Full Frame VS Crop Sensor: Can You Spot Which Image Is Which?

By Kylie Woon, 05 Oct 2017

Photographers love to swoon over full frame DSLRs, consistently holding them in higher esteem than crop sensor cameras. True, full frame cameras boast larger sensors, but photographer Manny Ortiz wanted to challenge the notion that full frame cameras are always exceptionally better.

To answer these questions, Ortiz set out on an experiment. He pit two cameras against each other—the crop sensor Sony a6500 (US$2,400) with a Sonnar 55mm f/1.8 (US$1,000), and the full frame Sony a9 (US$4,500) with a 84mm f/1.4 G Master lens (US$1,800).

Would viewers and clients even be able to tell the difference? And is it worth it to invest thousands more into a full frame camera?

Watch Ortiz’ video below, and see if you can tell which images were shot with full frame cameras, and which were shot with crop sensor cameras.

Full frame or crop sensor, which is which?