Wide is the New Normal

When I was in college, my peers and I often gabbed back and forth about inconsequential, preferential debates. “Canon vs. Nikon” or “film vs. digital” were the most common topics at the lab's break area. Nowadays, I imagine a new argument has arisen: DSLRs vs. Mirrorless.

There was one topic that seldom came up: full-frame vs cropped. Those aren't even the only two options nowadays, especially with the introduction of the Micro Four-Thirds system in 2008 and release of digital medium format (GFX and XCD) in the late 2010s. Full-frame is a common metric of the professional creator space, but all other formats certainly have their place.

Lens Choices

The market for lenses for cropped systems is noticeably smaller, and they mostly work for their format and that's it. Full-frame cameras are subject to heavy vignetting if you can fit it with a lens designed for a smaller sensor.

The beauty of using a smaller sensor system (APS-C or MFT) is that you can definitely utilize full-frame glass, which vastly expands your options. Nikon has its FT1 and FTZ adapters (and other brands have equivalents for their systems), but we let users look past the legacy options their brand has offered in the past, especially for the Canon EF-m, Canon RF, Fujifilm X, Micro Four-Thirds, Nikon 1, and Nikon Z, Pentax Q, Samsung NX, and Sony E systems.

Get filmic, vintage looks, or use famous glass on your cameras to switch things up. If you're more into pro-level glass from the DSLR era, we have plenty of adapters for the Canon EF and Nikon F lenses. Crop Factor

APS-C has an 1.5x (or 1.6x) crop factor, and Micro Four-Thirds is a whopping 2x crop factor. For those concerned with crop factors, you do have to think differently when it comes to what lenses you choose. Even the full-frame's widest lenses aren't as wide when you put them on a camera with a smaller sensor. For those using a Nikon 1 or Pentax Q camera, you'd need to think even wider.

Normal lenses come to mind, immediately. Plenty of photographers will recommend a 50mm lens to those who are starting out, but that's most relevant to those shooting on a full-frame system, especially if they're looking for their first prime lens, since the 50mm is considered a normal lens for that format. For APS-C, you'd want to find something in the 30-35mm range, and for Micro Four-Thirds, you'd want something like a 25mm lens (24, as a common focal length would work too). A Nikon 1 camera (with a 2.7x crop factor) would need an 18mm lens, and a Pentax Q camera (with a 5.6x crop factor) would need a 9mm lens.

It gets dicier, once you need the pro-level zooms (usually with a fixed f/2.8 aperture), you're almost forced to use lenses specific to your system, as they make the necessary adjustments to give you a similar field of view (a 17-55mm or 12-35mm instead of a standard 24-70mm).

But the crop factor doesn't always have to matter. As someone who shoots on the Fujifilm X system but loves his AF-S 28-70mm f/2.8 full-frame lens, I've learned to work around the crop. As long as my shooting space allows, I can always back up to let my positioning counteract the cropping. You can also end up with some fun combinations, and use lenses in ways they wouldn't be. My APS-C Nikon DX 17-55mm f/2.8 is a premimium standard zoom when used on an APS-C camera, but when put onto a Nikon 1 camera, it's reminsicent to the Tamron 35-150mm field of view (even if not quite as wide), and that Tamron lens has been a recent favorite of mine on the few times I've used them on shoots, so the fact that the field of view can (mostly) be replicated on the Nikon 1 cameras is a treat on its own.

Final Thoughts

Depending on your workflow, knowing crop factors can be useless at the end of the day. It's just more numbers to crunch, and with so many lenses out there to choose from, it's already hard to narrow down what lenses would work for you.

Wanna make it as easy as possible? Ask yourself these two questions:

1) does it look right?

2) does it feel right?

When trying a new lens, try it out on your camera, take it on some shoots, and see how it handles. For what you want to use it for, sometimes it's not quite the right fit, and there may be something that would work better. If you're like me, and shoot on a smaller sensor, keep this in mind: it's easy to go longer, since you can work with the crop of your camera, but the wider you need, the more difficult it could become.