Negative area

There’s a really useful diagram on Wikipedia that shows the relatives sizes of different digital camera sensors. But it doesn’t include medium format film – so I made my own version.

Negative areas
Format Typical use Size Area Crop factor
APS-C Most consumer DSLRs and APS film cameras ~22x15mm 330mm² 1.5-16×
35mm Professional full frame DSLRs and all 35mm film cameras 36×24mm 864mm² 1.0×
6×4.5 Medium format cameras e.g. Mamiya M645 60×45mm 2700mm² 0.58×
6×7 Medium format cameras e.g. Mamiya RB67 & RZ67, Pentax 67 70×60mm 4200mm² 0.47×
6×9 Horseman 980, many box & folding cameras e.g. Kodak Brownie 90×60mm 5400mm² 0.40×

The crop factor is related to the field of view. To achieve the same angle of view as a 35mm camera, an APS-C sensor needs a shorter focal length while a 6×7 sensor needs a longer length. For more details, have a look at my article “focal length on different formats“.

The area is related to the resolution of the image. It’s not easy to tell exactly how many megapixels you get from film, but the resolution increases with area.

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