From the course: The Practicing Photographer

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Sensor size and depth of field

Sensor size and depth of field

From the course: The Practicing Photographer

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Sensor size and depth of field

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- I've noticed something a little strange in some online photo forums lately. Here and there, I have seen debate raging about whether or not sensor size impacts depth of field. I've seen a number of people arguing that sensor size has no impact on depth of field, because a smaller sensor is just a crop of a larger sensor. So let's work through some of the basics of aperture and depth of field. The aperture in your lens can be opened to different sizes, and we measure those sizes using the f-stop scale. What you must remember is how that f-number is calculated. The f-number is the ratio of the focal length of the lens to the size of the aperture opening. The critical thing to realize here is that an f/4 aperture doesn't mean an aperture of a specific size. In order words, all f/4 apertures are not the same physical size. The size of an f/4 aperture varies depending on the focal length of the lens that the aperture is…

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