The only reason I can come up with is that in 1959 Olympus came out with what they called a Half Frame camera. This used the same 35mm film cassettes readily available but gave twice the shots i.e. 48 shots on a 24 shot cassette. It also resulted in a smaller camera body and lenses than the usual 35mm cameras. Strangely though 35mm film cameras were NEVER called Full Frame cameras as far as I can find out.

Also in the days of film photography - YES there were indeed frames in both movie and still cameras – the frame produced a good clear sharp border around the 36mm x 24mm images and the half frame 24mm x 18mm Olympus versions.

So why, I ask, are present day 35mm format digital cameras called Full Frame when there is NOT a frame anywhere within their innards full, half, or otherwise? Nor are there any frames in APS-C or M4/3 or any other digital cameras! Even smart phones don’t have frames.

There’s no logical reason for it as far as I can ascertain but my guess is that the advertising media are the culprits as using the word Full in an advert implies very strongly that one can get nothing better! The same issue has occurred with monitors and TV’s with the media still promoting Full HD as the best one can get.

So so wrong and in no way beneficial in any way shape or form to any aspiring photographer – how often do new users ask questions about full frame/crop sensor etc as they are confused by all the meaningless terms. (Crop sensor another misused and misconstrued term used mainly to denigrate and demean smaller sensor cameras! – but I won’t start on that bag of worms today!)

Anyway – Photographers of the World – please start calling a spade a spade as it will help promote photography as the precise technology it is.

Cheers JohnR

So why, I ask, are present day 35mm format digital cameras called Full Frame when there is NOT a frame anywhere within their innards full, half, or otherwise? Nor are there any frames in APS-C or M4/3 or any other digital cameras! Even smart phones don’t have frames.

There’s no logical reason for it as far as I can ascertain but my guess is that the advertising media are the culprits as using the word Full in an advert implies very strongly that one can get nothing better! The same issue has occurred with monitors and TV’s with the media still promoting Full HD as the best one can get.

Measuring car engine power in Horsepower provided an approximate equivalence of the pulling power of the engine compared to what one could expect from an average horse! The term "Full Frame" not only does not provide any equivalence to anything else its also erroneous in that it implies there's nothing more available as its already FULL! Are we hiding medium and large format sensors so as not to cause a conflict