Mirrorless Vs Full Frame

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There’s no disputing the fact that full-frame cameras are becoming popular among pros and enthusiasts, but do you need one?

Why would you choose one over the other if you were in the market for a new camera or an upgrade?

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The answers to the above questions aren’t always obvious, as you’ll see in our comparison, but it’s important to know exactly what you get from both.

What is A Mirrorless Camera

Mirrorless cameras are modern digital interchangeable lens or single-lens cameras that don’t use manual viewfinders or mirrors to produce images.

A mirrorless camera makes use of an electronic viewfinder to interpret and display the image captured by the camera’s sensor while shooting.

How A Mirrorless Camera Works

In terms of operation, a mirrorless camera’s lens captures light, passes it through a sensor that does the processing, and projects the image to the electronic viewfinder, camera display, or monitor.

In the entire process of capturing and producing an image, there are no mirrors involved, hence the name mirrorless camera.

Mirrorless cameras can create an image instantly without having to bounce the image over a series of mirrors.

What Is A Full Frame Camera

A modern digital full-frame camera is one whose image sensor is the same size as the 35mm film commonly used in traditional SLR cameras.

A full-frame camera can be mirrorless or a normal DSLR, so, technically, you wouldn’t say a full-frame camera is better than a mirrorless one without going into details like sensor size, lenses, depth of field, and resolution.

You may also want to check Mirrorless vs DSLR Cameras

Without diving too much into the details of sensor formats, the 35mm sensor format in a full-frame camera gives the camera an edge regarding depth of field and cropping.

This sensor format is currently the largest available for mass-produced pro and enthusiast DSLR and mirrorless cameras.

So, the key difference between a full-frame and ordinary micro four-third or APC-C cameras is the size of the sensor, which is expectedly larger in full-frames.

Of course, this also means that full-frame cameras are significantly larger and heavier than non-full-frame cameras, even for mirrorless types like the Sony A7.

The larger 35mm sensor on a full frame allows you to capture a big or non-cropped image without having to use a wide-angle lens, especially when your subjects are very close to you.

Of course, you can still achieve the same results if you get a wide-angle lens on a normal APC-C or micro four sensors.

You don’t necessarily need a full frame in all situations because it is a different shooting format that mimics what older SLRs using 35mm film had in terms of size.

However, professional shooters can appreciate the better control over the depth of field they get with full frames.

Full-frame camera technology isn’t new. It has been used in expensive pro-level cameras for many years. Only recently, when manufacturers such as Sony, with their flagship A7 series of mirrorless cameras, created the hype around full-frame shooting did the format gain traction due to the success of these models.