller f-number for smaller sensors ... is then operating at a lower ISO setting, by the square of the crop factor.) And, we might compare the depth of field of sensors receiving the same ... are the characteristic dimensions of the format, and thus is the relative crop factor between the sensors ...
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