gdanmitchell Offline Upload & Sell: Off
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There are some sort of simple ways to look at the question underlying this never-ending debate:
1. If you compare two systems with the same angle of view coverage (e.g. focal lengths that differ according to crop factor) and the same number of photo sites, lenses of equivalent "quality" (in terms, primarily, of resolution), the system with the larger sensor is always capable of greater resolution.
2. If you look at your real world photography — what you photograph and what you do with the photographs — you may find that this difference is irrelevant to your photographs. In other words, the potential difference that comes from a larger sensor (or film) turns out to be meaningless when you and others look at the photographs you produce.
3. Smaller systems produce very fine quality images these days. Cropped sensor cameras, used skillfully with good lenses, can produce excellent prints much larger than the vast majority of shooters will ever need.
4. For these folks — and, I'd say, most folks — the cropped sensor systems (forgetting for a moment the issue of lens quality and reach) will work just great. They will love the results, and would not likely really notice any significant difference from using the larger system.
5. To the extent that filling the frame with the subject is important, you can do that with a shorter focal length on a cropped sensor system than on a full frame system. This has some advantages that are likely important to many shooters: lower cost, smaller size, less weight. If the cropped sensor systems produce the quality you want/need, then these other factors trump image quality.
6. When it come to the interminable debate about whether the image quality will be better from an uncropped cropped-sensor shot with some lens or a cropped full frame sensor shot with the same lens, some of the same subjective issues apply — and perhaps "is it great for what I do?" may be the first question to answer.
7. If this hasn't settled it and your eyes are glazing over... don't worry about it. This likely isn't relevant to your photography. If your eyes have not glazed over and you are internally debating the relative effects of different numbers of usable photo sites, issues related to how lp/mm resolution plays out on the lens and the sensor... think about it and come to your own conclusions. ;-)
Dan
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