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  • Photo Review

    Why sensor sizes matter

    May 24, 2017 4 minutes
    Margaret Brown

    Back in the days of film, photographers tended to use one of three film formats: 35mm (with individual frames of 36 x 24mm), medium format (which used 60mm wide film with frame lengths ranging from 45mm through 70mm to 90mm) or large format (which took in sheet films from 4 x 5 inches (102 x 127mm) to 8 x 10 inches (203.2 x 254mm). Today, we're confronted by a bewildering range of sensor sizes ranging from around a miniscule 4 x 3mm for smartphone sensors to the 53.7 x 40.4mm sensors in the largest digital 'medium format' cameras.

    The diagram on this page provides a comparison of the most frequently-used sensor sizes.

    So why is the size of the sensor important? How

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