The main benefit of medium format photography is that because of the larger size of the film or digital sensor two to six times larger than 35 mm images of much higher resolution can be produced.
Digital medium format sensor size.
Your choice of sensor size is analogous to choosing between 35 mm medium format and large format film cameras with a few notable differences unique to digital technology.
When making the following comparisons of image sensors assume that each sensor compared is from the same fabrication year.
And there s a smaller size midway between this and full frame sensors which is used by the hasselblad x d fujifilm pentax and leica cameras.
Digital cameras can be broken up into 3 different categories for sensor sizes largest to smallest respectively medium format full frame and crop.
Medium format is the largest sensor type in digital cameras for photographic applications.
Benefits of medium format digital cameras.
Although the traditional medium format 120 film usually had one side with 6 cm length the other varying from 4 5 to 24 cm the most common digital sensor sizes described below are approximately 48 mm 36 mm 1 9 in 1 4 in which is roughly twice the size of a full frame digital slr sensor format.
However it doesn t come in just one size.
Much confusion often arises on this topic because there are both so many different size options and so many trade offs relating to depth of field image noise.
Will medium format digital with only a small increase in sensor size from full frame 33 44mm vs 24 36mm or only a 27 linear increase look any better or worse than full frame especially when we realize that medium format digital only comes from much smaller companies with much smaller development budgets than full frame which comes.
Digital camera sensor types.
But medium format is a a relative term rather than a specific sensor size so how does the new 50s s sensor stack up against other digital cameras on the market.
Sony s top of the line a9 ii full frame mirrorless camera is currently priced at 4 500 which is exactly what fujifilm s bottom of the line gfx 50r medium format mirrorless camera costs.
This allows for bigger enlargements and smooth gradation without the grain or blur that would characterize similarly enlarged images produced from.
Medium format has its own group of sensors with its own equivalents to the four thirds aps c and full frame formats.
There s the full frame medium format size used by phase one and hasselblad s h series cameras which corresponds closely with the old 645 film format.
A medium format digital camera has a large sensor that s at least the size as that of 120 size film 44 x 33 millimeters or larger and an aspect ratio of 1 33 compared to the 1 5 found in other digital cameras.