The typical APS-C sensor size is different across camera brands. Canon APS-C sensors are usually 22.3×14.9mm, while other brands like Nikon, Sony, Pentax, and more usually feature APS-C sensors with 23.6×15.6mm dimensions. Many cameras including the Canon EOS M50 Mark II, Fujifilm X100V, Sony Alpha a6600, and Nikon Z50 all hold APS-C sensors.

To change this, you will need to alter the angle and get lower down. This means the background to the same shot isn’t the pitch anymore and therefore it’s further away. The further away the background is from your subject the more blurred it will be.

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Take football photography for example. Standing high in the stands watch a game and taking shots of players means the background (the pitch at a high angle) won’t be far away from the player. And because DoF falls 2/3rds behind the point of focus, the grass will look fairly sharp.

Depth of field is an important consideration for photographers. Once you’ve set your exposure and placed your focus where it needs to be check over the depth of field. Look at what’s in focus and whether it needs to be or not.

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Knowing this means that shooting at F/1.8 on an 18mm lens for example won’t necessarily show a shallow depth of field as you are using two approaches that counteract each other.

A camera’s sensor dictates the quality of the images it can produce—the larger the sensor, the higher the image quality. Bigger image sensors have bigger pixels, which means better low-light performance, reduced noise, good dynamic range, and the ability to obtain more information.

Meanwhile, CCD sensors tend to produce less noise which translates to images appearing sharper. This goes hand in hand with CCD sensors being more sensitive in lower light conditions. Because CMOS sensors are much more available and costs less to manufacture than CCD sensors, cameras with CMOS sensors are usually less expensive.

The changes in the depth of field are placed into two categories (shallow and wide) depending on which F/stop number you are shooting with. These categories are no exact when it comes to mid-sized apertures, but most noticeable at the extreme ends of the scale.

The APS-H is slightly larger than the APS-C sensor format that many Canon DSLR cameras use today but smaller than a traditional full-frame sensor.

However, a smaller sensor allows added reach (zoom). For example, on a micro 4/3 sensor, which is has a crop factor of two compared to a full frame sensor, a 200mm lens becomes the equivalent of a 400mm lens. Smaller sensors also allow for an overall more compact camera and lens system, which is convenient for travel and long hikes. Finally, smaller sensor cameras are generally less expensive.

Created by Olympus and Panasonic, the Four Thirds System is a standard that allows for the compatibility of lenses and bodies across participating camera makers. Image sensor size is 17.3×13mm with a crop factor of 2.0 when compared to full-frame camera sensors.

When the aperture of the lens is reduced to be a small hole, which happens when selecting a big F/stop number i.e. F/11 or higher, the depth of field increases meaning a lot more of your scene will be in focus.

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The whole photo will look like it’s all in focus, making any sense of depth hard to appreciate – but that’s the purpose of a deep DoF – it’s all about showcasing the full view.

Image: Notice the difference in the blurriness of the background when shooting lower down (left) than compared to being higher (right).

The groundbreaking EOS-1D was the first Canon camera to carry the APS-H sensor type was, and it launched in 2001. Canon released four more cameras (all members of the 1D line) with the same sensor type before discontinuing it.

When you zoom in on a subject (or move closer) the background appears compressed (closer to the subject) and further blurred.

Try it out for yourself. Place the camera on a tripod and put it in Aperture Priority (A/Av) mode. Start off at F/16 and slowly lower the F/stop number. Watch how more and more of the photo becomes blurred. The background will lose detail and the area that you’ve focused on starts to shrink a little.

The Canon EOS R5, for example, is a full-frame mirrorless camera option, and the popular Nikon D850 DSLR has a FX full-frame sensor.

Given that a photograph aims to be a 3D representation of a scene, a sense of depth is important to help engagement. The term is mostly used by landscape photographers, hence the term ‘field’, but the term will be used by all photographers (outside of landscapes) at some point.

Full-frame sensors are available in both DSLR and mirrorless cameras. They have the same dimensions as the 35mm film, hence the name. The 35mm full-frame sensor type is the gold standard among professional photographers who want the highest-quality images.

Bookmark and save this article about depth of field so you can find it again in the future. If you’ve got any other questions about photography chances are you’ll find the answers in our other articles and tutorials below.

The Four Thirds System uses a 4:3 image aspect ratio, hence the name, and is featured in cameras like the Blackmagic Design Pocket Cinema Camera 4K. The Micro Four Thirds System uses the same ratio but can also record 16:9, 3:2, and 1:1 formats. It is included in cameras like the Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark III and Panasonic Lumix G9.

Keep in mind that camera sensor formats are not standardized across the different brands or models. Dimensions may vary slightly from the figures listed above.

When the aperture of the lens is wide open, which happens when selecting a small F/stop number i.e. F/4 or lower, the depth of field shrinks meaning less of the shot is in focus.

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Another way you can change the depth of field is by altering the focal length of your lens. Wide angle lenses such as 18mm show a deeper depth of field in comparison to a longer lens (ie. 100mm) with the exact same camera settings. This is due to what photographers call lens compression.

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Landscape photographers use a deep depth of field to capture more detail and texture at the front, middle and background of their photographs.

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On the mirrorless camera side, we have the Micro Thirds Format System, first released in 2008. It shares the Four Thirds System’s sensor size and specifications but uses a compact design with no space for the movable mirror, pentaprism, and other parts of the DSLR mechanisms not found in mirrorless cameras.

Depth of field or DoF is a term you’ll hear all the time in photography. It’s an integral part to controlling how your photo looks. It’s not only a technical element of a photo, but it also has impact on the story too.

As a photographer, it’s important to know the difference between camera sensor sizes, particularly if you’re planning on buying a new camera. Sensor size is the first and most important thing you need to consider. It is the main feature of your camera that will have the most powerful impact on your images.

As an additional layer of complexity, each bucket has a filter on it that only lets in red, green, or blue light. In essence, each bucket can only collect 1/3 of the total light trying to enter it. For each bucket, the amount of the other colors is approximated. All this information is then converted to the final image you see on your screen.

The answer to this question isn’t a simple yes or no. It all depends on what’s most important to you. In general, the larger the sensor the better the image quality because it can acquire more light, generates less noise, and can create a shallower depth of field (more background blur) which is preferred my many for portraiture work.

Again, there is no simple yes or no answer to this question. In the last decade or so, CMOS sensors have become a lot more prevalent than CCD sensors. Most consumers cameras and cell phones manufactured today use CMOS sensors. CMOS sensors, in general, use less power, therefore the camera battery will last longer.

You can control the depth of field using your camera a couple of different ways but the most common way is to change the aperture. The aperture of the camera lens opens and closes depending on the F/stop setting you choose.

You need to be very careful when shooting with a shallow DoF as small movements in your subject or camera can cause them to fall outside of the focus area meaning they’ll look soft in your final shot. It’s always best to re-focus if you think the movement has occurred.

High-end compact cameras like the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX10 and the Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-RX10 IV use 1-inch sensors. This allows these cameras to produce good results—in terms of image and video quality—that you won’t get with regular point-and-shoot cameras.

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Essentially, a sensor is made up of tiny individual photosites. Think of each photosite as a bucket covered by a lid. When an exposure is initiated (press of the shutter button), the lid is uncovered to collect photons of light. When the exposure stops, the lid is placed back on the buckets (photosites). The collected photons are then converted to electrical signal, and the strength of that signal is determined by how many total photons were collected.

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We’ve all heard of the full-frame DSLR camera, of course, which is the gear of choice of seasoned professional photographers. For enthusiasts and beginners, the usual choice is the APS-C format or crop-sensor DSLR camera. However, some prefer to use mirrorless cameras or MILCs, which are the smaller, lighter versions of DSLRs. Lastly, there are the 1-inch sensor cameras, which are better known as point-and-shoot or compact digital cameras.

DoF controls what looks sharp and what doesn’t. When someone looks at your photo, they’ll be naturally drawn to the elements that are sharp to help them understand the scene. Making sure the depth of field is appropriate for the scene is the photographer’s job. If it’s wrong, it can include or blur out things that are important.

A shallow depth of field may also be called narrow by some photographers. A shallow DoF is created by using wide apertures (small F/stop numbers i.e. F/2.8). The effect of a shallow DoF is that the area in focus is very small. Macro and portrait photographers use shallow depth of field to isolate their subjects in scene.

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This guide about depth of field for beginner photographers will tell you everything you need to know about how to use DoF, how to change it and what’s the best type of DoF for different types of photography.

Medium format is the largest sensor type in digital cameras for photographic applications. However, it doesn’t come in just one size. Medium format has its own group of sensors, with its own equivalents to the four thirds, APS-C, and full-frame formats. There are a variety of sensor sizes for medium-format cameras, and typical sizes range from around 43.8×32.9mm to 53.7×40.2mm.

Any sensor that is about 1.5 to 1-inch in size or smaller can be found in non-interchangeable lens cameras (your typical point and shoot) and smartphone cameras.

The backgrounds will look heavily blurred making it hard to distinguish detail – but that’s the purpose of a shallow DoF – it’s all about drawing your eye to a single subject and not much else.

Due to their large image sensors, medium-format cameras are traditionally heavier and bulkier than their full-frame counterparts. But that changed, as brands like Hasselblad have come out with smaller mirrorless medium-format cameras like the X1D II to provide photographers with a lighter, more compact option. The newer Fujifilm GFX 100 is also a medium-format mirrorless camera and holds a whopping 102MP resolution.

Many digital cameras are commercially available on the market right now, and they all have a wide range of sensor sizes. And while it’s good to have choices, it can also get pretty confusing, especially to a beginner.

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With Electronic Front Curtain Shutter (EFCS) the first line of the camera’s shutter is electronic, the rear curtain remains mechanically driven

You won’t need to change the aperture size or focal length in this instance, just by changing the angle (from high to low) of the camera can alter the perceived depth of field.

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Image: Position the camera to face the subject (step 1); Focus on the subject (step 2); The depth of field is set by the aperture size (step 3); a ‘corridor’ of focus is created by the DoF (step 4). Everything inside that ‘corridor’ will be in focus. Anything outside of the DoF will be blurred. The further it is from the corridor the more blurred it will be.

It’s best to use a wide aperture combined with a telephoto lens for the shallowest depth and a small aperture with a wide-angle lens for a deep DoF.

Not all cameras are created equal. An entry-level DSLR won’t give you the same results from a professional, full-frame DSLR—even if they have exactly the same pixel count. If you want to get the highest-quality images with your camera, you’ll need something with extremely powerful specifications and a physically large image sensor.

Once you focus on a subject the depth is appropriated as ⅓ in front of that focal point and ⅔ behind it. This means the background needs to be further away from the subject for it to look blurred.

Image: Notice how the background blurs more behind the model (left) and appears more detailed as the aperture size gets smaller (right).

A deep depth of field may also be called wide by some photographers. A deep DoF is created by using small aperture sizes (big F/stop numbers i.e. F/16). The effect of a deep DoF is that the area in focus is large in comparison.

The APS-C or crop-sensor format is the most well-known and most versatile of the bunch. The APS-C sensor is popular in DSLR and mirrorless cameras alike. Beginners and professionals alike use it thanks to its adaotability.

There’s also the medium-format cameras—the lesser known of the group. These cameras have the largest sensors out of all the available digital cameras for photography, which means they can get pretty expensive.