Forget the Crop Factor!

From time to time you’ve heard the term crop factor, and you’ve probably also heard the term lens multiplier factor. Both are misleading and inaccurate terms used to describe the same phenomenon: the fact that non-full frame cameras provide a field of view that’s smaller and narrower than that produced by certain other (usually much more expensive) cameras, when fitted with exactly the same lens.

As a Canon EOS 5D Mark II owner, the crop factor doesn’t apply to you. Or does it? If you happen to own and use another Canon camera that is not a full-frame model (including the pro/semi-pro EOS 1D Mark IV or EOS 7D) you may want to keep the crop factor in mind.