Why is 35mm/full-frame the standard reference for sensor size?
Asked 8/28/2013
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I often hear digital camera sensors described as "full frame" or "cropped" (such as APS-C). Why is 35mm/full-frame used as the standard reference point for sensor size? Is there something special about that size, or is it just historical? Also, is 35mm the largest sensor format available?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
12y ago
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For digital cameras, it's purely due to historical reasons - 35mm was the dominant size for film cameras and cinematography. As for why film cameras ended up with 35mm, I'd suggest 35 mm film and 135 film on Wikipedia as a good place to start. It's also worth noting that "35mm" is not actually the size of the image, which is 36x24 mm, but the width of the film.
It's certainly not the largest sensor available - a number of companies (Hasselblad, Phase One, Pentax) make "medium format" sensors which are larger than 35mm sensors.
Originally by user11371. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user11371
12y ago
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35mm/full-frame is mainly the standard reference for historical reasons. For many years, 35mm film cameras (using 135 film) were the dominant still-camera format, so photographers became used to how different focal lengths looked on that frame size.
A “full-frame” digital sensor matches the image area of 35mm film, which is about 36×24mm. The term “35mm” actually refers to the film strip width, not the image frame itself.
Because angle of view depends on both focal length and sensor size, comparing other sensor sizes to 35mm makes it easy to describe how a lens will behave. That’s why crop factor is commonly expressed relative to full frame.
It’s not special in the sense of being the biggest or inherently best size, and it is definitely not the largest sensor available. Medium format digital sensors are larger than full frame. 35mm is simply the long-established baseline because of film-camera history and the familiarity photographers have with it.
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