Sony a9 Q: The specs give 24.2 Mpixels on a 35 mm full frame. The Sony a6000, a6300, a6500 give 24.2 Mpixels on the APC-S sensor which is nearly half as large. Does this mean the three...

John_F Loc: Minneapolis, MN

The specs give 24.2 Mpixels on a 35 mm full frame. The Sony a6000, a6300, a6500 give 24.2 Mpixels on the APC-S sensor which is nearly half as large. Does this mean the three APC-S Sonys capture more detail than the $5k a9? In other words what are you really getting for the extra dough, that is worth it.

BebuLamar

I don't have any of the cameras you mentioned so I based everything on specs and typical price. My answer is yes the A9 is worth the extra dough in compared to the a6***.

ken_stern Loc: Yorba Linda, Ca

John_F wrote:

The specs give 24.2 Mpixels on a 35 mm full frame. The Sony a6000, a6300, a6500 give 24.2 Mpixels on the APC-S sensor which is nearly half as large. Does this mean the three APC-S Sonys capture more detail than the $5k a9? In other words what are you really getting for the extra dough, that is worth it.

The short answer is NO !!
Some of course will disagree
The larger "Full Frame" allows for more light which translates into more information captured

Ever wounder why Civil War photos look so darn good?? Now what those guys used way back then --- they were really Full Frame

Larger Formats matters

BebuLamar

ken_stern wrote:

The short answer is NO !!
Some of course will disagree
The larger "Full Frame" allows for more light which translates into more information captured

Ever wounder why Civil War photos look so darn good?? Now what those guys used way back then --- they were really Full Frame

Larger Formats matters

Before the introduction of the so called APS-C DSLR I didn't hear of a crop format camera. So every format is full frame in the film days be it 8x10 or 110 or Kodak Disc.

rcdovala

The very short answer: Since each pixel in a full frame camera is physically larger than a pixel in an APC crop frame camera, the full frame camera, in general, will exhibit less noise then it's APC counterpart.

MT Shooter Loc: Montana

John_F wrote:

The specs give 24.2 Mpixels on a 35 mm full frame. The Sony a6000, a6300, a6500 give 24.2 Mpixels on the APC-S sensor which is nearly half as large. Does this mean the three APC-S Sonys capture more detail than the $5k a9? In other words what are you really getting for the extra dough, that is worth it.

Where do you get these numbers?
You need to better check specs on the cameras you are inquiring about.

John_F Loc: Minneapolis, MN

Luminosity is light energy per unit area. My point is that the light falling unto the sensor is captured by fewer pixels per unit area.

ken_stern wrote:

The short answer is NO !!
Some of course will disagree
The larger "Full Frame" allows for more light which translates into more information captured

Ever wounder why Civil War photos look so darn good?? Now what those guys used way back then --- they were really Full Frame

Larger Formats matters

ken_stern Loc: Yorba Linda, Ca

I have seen this discussion before & it goes on & on & on ----
I always go back to my Civil War photographers who did not have pixels nor did they even have film but were stuck with Glass Plates (dry / wet ??) with an ISO somewhere between 8 & 12 & we will of course stay away with what they were calling Lenses --- But in spite of all that they produced some damn fine photos -- Why?
My thoughts rest with the huge - compared with 35mm or smaller we are using
- FORMATS
I use a Canon D5s & can assure you it's a great camera but rest assured it's not at all a medium format !

wmurnahan Loc: Bloomington IN

BebuLamar wrote:

Before the introduction of the so called APS-C DSLR I didn't hear of a crop format camera. So every format is full frame in the film days be it 8x10 or 110 or Kodak Disc.

Your statement that every format was full frame in film is incorrect, you can't use a modern digital term ,full frame, and go back to film days and try and use the same term. In film days, grain was mega pixels and was the same no matter how big or small your frame, your ISO was the only grain increase or decrease, so you had large format anything bigger than 120mm film, medium format 120 film, 35 mm, and then smaller point and shoot film sizes and types like 126, 110, disc that gave OK 3x5 pictures. You are correct that each film size was using the full frame but that would not be true since you had the little 1/2 frame 35 mm but yes the camera was using the full 1/2 frame. Using your logic, every digital is full frame since it uses it's full sensor frame.

azted Loc: Las Vegas, NV.

John_F wrote:

The specs give 24.2 Mpixels on a 35 mm full frame. The Sony a6000, a6300, a6500 give 24.2 Mpixels on the APC-S sensor which is nearly half as large. Does this mean the three APC-S Sonys capture more detail than the $5k a9? In other words what are you really getting for the extra dough, that is worth it.

The files from my A7ll with its 24mgpzl Full Frame sensor are three times the size of my Nex 7 with its 24mgpzl APS-C sensor. Why, I don't know, but the shots are so much more impressive! Obviously each pixel sends so much more info to the file.

rcdovala

Are you comparing raw to raw or jpg to jpg or jpg to raw?

jackpinoh Loc: Kettering, OH 45419

John_F wrote:

The specs give 24.2 Mpixels on a 35 mm full frame. The Sony a6000, a6300, a6500 give 24.2 Mpixels on the APC-S sensor which is nearly half as large. Does this mean the three APC-S Sonys capture more detail than the $5k a9? In other words what are you really getting for the extra dough, that is worth it.

A 24Mpix full frame camera and a 24Mpix APS-C camera have the same potential resolution, although the perceived resolution of photos captured by each camera may be changed by many factors.

While the height and width of each of the full frame camera's 24,000,000 pixels is approximately 1.5 time that of the APS-C camera's pixel, each full frame pixel has a surface area that is approximately 2.25 times as great.

The pixels on the full frame camera are larger, resulting in images with less noise, more dynamic range, and greater color depth than images form an APS-C camera.

If you compare "perceived megapixels" (P-Mpix) using data from DxOMark, you will find that with the Sony-Zeiss 55mm f/1.8 lens on each, the 24Mpix A7R full frame camera has 29 P-Mpix while the same lens on the 24Mpix A6000 has 18 P-Mpix.

mikiSJ

A larger pixel will gather more light per exposure cycle than a smaller pixel per similar exposure cycle.

The pixel area for a Sony A9 is 34.93 µm² and the pixel area for a Sony A6000 is 15.05 µm² meaning that for a similar timed exposure, the Sony A9 pixel will gather more photons than the smaller A6000 pixel.

Noise is a function of how the internal processor handles individual pixel noise from electronic, spurious photons and thermal sources.

How the camera handles the increased information is determined by the internal processor the manufacturer installs in the camera.
Info:
http://www.digicamdb.com/specs/sony_alpha-a9/
http://www.digicamdb.com/specs/sony_alpha-a6000/