It’s often assumed that creative and enthusiast photographers prefer full-frame and even medium-format cameras for their ability to deliver a tighter depth of field and enhanced image quality at high-sensitivity settings. But that’s not the whole story. For travel, walkabout and candid street photography, smaller is better. Crop sensor bodies naturally have smaller image sensors, typically of either APS-C or Micro Four-Thirds format, along with a smaller, more lightweight construction. The same goes for their companion lenses, resulting in complete kits that are not just easier to carry around, but also enable you to shoot more inconspicuously.
The advantages don’t end there. While a tight depth of field is often preferable in portraiture and still-life photography, the opposite can be true in landscape and architectural photography – or, indeed, any time you want good front-to-back sharpness in a scene. And there’s certainly nothing inferior about the build quality, autofocus and metering performance, speed and outright image quality for some of the latest mirrorless crop sensor cameras.
There’s another bonus for action, sports and wildlife
