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I am thinking about going full frame. I see pros and cons of each camera, but would like to see them side by side, in a concise way. But my question is this--can I use my current lenses with a full frame camera, or will I have to buy ALL NEW LENSES??? And I don't know what the "EF" and other abreviations mean. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and wisdom in advance! Happy New Year!

tdekany Loc: Oregon

Based on your questions, I’d say no, but if you do get a FF camera, you will need all new FF glasses. Unless you have those already. Happy New Year to you as well.

NCMtnMan Loc: N. Fork New River, Ashe Co., NC

Google your lenses to find out what they are. If you're not sure what you have, then you might want to hold off until you better understand your existing equipment.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Depends on the lens model. Two of my lenses are designed for APS-C and will vignette on a full frame.

Strodav Loc: Houston, Tx

Ask yourself if you need a FF camera to achieve a specific purpose, or if a FF camera will make you a better photographer? If not, ask yourself what will make you a better photographer and spend your money there. As far as lenses go, you should know if your lenses are full frame or not, but its easy to look them up on the manufacturer's website. IF they are not FF, but are COMPATIBLE with the new body, you can still use them by putting your FF camera in crop mode. If you don't, you will see something like the following.

(Download)

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

This might help Myths about full-frame cameras


Without knowing what camera you're considering and the lens(es) you have already, it's hard to say what will / could work and which are not an option at all.

larryepage Loc: North Texas area

I am not sure about Canon, but many Nikon bodies offer the opportunity to shoot either 1.2:1 or 1:1 (square) images in addition to cropping all the way to the smaller format. All crop format lenses that I have seen will work fine using square format, and most will work acceptably well at 1.2:1 if your camera will allow either of those choices. In any case, for those folks considering or wanting to make a format change, I suggest this approach as a way to make a more measured switch. Once you get the new body, you can immediately start learning how to use it. You can also start getting a feel for which full frame lenses you might be interested in moving to, instead of just "shooting in the dark" and maybe making some mistakes along the way, perhaps by renting lenses to use on the new body or by taking it to your local camera shop and trying the lenses on your new body.

The big benefit of full frame, in my opinion, is directly related to the vignetting...more wide angle capability. Keep that in mind as you consider your switch. Low light performance is still worth looking at, but is seems to be a little less of an issue than in the past. And pixel count is so high in both formats that it is also getting to be less of an issue for most of us.

Cdouthitt Loc: Traverse City, MI

If you have to ask...then no. Stick with what you have until YOU know you are ready. Switching to FF isn’t necessarily going to make you a better photographer.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

Well, what do you have now? Camera brand and model, lenses and mount type - example, if Canon then EF are FF lenses and EF-S are APS-C (crop sensor). EF lenses will work on both FF and APS-C while the EF-S lenses are APS-C only and if a Canon lens will not even mount on a FF body. All third party lenses for Canon use the EF mount, even if it is for a crop sensor and will mount on a Canon FF body but the results will be vignetted like the example a few posts back.

What type of pictures do you usually take? That can influence if you should be doing FF or APS-C. A lot of wide angle landscapes or dim light work - FF generally do better there.

And if it comes to it, what is your budget?

rgrenaderphoto Loc: Hollywood, CA

Let's say you have a Nikon already, and since I do not know anything about Canon or Sony, I am going to assume they are enlightened and offer the same feature set. On a Nikon Fx, when you attach a Dx (crop) lens, the camera will show a greyed out rectangle around what would be the full Full Frame image area. If you set Dx crop to "on," the viewfinder compensates and you see the same image area that you would with Dx. So, your crop lenses certainly are usable.

That being said, you will not get the full benefits of a full frame body with crop sensor lenses. So, in that regard, for all future lens purchases you will have to go full frame. Which is expensive, but what in our digital photographic obsession isn't?

joer Loc: Colorado/Illinois

Unfortunately Canon does not permit you to use crop lenses on full frame bodies.

richandtd Loc: Virginia

On my Nikon I did a test put on a 105 mm 2.8 full frame lens took a picture of my white board with the lines marked where the edge of the pictures was then with the D810 still on the tripod switched lens to the crop frame lens used on my Nikon D70 a Tamron 18 - 270 focused the zoom of the first picture and the raw file said 83mm . Sounds like you have Cannon so you will not be able to use both.

Kmgw9v Loc: Miami, Florida

If your are very serious in your interest, and your budget permits it; go full frame with a body and appropriate lenses.
Cropped cameras are great, but for most work, full frame is better.

richandtd Loc: Virginia

40X says it all

via the lens Loc: Northern California, near Yosemite NP

As others have said, it would have been good if you had elaborated on the brand and lenses. I use Nikon gear and I could use a DX lens on a full-frame but it would not be beneficial in any way to the end result. A full-frame camera allows you to get the "bigger picture," which you can actually do, too, by shooting for a pano. I like my full-frame camera for landscape photography and I like my crop camera for objects and wildlife. All depends on what YOU want from your gear and the subject you are photographing so, really, no one else can help you.