a few rookie ?s

[witharebelyell]

Hey there
new guy here
I tried to do a search but with such a common word/terms
my search is not going fast enough for me...

I'm hearing/reading about different terms about a FULL FRAME camera.
I'm curious to what that means and is that good, is that bad... different uses... whats the scoop...
not a book - just the cliff notes...

and then what is a PRIME lens and what is a NON PRIME lens
and what would be a couple different uses or examples of each...

I recently purchased my first DSLR
the Canon T1i with the kit lens.
been enjoying playing with a camera that helps make me look good... Feels like a good start to getting my feet wet.

So is my camera a "FULL FRAME" and is that lens a "PRIME" or "NONprime"...?

thanks for all the help and the good reading... I'll share some pics soon...
but your help on these two beginner ?s and how they may pertain to a rookie would be cool to know

~Mark

[DAMphyne]

Welcome Mark,
This is a good place to learn.
Full Frame is a reference to the physical size of the sensor.
Some models have 35mm size sensors(full-frame), and others have smaller size sensors, APS size (so called crop cameras).

Prime lens is a lens that does not zoom, non-prime is a zoom lens.

You have a APS size(crop) camera and your lens is most likely a zoom, as most kit lenses are nowdays.

[DStanic]

prime lenses are ONE focal length. such as 50mm. There is no zoom, you gotta zoom with your feet. ;) The advantage of a prime lens is they are usually higher aperture then a zoom lens ("non prime" lens) and typically sharper and better IQ. With higher aperture (lower number) this means you can shoot in lower light conditions, and you also get more shallow depth of field (background blurred). The highest aperture zoom lenses only go up to f/2.8 (that I've seen).

Full frame digital cameras have a larger sensor, and use the whole circumference of the lens. "Crop" cameras such as any Rebel or 10D-50D are use smaller sensors, which effectively "crop" the amount of the lens used.

Check out this diagram: http://pixographers.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/sensor-diagram1.jpg

Generally a full frame camera will have better image quality (due to the larger physical size of the sensor) and also be able to blur the background better using the same lens. The advantage of a crop camera is that it multiplies the focal length 1.6x (at the same megapixel level). This is why EF-S lenses can NOT be used on full frame cameras.

Hope that is not too confusing. ;)

[Goshawk]

Ah posts like these makes me feel so knowledgeable:lol:

[witharebelyell]

sweet - good enough - great answers - thank very much
back to my search button
and back to filling my memory card
with my non full frame camera equiped with its capable non prime lens
cheers