What is Crop Factor ???

[dicklaxt]

I,ve heard mention of this and have read a bit about it but don't fully understand it.

I hearing a greater effective reach out of the lens by using a cropped image,certainly the focal length doesn't change so if the image is brought in closer by cropping doesn't it become distorted and/or not appear to be as sharp?

What are the numbers for a 40D ,I've read 1.4,1.6 etc

dick

[jerryph]

When the sensor is smaller by a certain percentage than the old standard. The old standard has always been 35mm. If you have a 1.6 crop factor, your sensor is 60% smaller than a full frame sensor which is 35mm.

I am not a Canon person, but a simple google will give you the exact crop factor of your camera faster than in the time it took for you to type in your question. ;) :)

[coffee]

I,ve heard mention of this and have read a bit about it but don't fully understand it.

I hearing a greater effective reach out of the lens by using a cropped image,certainly the focal length doesn't change so if the image is brought in closer by cropping doesn't it become distorted and/or not appear to be as sharp?

What are the numbers for a 40D ,I've read 1.4,1.6 etc

dick

40D is 1.6

[dicklaxt]

I 'm going to have to go do some reading on just how all that works but if I'm dealing strictly with my 40D then it doeasn't appear to buy me anything when comparing reach out to other dSLR lens meaning a 300mm lens on a dSLR camera would still be 300mm and not 480mm but compared to a 35mm film it would,is that right?

dick

[ladyups]

Hey Dick...try this link. It's simple explanation.

http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/crop-factor-explained/

I really think that the only people that this really effects are those that transition from film slr's. Especially those that are so used to their full frame cameras and that already know what they can get out of their lenses. Then when they trade in their film cameras for a DSLR, they aren't getting the same out of those same lenses unless they opted to buy a FULL frame DSLR. Me...I never had nothing more than a point and shoot so my lenses do exactly what I think they would do....LOL...nothing more, nothing less. ;)

I forgot to add...in lesson 3 (I believe) we learned that we need to know our camera's crop factor (my Sony a100 has a 1.5) so we know how much of a shutter speed we need to hand hold a camera to take an image. On my 50mm with my 1.5 crop factor (50 x 1.5) I could only SAFELY hand hold my camera at a shutter speed of faster than 1/75. Anything slower than that and I would have slight blur unless my hands were rock solid....which mine are not. On your 40D with a 1.6 you could hand hold at 1/80 ss. Does this make sense?

[jerryph]

Crop factor has nothing to do with magnification, only field of view. A 300mm lens on a full frame has the same level of magnification as on a 300mm lens on a cropped frame camera. The only difference is that you see less of that picture in a cropped frame, but the center parts if compared side by side, are identical.

[dicklaxt]

Thanks guys and gals I got it now

dick

[coffee]

Hey Dick,

I noticed that you've had a few questions about your 40D lately. I wanted to tell you about a very good book that you can pick up at any book store that may help you greatly.

It called "Canon EOS 40D- guide to digital SLR photography" by David D Busch.

If you want a book that covers the 40D inside out, as well as the software that came with your camera, this is your book.