@pkbiswas wrote:
Dear Mr Cicopo,
....WIll there be marked difference between a full format camera and crop camera in image quality except for low light photography.
1.) "Low light" conditions are very common, so the low light advantage is not a small thing. Keep in mind that "low light" to a camera is not really all that low. Your eyes are way more sensitive to light than a camera is, and you can see fine in light that will make your camera struggle. Indoor lighting at night time can often be low light to a camera even though you can see just fine with your eyes.
2.) Grain, noise and lack of detail are what you have to deal with in low light. When the camera needs more light, and you have already opened up the lens to its largest aperture opening size, and you are already using the slowest shutter speed you can use without getting blurry pictures, then the only thing the camera can do is to raise the ISO, which is the light sensitivity of the lens sensor. Unfortunately this carries a cost, in that it lowers the image quality in two ways. First, it creates "noise", which appears as grainy and/or colored little splotches. Second, at high ISO the camera captures less and less detail. Especially if you crop the image in post processing, or if you have a large monitor, you will notice the image is kind of blocky and things like facial features (eyes, lips, etc.) will have a weird low resolution quality, and you may not be able to see fine details like eyelashes as well as you could at lower ISO settings.
(At this point someone on the board may find the urge is nearly irresistable to post one of their photos shot at high ISO's that looks OK, and may question my technique, or question the reliance on what you see in a big 30" computer monitor instead of what you would see if you made 8" x 10" prints of everything instead.) 🙂
The larger pixels in the typical full frame sensor give better image quality at higher ISO's. Up to about two stops better, which means when you have to raise the ISO setting in low light, the full frame sensor will give equivalent image quality to a crop sensor when the full frame is shooting in 1/4th the light. For example, an image shot with a full frame 6d set to ISO 3200 may look as good as an image from a crop camera set at just ISO 800.
This is very approximate, and the exact numbers will vary depending on what cameras are used. Some of the new mega high MP full frame cameras have to use pretty small pixels, so the advantage erodes a bit.
Scott
Canon 5d mk 4, Canon 6D, EF 70-200mm L f/2.8 IS mk2; EF 16-35 f/2.8 L mk. III; Sigma 35mm f/1.4 "Art" EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro; EF 85mm f/1.8; EF 1.4x extender mk. 3; EF 24-105 f/4 L; EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS; 3x Phottix Mitros+ speedlites
Why do so many people say "FER-tographer"? Do they take "fertographs"?
