Full Frame or APS-C

Full Frame  or APS-C Sensor About 6 months ago I was faced with a delemma of which camera to buy. I have always been a canon man and believe through experience that Canon have the slight edge over Nikon for image quality. I initially wanted to buy the Canon 5D which most of my mates own. This really is a great camera with super high end Iso's and excellent tonal ranges. I had seen the results from this camera and definitely agree with my mates the images are hard to beat for a Full frame camera of this price range. After a lot of thought and consideration I come to the conclusion that there are pro's and con's for both the two a camera's but eventually I was swayed towards the 7D for quite a number of factors. I have a number of lenses which are Canon EFS lenses which would not fit on a full frame camera, these lense's are built specifcally for a crop sensor camera The 5D is approx £500 more than the 7D I'm an outdoor photographer and sometimes shoot fast subjects the 7D wins hands down at 8fps as opposed to th 5D's 4 The 7D has a lot newer design with a whole host of newer features, such as electronic levelling etc  The 7D has a 19 point AF system as opposed the 5D's 9  The 7D has far newer and better HD video system  The 7D includes an Integrated Speedlite Transmitter that allows it to master control of a  wireless flash system enabling a group of different flash heads to be used Admittedly the 5D does produce more crisper images and noise is less apparent at high end ISO's but for value for money I think I have made the right choice The 5D is a lovely camera but lacks a lot of the great new features of the 7D. Perhaps we will be seing the 5D Mk 3 soon with all the features included from the 7D I have heard rumors of the new 5D mk 3 is on the way next year. If all the features of the 7D and the 5D are going to be combined plus even better,newer features are going to be added, I will be putting my name down  for one tomorrow To summarize the 7D is a great all round camera which is very fast, used more for action and sports photography,brilliant for out door photography but still good for indoor work too The 5D better has better clarity and tonal ranges,with a great big view finder,less noise,perhaps better suited to studio,wedding and Landscape photography Shown below is some of my research that I carried out on these 2 cameras. This research was taken from a web site called Digital Rev

Which one to get? Canon EOS 7D VS 5D MarkII 28 September 2009 What are the factors you need to consider? Factors Canon EOS 7D Canon EOS 5D MarkII Current stash of Lenses (Heavy on EF-S?) For those with lots of EF-S lenses then the 7D is the right choice. For those with mainly EF lenses, it's time to sell off your EF-S and embrace full frame. Depth of Field (FF or APS-C) Unless you are good enough to tell the difference or shoot lots of landscape where it may be more apparent, APS-C sized sensors are just fine. When Depth of Field is a serious matter of concern. Continuous Burst Shooting 8fps...yes... no contest on this one. 3.9fps, suitable for most normal usage but if you need real speed, you need to look over to the 7D. Telephoto Buff Always pushing to the limits of your focal range? The 1.6x crop factor will keep sights far out without breaking the bank. Unless you can afford some really long lenses, or don't go far into the telephoto range, you will just have to deal with the trade off between FF's depth of field against the cropped "reach" of the APS-C sensors. Electronic Levelling If you need precisely levelled shots for architectural or engineering purposes, then look no further. Not available on the 5D Mark II. Ain't that important? Then you'll be perfectly happy with this camera. Wireless Transmitter Internally built for convenience but does not support all Canon models. Non-Canon brands? Better get your remote trigger ready... Not shooting with external Canon flash? Then you will need a separate remote trigger anyway. Pop-up Flash? YES! Maybe not the best results but always there for convenience No! In studio, this would be useless anyway and given that you would probably be shooting with L lenses, the flash is just a small investment for better quality ISO Quality ISO up to 12800. Excellent qualities for both. More details available in hands-on review. ISO up to 25600. Excellent for qualities for both. More details available in hands-on review. HD Movie 1080p at 30p, 25p and 24p. Fast 50 or 60p at 720p. S-L-O-W M-O-T-I-O-N here I come! More Depth of Field with larger sensor. 1080p at 30p only. Conversion to 24p is painful for some! AF System 19 cross-type AF points, based on 1-series, enough said. 9-point AF + 6 Assist AF points, had received complaints but mostly resolved and gets the job done. To summarise: Upgrade to Canon 7D if... Upgrade to Canon 5D II if... You have a collection of EF-S lenses You shoot sports or any fast moving activities You need a built-in flash for convenience You shoot telephoto & need the crop advantage You already have a collection of L lenses You do lots of works in studio You do lots of ultra wide angle shots You need an extremely high level of detail in your shots Whether you choose full-frame vs. APS-C is determined mainly by two factors, cost and the type of photography you do. Generally, full-frame cameras offer higher quality images and better large-format printing capability. APS-C cameras offer greater speed and enhanced magnification by the crop factor.  Full-frame cameras typically have more, or at least larger, pixels, and these gather more light and capture more information with less “noise.” So full-frame cameras excel in landscape and macro photography and provide more detail, allowing for impressive large-format prints. The slower capture speed of, for example, a Canon EOS 5D, isn’t a problem in landscape or macro photography since light is more controllable as the photographer composes and then captures an image, sometimes using long exposures of the subject. On a full-frame camera, wide-angle lenses perform the same way they do on a 35mm film camera. There’s no crop factor. When choosing a D-SLR, you have to consider the main subject area you shoot and what level of quality you need. Shown below are the different crop factors in comparison to a full frame. Full frame refers to the size of the sensor inside your camera in relation to the size of a 35mm negative Shown below are actual sensor sizes shown in millimeters. As you can see the size of the full frame sensor is considerably larger that the APS-C sensor which can capture more detail and obviously produces a higher quality image. Full frame sensors are a lot more expensive to produce which explains why this type of camera is a lot more expensive that a APS-C sensor type Format Corner to Center Left/Right Edge to Center Top/Bottom to Center Full Frame 36mm x 24mm 21.5mm 18mm 12mm APS-C 22.5mm x 15mm 13.5mm 11.25mm 7.5mm Shown below are the different sensor sizes from different camera formats.The largest sensor here is a sensor used on a medium format camera. The smallest size sensors are shown from compact digital point and shoot cameras This diagram shows the comparison of different sensors sizes for the Canon 5 and 7D Looking at the comparison below you can see that the overall size of the 5D 35mm Full frame sensor is a lot larger than the 7d's APS crop sensor. Obviously the bigger the sensor the more pixel information that can be recorded onto a sensor the more detail and definition will be seen in an image. I have compared the image definition and clarity of my 7D with a friend's 5D and must admit that the 5D wins hands down. Noise is less apparent in the 5D and tonal ranges and colour richness are far superior. Canon have modified the new senor of the 7D but to me it still lacks clarity and sharpness of it's big brother