From the course: Photo Gear Weekly

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Going Wide with a Cropped Sensor

Going Wide with a Cropped Sensor

From the course: Photo Gear Weekly

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Going Wide with a Cropped Sensor

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- When we talk about a cropped sensor camera, we're essentially talking about a digital SLR that has a sensor size that is smaller than full frame. In the context of a typical digital SLR, that means a full frame sensor would be the size of a frame of 35 millimeter film, and a camera with a cropped sensor would have a sensor that is somewhat smaller. Now, this used to be referred to as a focal-length multiplier back in the early days of digital photography, but many of us agreed that that was a little bit misleading, because we're not really multiplying the focal length. We're actually just cropping the image circle that is projected by the lens. But the net result is that with a cropped sensor, a long focal length lens essentially gets even more reach because we're cropping out part of that image. But what is not often talked about is that that cropped sensor also crops the field of view for a wide angle lens, so you end up with a not so wide field of view. For example, here I have a…

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