The Absurdity of Full Frame


Man is the measure of all things, so said the Greek philosopher, Protagoras. At least when we compare the size of animals we compare them with ourselves to get a sense of their relative scale. The size of an average adult becomes the standard size reference point. The comparative size of a human = 1.


What about cameras? A commonly used standard comparative reference point is the 35mm format camera after it was popularised by the Leica I released in 1925. The odd thing about this comparison is that some people refer to a 35mm format camera as being "full frame". The reason for this is that its comparative size is set at relative size = 1. This makes it a 100% sized camera and hence "full frame". This is like saying that a human being is a full frame animal because its comparative size is set at 1, making it a 100% sized creature.

Large circle: 640mm diameter of the LSST space telescope's digital sensor
Civilian digital camera sensor formats shown for comparison
A 35mm format sensor is often called "full frame"

The problem is that size is always comparative, and hence a relative concept. That hardly means that comparing the size of something to itself to conclude that compared to itself its relative size = 1 and that therefore it is "full frame". That is truly an absurdity. An ant is 100% the size of itself and an elephant is 100% the size of itself. The fact that 35mm format cameras are often used as a standard comparative reference point no more makes 35mm format a "full frame" format any more than the fact that other animals are commonly compared in size to an average-sized adult human means that humans are "full frame" animals.

Now here is something that proves the point. In a Fujifilm GFX 44 x 33mm ("4433" in the diagram above) sensor sized medium format camera, there is a function called 35mm format mode. This is essentially a 35mm crop mode when people mount 35mm subframe format lenses onto a 4433 format camera:


Some people would insist on calling it "full frame crop mode" instead of "35mm crop mode" but that is truly an absurdity!

Size is comparative. As such a 35mm format sensor is a "crop" or "subframe" sensor relative to a sensor larger than it. The crop factor of a 35mm format sensor compared to the LSST sensor is huge, like comparing a sauroposeidon with a human. Some would conclude on the basis of this comparison that the human is the "full frame" animal:



The notion of comparing something as small as a 35mm format sensor to something much larger and then concluding that the smaller sensor is "full frame" because it is 100% the size of itself is truly bizarre. Yet such nonsense is unquestionably accepted as being "self-evident" by millions on the grounds that "if many believe so, it is so". 

Advertisers obviously regard photographers as imbeciles willing to swallow any idiocy they are spoon-fed.

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