I’ve spoken about it before in harsher words, saying that the end of APS-C and Micro Four Thirds is coming. And as I stated in that article. We saw it coming a while ago, too, and the same rings true. Real innovation isn’t coming to your APS-C or Micro Four Thirds camera. They will become sensors that shift into phones and luxury-style compact cameras. I fully embrace the latter. But it’s time to move up to full-frame cameras for more serious work to be a photographer over being a content creator. Professional photographers have known this for years. In the end, it’s the photographer who makes the images — but you should ask yourself if you’re good enough to make images with any camera that’s put into your hands. Returning to my original idea, the limitations of smaller sensors are becoming too great these days.
Let’s remove the technological boundaries here and speak practically. What’s the point of buying a new APS-C sensor camera when you can get an older, used, full-frame camera for cheaper? And more importantly, the older camera will have more potential than the APS-C camera. That’s because brands tend to pack all the cutting-edge technology into full-frame and medium-format cameras before bringing it into the APS-C camera body. Evidence of this is with the Sony a6700. Fujifilm and Canon tend to do things differently, but even then, I don’t hear much about the Canon EOS R7 over the R5 and the R6 II.
With a full-frame camera, you can use and fully experience both APS-C and full-frame lenses. But with APS-C cameras, you’re getting only a portion of the lens circle.
Alright, that’s a lot of tech talk. Let’s speak more seriously now. Can you do good work with APS-C cameras? Yes. When I was recently in Rome, I took incredible street photography photos with an old Canon G1x Mk III. I was so happy with most of the images that I made slight crops to the JPEGs and was totally fine with the photos. But I also manually white-balanced and used in-camera styles to get the photos I wanted. Indeed, APS-C cameras are great JPEG cameras.
So is your phone, though.
In fact, I could’ve made the images I did with nearly any camera. All it required was zone focusing, a good enough high ISO ability, and good in-camera image quality rendering abilities.
The question then becomes the tool and how it feels in your hand. And if that’s the case, any old APS-C cameras can do the job. So too can the right full-frame cameras, whether they’re used or not.
Beyond how it feels in your hand, one must consider their own creative vision. I’m not talking about capturing a moment, but creating it. Let’s be honest, then, light just renders differently on medium format and full-frame cameras than it does on APS-C options.
Micro Four Thirds surely has a nice advantage of having smallish camera bodies and smallish lenses. But the diffraction is evident as soon as you stop down a bit. And to shoot great wildlife, you need a higher ISO setting — where the cameras just can’t perform or keep up with full-frame.
Photographers, it’s time.