What's a crop factor and how does it work on a camera?
What's a crop factor?
Crop factor has everything to do with the size of the image sensor of your camera. The first cameras had an image sensor of 35mm wide, the size of the film inside. There are digital cameras with such image sensors too, the full-frame cameras. All the image sensors that are smaller than 35mm have a crop factor. The photo you take with these cameras is more 'zoomed in' than the photo taken with a full-frame camera.
What's the effect of a crop factor for the result?
You'll mostly notice the difference between a camera with and without a crop factor with the focal length of lenses. A 50mm lens on a full-frame camera truly has a focal length of 50mm. If you use the same lens on a camera with a crop factor, the lens suddenly has a larger focal length. As a result of the crop factor, the image is zoomed in and the object seems to be a lot closer.
How does crop factor work on my camera?
The exact crop factor depends on which brand or type of camera you have. A Canon SLR camera with an APS-C sensor has a crop factor of 1.6, for example. You can calculate the focal length by multiplying it with the crop factor. If you have a 50mm lens, this would be 1.6 x 50mm = 80mm. SLR cameras by Nikon and Sony have a crop factor of 1.5. Generally speaking, the smaller the sensor, the larger the crop factor of your camera.
