Lesson plan
Crop factor
In digital photography, the crop factor, format factor, or focal length multiplier of an image sensor format is the ratio of the dimensions of a camera's imaging area compared to a reference format; most often, this term is applied to digital cameras, relative to 35 mm film format as a reference. In the case of digital cameras, the imaging device would be a digital image sensor. The most commonly used definition of crop factor is the ratio of a 35 mm frame's diagonal (43.3 mm) to the diagonal of the image sensor in question; that is, \text{CF} = \text{diag}_{35\text{mm}} / \text{diag}_{\text{sensor}} . Given the same 3:2 aspect ratio as 35mm's 36 mm × 24 mm area, this is equivalent to the ratio of heights or ratio of widths; the ratio of sensor areas is the square of the crop factor. The crop factor is sometimes used to compare the field of view and image quality of different cameras with the same lens. The crop factor is sometimes referred to as the focal length multiplier ("Film") since multiplying a lens focal length by the crop factor gives the focal length of a lens that would yield the same field of view if used on the reference format.…
Article summary
In digital photography, the crop factor, format factor, or focal length multiplier of an image sensor format is the ratio of the dimensions of a camera's imaging area compared to a reference format; most often, this term is applied to digital cameras, relative to 35 mm film format as a reference. In the case of digital cameras, the imaging device would be a digital image sensor. The most commonly used definition of crop factor is the ratio of a 35 mm frame's diagonal (43.3 mm) to the diagonal of the image sensor in question; that is, \text{CF} = \text{diag}_{35\text{mm}} / \text{diag}_{\text{sensor}} . Given the same 3:2 aspect ratio as 35mm's 36 mm × 24 mm area, this is equivalent to the ratio of heights or ratio of widths; the ratio of sensor areas is the square of the crop factor. The crop factor is sometimes used to compare the field of view and image quality of different cameras with the same lens. The crop factor is sometimes referred to as the focal length multiplier ("Film") since multiplying a lens focal length by the crop factor gives the focal length of a lens that would yield the same field of view if used on the reference format.…
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Discussion questions
- Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
- Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
- If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?
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