Yea I caught that. LOL

Here is a better example with a makeshift scene for reference. The scene on the top is shot with the crop sensor. The same scene is being shot from the same distance and same focal length in the lower scene (full frame) and you can see how the crop sensor only "sees" 1.5 times what the full frame sensor can when all settings, focal length, distance from subject, etc are the same. In essence all you have to do is invest in different lenses to share the same purpose. While shooting with a 70-200mm 2.8 on full frame, you could also purchase the smaller, lighter weight, less expensive, sigma 50-150mm 2.8 acquiring roughly the same focal length (75-225mm if using 1.5 times crop sensor) if shooting with a crop sensor camera. and some will argue that you achieve better sharpness on the edges of the photo when shooting with crop sensors because you are only using the center of the lenses image circle which should always be the sharpest point of the lens whereas the edges on full frame may get a little less sharp because of the curvature of the glass towards the edges. Also you will have reduced vignetting (darkening of the corners) when shooting with a crop sensor, especially when shooting the lens wide open compared to full frame. There are a lot of things I'm forgetting but just keep the questions coming! I'm typing all this on my iPhone using tapatalk at work so pardon the slow responses

^^ that is a really crappy illustration haha. O well. Anything outside the circle is not being seen by the lens. The only area that the lens is seeing is inside the circle. The sensor does not create a circular photo however. I believe most 12mp cameras have somewhere between 13-15mp but only 12 "effective megapixels". I have to look into all this stuff though cause I forget.

Dude that's by far the best explanation I've had. Things are making sense now. :tup:

I fully understand why at its lowest point it crops by 1.5 causing a 10mm to be 15mm but how does it amplify when a lense is closed all the way? Like how does a 200mm become a 300mm? Don't know if that question makes sense? Also, does that still mean that you're going to get the same sharpness you would from a 200mm full frame and 200mm (300mm) crop frame?

I guess a simpler way to put it is I understand why/how a crop sensor would be able to use an area within an actual lens's focal length, just less of it like making a 20mm - 130mm into a 30mm - 130mm but I don't get how it would allow you to go beyond a lens's actual length?

Thanks again.

Makes perfect sense (your question).
I believe you are meaning Zoomed in all the way instead of closed all the way, which would be refering to the aperture (blades inside the lens which control depth of field), which is essentially how much is in focus from the focus point from front to back. More on that later though.

The lens does not actually "Become" a 300mm lens just because you use it on a smaller sensor, it's still a 200mm lens. All you are seeing through the viewfinder however is a cropped area of what a full frame sensor would be seeing through that same lens at 200mm, which in turn becomes the equivalent of a 300mm lens on full frame. You would have to crop the image if shot on full frame to get the same image on both cameras from the same disatance at the same focal length.

Sharpness all depends on the lens. If you are using a 200mm lens on a full frame and a 200mm (300mm "appearance" when compared to FF) on crop, you will get a closer shot of whatever you are shooting while still using all 12 megapixels on the crop sensor, whereas you would have to crop the image of the full frame cameras shot to get the same photo, therefore reducing the total megapixels when cropping. You would have to use a 300mm lens to get the same shot from the same distance as the crop sensor of shooting full frame. I'm saying a lot of stuff over and over but hopefully it aids in understanding of all this jibberish

Thanks. I also got this head for it:

Manfrotto Basic Pan Tilt Head with Quick Lock - Three Way

I think it should work and last a while. My crappy Velbon just was not cutting it.

big light bulb just went off in my head when you mentioned that it's essentially a "cropped" image, so at 200mm since it would be cropped to the center of the lens it would seem as though it was more "zoomed" hence being what a full frame 300mm would look like. But if you actually took the same shot with a full frame 300mm lens and manually cropped to 1.5 you'd actually have a 450mm zoom shot correct?

Yes. Sounds like you understand everything to me. I'm just saying to get the same picture with a full frame camera as you would be with a crop sensor camera at 200mm, you would have to use a 300mm lens. At which point your using all 12 megapixels from each camera. Because if you shoot both cameras at 200mm you would have to crop the image after taking it with the full frame cameras shot to get the same final
Image. In which case you are lowering the resolution of the final shot by cropping. The only reason I even mentioned a 300mm lens was so that you could use all 12 megapixels without having to crop the full frames image, which would yield less sharp looking results from the lowered resolution. Hopefully that is the answer you were looking for?

Well said.

yes perfect thanks! :tiphat:

No problem. Hit me with more questions if you got em.

very nice, any editing?

:tup: