# Perhaps this will help explain full-frame v. crop sensors a bit



## 480sparky (Dec 21, 2012)

Maybe this will help clear up some of the confusion about field-of-view and "35mm equivalent" when comparing full-frame cameras and those with crop-sensors.

Regardless of the 'comparison', a 50mm lens is a 50mm lens, no matter which sensor you're using.  What changes is the _apparent field of view_ between the two.  So if you were to take a full-frame and a crop-sensor camera, set them up side-by-side with, say, 50mm lenses on both, and looked through the viewfinders of them, this is what you would see:







Neither camera-lens combination 'enlarges' or 'reduces' the apparent size of the subject.  The bridge and the flowers are _the exact same size_ in both VFs.  What is different is the _size of the focus screens_, which is in direct proportion to the _size of the respective sensors_.  This, in turn, changes the field of view (measured in degrees).


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