Full-frame eos Dslrs

Bigger is better, or so they say. Matthew Richards compares the relative merits of cameras with upsized full-frame sensors over their APS-C format cousins

It’s a long time since Canon marketed an APS-C format camera in its ‘professional’ lineup. Instead, the upper echelon has become purely the preserve of full-frame bodies. Meanwhile, the 6D has brought full-frame shooting to the ‘enthusiast’ sector. So what’s the big attraction? Whereas Canon’s APS-C format image sensors measure about 22x15mm, the size of a stamp, a full-frame sensor is considerably larger at 36x24mm, the same size as a frame of 35mm film. That’s more than 2.5x the surface area. And yes, bigger really is better.

For starters, full-frame bodies enable you to use Canon’s elite range of EF lenses as nature (or, at least, design principles) intended. There’s no crop factor to cripple wide-angle coverage. Better still, you can get a much tighter depth of field when using wide apertures at any ‘actual’ rather than ‘effective’ focal length. This gives you much greater creative control in your photography.

The larger surface area of the image sensor also enables greater design freedom when it comes to megapixel count. If you stick with a modest value of around 20Mp, you can expect much less image noise when shooting under low lighting conditions, at high ISO settings.