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I Have What May Be A Stupid Question. EF, RF, EF-S, RF-S

Far-Out-Dude
Rising Star
Rising Star

I have what some may find to be a stupid question, but what exactly is aWispy Clouds.Wispy Clouds. S lens? (EF-S, RF-S) What is different about them and in what circumstance would I want one over a EF or RF lens? Thank you very much for your time.

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

AtticusLake
Mentor
Mentor

Canon use the "-S" suffix to indicate a lens or camera which is designed for a so-called "crop" sensor, also called APS-C, roughly equivalent to Super 35.  As opposed to "full-frame", which has a larger sensor.

So a "-S" camera will have a sensor about 23mm × 15mm.  A "-S" lens will create an image big enough to cover that sensor, so it will work fine.  A full-frame lens -- i.e. no "-S" -- will create a larger image, which will also be fine.

A full-frame camera -- i.e. no "-S" -- will have a sensor about 36mm × 24mm -- quite a bit larger.  A full-frame lens will cover this no problem, but a "-S" lens will not.  The camera will handle a "-S" lens by reading out only a part of the sensor ("crop mode"), which will give you a drastically reduced resolution.  Your pictures will be OK, but with nowhere near the resolution you paid for.

The benefit of a "-S" lens on a "-S" camera is that it will, in general, be smaller, lighter, and cheaper than a full-frame lens; the drawback is that if you later upgrade your camera to full-frame, then the "-S" lenses won't work well.

A "-S" camera, or a full-frame camera in crop mode, will also have a narrower field of view; so your lenses will all be a bit more telephoto.  Multiply the focal length by around 1.5 to get the "equivalent full-frame focal length".   So a 100mm lens on a "-S" camera is still a 100mm lens, but will give you the field of view that a 150mm lens would give you on a full-frame camera.

If you want to know more about lens mounts, I wrote an article which tries to explain this stuff: https://moonblink.info/MudLake/gear/lenses

Hope this helps.

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16 REPLIES 16

Thank you very much. I THINK I keep it mostly at landscape, I am getting pretty tired though and may have that wrong. If I am even thinking of the right thing, I know it says standard, just am to tired to remember where at this time. I never knew you replied by the way, very sorry about that.

Just wanted to let you know that yes we were speaking of the same thing and I have been keeping it at landscape. I have switched it to standard for now and will see if I like it more. Thank you for the advise.

People all too often don't want to hear critique--even if they ask for it--but where I lose patience is when someone represents something as garish as a Thomas Kinkade painting as an image SOOC.

As a working photographer with 45 years of experience in the field, for my own creations I really like grain/noise, so I shoot to get it. If I display a result in a group, I preface the commentary with what I was going for, but that never stops the know-betters from chiming in anyway.

Tintype_18
Authority
Authority

Interesting and like the landscape photo.

The only stupid question is the one not asked- Dad.

John
Canon EOS T7; EF-S 18-55mm IS; EF 28-135mm IS; EF 75-300mm; Sigma 150-600mm DG

Dad was a wise man. Thank you.

 

ebiggs1
Legend
Legend

Like LeeP stated it is and does come down to what you as the photographer want and like. It is not my place to say different. I used to sell my work, I am retired now, so I tried to do what other people like and want. It's a different mind set. Please ignore my comment and do as you like and suits your taste.

EB
EOS 1DX and 1D Mk IV and less lenses then before!

I understand what you mean in part about what other people like, I like taking pictures of waterfalls but I do not like that ribbon effect very often, I think it looks fake and like it is overdone to an extreme amount, I prefer to show the power in the falls like in this shot.Untitled-resized.jpg Not my best but it shows what I mean. I do not mind a ribbon on a weaker falls like this._MG_0033-Enhanced-NRenhanced.jpg

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