Round image, round sensor?

So I was thinking ... Lenses give a round image circle. The sensor is a rectangle. I wish we had round sensors instead. That way you could always shoot with the camera horizontal and then crop to get a horizontal, vertical or rotated final image.

Then I figured out how to do this now with the gear we have now. Use crop-lenses on a high MP FF body and crop away.

A 21 MP 5d-2 when cropped to 22.3 x 14.9 mm would still be 8 MP.

Unfortunately I have no EF-S or crop sensor lenses. I'll have to try it by just shooting with a regular lens and then cropping / rotating in PP.

So here's the question - have any of you done any significant shooting with crop lenses on a FF body (other than UWA which tend to cover FF sensors)?

Why do you feel that you have to use EF-S lenses for this experiment? Just shoot with EF lenses and frame very loose, then crop to whatever you desire as a final result. In fact, you don't what to use a lens with a smaller image circle because then you will not fill the sensor long axis and you will lose some cropping options.

The downsides are pretty straightforward in that you will give up digital resolution and optical resolution. If the intended output is small enough this won't matter.

The other thing to note is that when you do this you will be shooting at a shorter focal length than if you fill the frame with the subject. This will have an effect of the DOF, which can be a negative or a positive depending on what you are looking for.

Yes JeffreyG, an EF-s is not needed for this. The benefit of using such a lens would be that you'll see the round image circle through the VF which may help to reinforce the idea that rotating the camera vertical does no good.

I have been taking photos for 45+ years. I have been using digital for about 4 years. There is lots of chatter on fora like this one from people who want to squeeze more performance out of their current equipment, or spend lots of money to buy higher performance. This is the first time I have ever heard someone actually want LESS out of their equipment. I find that odd.

Now I am totally confused. A round sensor would be how many pixels by how many pixels.

Mike

π x r2 = area of a circle. and then you would just project pixels per measure of area (mm/in whatever)

pixel density is probably a better way to describe image quality vs mega-pickles anyway

I'm GUESSING the OP is talking about how 'cool' it would be to have all the cool edge distortion that happens right at the edge of the glass show up on the sensor. (since I'm presuming the lens manufacturer does their best to make the distortion at the edges push far enough past the edge of the sensor that it isn't horrible), at which point, you can make a square, rectangle, triangle or any other shape you want out of the ENTIRE optical image projected by the lens, instead of the 'juicy' part that is designed to hit the sensor...

n1as wrote in post #15316454
I wish we had round sensors instead. That way you could always shoot with the camera horizontal and then crop to get a horizontal, vertical or rotated final image.

I was thinking the same thing. There are some technical issues that come into play but it is a neat idea at least. My Photo-of-the-Day yesterday was a circular composition:

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …/71540785@N02/8​236603564/

So...

Rather than actually bothering to think about composition while shooting you have chosen to throw away most of your camera's resolution?

Square image, square sensor (film)!

I've got a few Hasselblad 500CMs I'll sell ya.

Many DSLRs now have video. Could you imagine a circular video displayed on a wide screen TV?

you can't wait till Apple creates round iPad so you can take the round shots as you wish

I will be first in line to pick up the "iCircle" Just what we wanted, round images, round websites, next will be round computer monitors and round TV's!!


Wanting a round sensor is quite stupid IMHO, but that may be just me...

Brendo666 wrote in post #15318937
I will be first in line to pick up the "iCircle" Just what we wanted, round images, round websites, next will be round computer monitors and round TV's!!


Wanting a round sensor is quite stupid IMHO, but that may be just me...

Don't worry, It's not just you

I expect they'll get round to it in time