kbk

does the sensor size (apc vs. full 35mm) affect the resolution? if a cropped sensor camera has 18megapixels and a full frame sensor camera has 18 megapixels, don't they have the same resolution based on the number of megapixels. during a discussion about sensor size, it was brought up that because the crop sensor is 1.6x smaller, if you take the 18mpix that in th and divide it by 1.6, it has an actual resolution of 11.25 when comparing it to the true 35mm sensor that has 18 megapixels. is there something wrong with this argument, or is it true that full size sensors produce better resolution pictures that can be blown up to greater size compared to crop frame sensors?
i would think that the full frame sensor/18mpix would have larger pixel size to fill the full sensor compared to the crop sensor and would therefore produce less resolution, kind of like grain size in film...

Rongnongno Loc: FL

The sensor size affects the number of pixels. Now the technology allows for more pixels than ever before so it is almost becoming irrelevant. Pixel size - on any sensor - on the other hand affect the sharpness, detail resolution as well as light quality.

Larger sensor usually user larger pixels. This creates a better and more accurate light quality capture. Then again, technology is starting to close that gap too. This where DR rears its head.

What is really left now? Well, how or where you view/display your image.

sandiegosteve Loc: San Diego, CA

I think there are a lot more factors involved than the size. The FF people say they get less noise because the pixels are bigger and capture more light. I'm guessing all the processing that the chips inside do are more important. Interesting question.

Motorbones Loc: Fair Oaks, CA

I pulled this from this site:

https://photographylife.com/camera-resolution-explained

Print Size – usually the most important factor. Basically, the more resolution, the larger the potential print size. Printing from digital images is accomplished by squeezing a certain number of Pixels Per Inch (PPI). A high quality print with good details usually involves printing at around 300 PPI, so the size of the potential print is calculated by taking image width and height and dividing them by the PPI number. For example, a 12.1 MP resolution image from the Nikon D700 has image dimensions of 4,256 x 2,832. If you wanted to create a high quality print with lots of details at 300 PPI, the print size would be limited to approximately 14.2″ x 9.4″ print (4,256 / 300 = 14.2 and 2,832 / 300 = 9.4). Larger prints would be possible, but they would require you to either drop the PPI to a lower number, or use special third party tools that use complex algorithms to upscale or “up-sample” an image to a higher resolution, which do not always yield good results. In short, higher resolution is usually more desirable for the ability to print larger.

So it would seem that pixels are measured by the square inch.

kbk

here is where the question about resolution and print size went. he is an underwater photographer that started out with film and moved to digital. he tried a crop sensor and now a full frame sensor camera. he likes to us a projector and blow them up on a screen. he compares digital pics to film/slides and says the slides give much better resolution when projecting them on a screen. neither the crop sensor or full size sensor camera would give him the resolution he needs to project the images. crop sensor camera was worse than the full size sensor camera when projecting the images. i believe the resolution of the 18megapix crop sensor camera is the same as that of the full frame because they are both 18megapix sensors...but he came up with dividing 18 by the 1.6 crop factor and came up with an actual resolution of 11.25 due to the sensor size. who is right?

papa Loc: Rio Dell, CA

ERROR, ERROR, ERROR.

wdross Loc: Castle Rock, Colorado

The amount of detail captured is the same, but the abilities do differ as far as light capture. Also, the shape of the sensor affects how many pixels one loses due to printing standard formats. This is where 4/3rds excels; less pixels are lost in general over the other formats of FF and APS-C.

The differences in sizes of the sensor drives the smaller sensor lense designs to produce "better" image resolution than their larger sensor competitors. A lense design to resolve 20 megapixels for a 4/3rds sensor would be like designing a FF lense capable of resolving 80 megapixels (20 megapixels X 4 times the sensor area = 80 megapixels).

Notorious T.O.D. Loc: Harrisburg, North Carolina

Is the resolution of the projector really the issue here? Projecting a film slide vs projecting a digital data file... I am thinking viewing VGA vs HD resolution is going to be very different? Or am I missing something...

Best,
Todd Ferguson

LFingar Loc: Claverack, NY

Depends on what you are doing with the photo. For enlargements, full frames generally have the advantage, although with today's cameras you would have to do some huge enlargements to see a noticeable difference. Never tried it, but from examples I've seen you won't notice much difference in a 8x10 or 8.5x11 print. Cropping is a different story. Lens for lens the APS-C has a distinct advantage. Shooting wildlife you often crop considerably. If I shoot two identical shots with the same lens and then crop the ff shot to match the coverage of the APS-C you can easily see a difference in IQ. I did several tests of this when I got my 5DIV last year. Wanted to see if it, with it's 30mp, could match my 20mp 7DII when cropped. It couldn't.

camerapapi Loc: Miami, Fl.

In the first place, larger pixels mean better resolution and better light gathering capacity. With the same resolution quality wise the image from a full frame camera and that from a cropped sensor should be identical.

Thomas902 Loc: Washington DC

Sadly far too many novice are naive about image aesthetics and obsess over less relevant issues such as "resolution" while ignoring image aesthetics... The ability to isolate one's subject against it's background can be and typically is germane here... Full frame sensors with appropriate optics are simply superior to smaller crop sensors in the aforementioned... Least you forget, you must multiple your aperture by your crop factor when determining DOF... So that "Ultra Fast" lens becomes no so "Ultra Fast" on a crop body...

The kicker here is when a novice puts a lens on their crop body and thinks: WOW! I now have a much "longer" lens while little do they realize the trade-offs involved...

However the validation is typically in the image... Here is a lowly 12 mega pixel Nikon D3 image... Albeit it's a full frame sensor... Notice the DOF isolate and Bohek i.e. aesthetic quality of the blur produced in the out-of-focus parts of an image rendered by the lens. Bokeh is typically best seen in the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light... Enough said...

Keeper defending her goal...

(Download)

Pegasus Loc: Texas Gulf Coast

That is a very good question. How was the digital picture projected?

BebuLamar

With the same number of pixels.
1. The smaller sensor has higher resolution. More pixels per linear or area unit.
2. The images from both sensors have the same resolution for a given size if lens resolution isn't taken into account. Assuming the lens has unlimited resolution.
3. If the lenses used have identical resolution the image from the larger sensor has higher resolution.

BebuLamar

In my own opinion the 35mm slide has about 12MP (and a lot of people here would say it has more although some say about 6). The projected image I doubt can have higher than 8MP. Not until 8K projector is available.
Strictly speaking if you project an image larger it would have lower resolution.

kbk

i think you are missing my real question. the discussion involved blowing up a digital image from a digital camera whether it is full framed or cropped sensor, vs. slide/film using a projector. he was very disappointed in the pic quality from digital cameras when using a projector. he claims the slides from film look much better when blown up using a projector and he also claimed the full sensor cameras produce better resolution vs. a cropped sensor, and my response was if both cameras were 18megapix, the full sensor and the cropped sensor should produce the same resolution.