We get a lot of questions about sensor sizes and crop factors. Most people know the difference between a standard (APS-C) crop sensor and a full-frame sensor. Not many, though, know how much smaller a 2/3” sensor is than a 4/3 sensor, and fewer still the difference between those and a 1/1.8” sensor. Plus Canon and Nikon have thrown new sensor sizes into the mix in the last year and a lot of people aren’t sure exactly where those sensors fit in among the better known ones. Hardly a day goes by that someone doesn’t ask if the Fuji X-10 sensor is bigger than the Nikon J1 sensor. Is the Canon GX-1 sensor as big as those or more like a point and shoot?
The problem is even more complicated now that SLR lenses are being used on video cameras and video lenses on SLRs cameras. People want to know things like “is Super 35mm format equivalent to a crop sensor or full-frame?” Other people, trying to sell their 16mm film lenses with adapters for 4/3 cameras fail to mention how much smaller 16mm film was than 4/3 sensors. Not to mention the marketers, always ready to make things as confusing as possible, are doing things like calling a 1/1.7” sensor “large” (it is compared to a cell phone camera chip, I guess).
Anyway, since I haven’t been able to find a single source to answer all these sensor format questions, I thought I’d put it all together here. The table below shows the dimensions, in millimeters, of the various sensor (or film) sizes. Please note that the dimensions may vary slightly from camera to camera. For example, Canon’s APS-C sensor is slightly smaller than Nikon’s, but slightly larger than Sigma’s. The aspect ratio of the sensor (4:3, 3:2, 16:9) will cause some variation, too. For example, the 35mm Cinema, Super 35mm, and APS-C crop sensor formats are nearly the same size (look at the sensor area) but of slightly different rectangular proportions.
