#Full frame vs medium format full

#Full frame vs medium format full

Full Frame vs Medium Format Cameras Sensor SizeĪs discussed earlier, the size of a medium format sensor is larger than a full-frame sensor. Let’s compare full frame vs medium format cameras in detail to have a better understanding of how sensor-size affects your photos. Finding a camera is all about finding that one solution that fits your need. There are no best cameras that will perform best in any given condition. A larger sensor has its own added benefits, and disadvantages. Any camera that features a sensor larger than the 36×24 mm and smaller than 100×130 mm is a medium format camera. Medium format cameras, on the other hand, equip a larger sensor size compared to a 35mm full-frame digital sensor. Full-frame is the standard in photography for comparing crop factors of different types of sensors. I also wanted to share the technical details for the large prints that I shot for the video.Guides » Photography Terms Glossary » Full Frame vs Medium Format Cameras | What do you need?įull frame cameras pack a 35-mm film equivalent digital sensor inside them with 36 x 24 mm dimensions. It isn’t so much about the minute detail but the grand scale of the scene. When it is that size you look at it in a different way. What I can say is that the 50 inch print that I did with the Z7 and GFX looked amazing. However, if you did then look closely you would see the issue (just like if you look closely at a billboard!). You can see that as you get bigger and start standing further away then I think you ultimately get to a point where a 50MP camera is good enough. These are the results of my tests and are just my opinion. Here are the results of my test and what megapixel image you need for each size print ( this is just my opinion) Remember though that if you want them to look amazing when viewed very close up then you need to be using 300+ PPI (I couldn’t tell a difference past 450 PPI but other people have mentioned they can tell up to 720 PPI)

So I did some tests at home and found that you could get away with the follow PPI settings when printing photos. However on closer inspection you could tell they had a low PPI but it didn’t matter. There were many many prints that were massive and looked awesome. I was first fascinated by this at Photokina in Germany last year. Yes you may get in close to observe the detail but it is more unlikely on a larger print. The thing is that the larger the print the further you actually stand away from the image to view it. For example look at a 100 PPI print from close up it will look poor but move to 20 feet away and you won’t be able to tell the difference between that and a 300 PPI print.

However, that depends how close you look at it. It is considered good practice to send a file to print at 300 PPI (so in each inch of print you will effectively have 300 pixels). A pixel is made up of multiple different color dots. The DPI is often the quoted resolution of the printer as it is the absolute resolving power of each ink drop. We use this in printing as the input resolution to the printer but it shouldn’t be confused with DPI which is the number of actual ink dots (of different colors) that can be put down on the paper by the printer. However, I wanted to provide some other information about printing sizes that I learned whilst making the video.įirst of all we need to understand PPI - which is quite simply the number of pixels in your images per inch (usually referred to on the display).