Full-Frame Explained and How You Can Take Advantage of it.

Full-frame is coming fast and furious. With companies like Sony, Arri, and Canon getting into the cinema full-frame game and lenses coming to meet the demand, now is a great time to explore full-frame and look at how you can use it on your next production.

What is full-frame?

Full frame is about 1.48 times the sensor size as traditional super 35mm. That means you get a bigger image capture size. Full-frame has been around for a while in the photography world and any 35mm stills camera is full-frame, but it is only recently that the full-frame image has come to cinema cameras. You can shoot full-frame video with the 5Dmiii or the A7Sii, but these are stills cameras with video functions and are hard to use on production for many reasons including compressed bitrates, minimal I/O, and lower-grade media storage. To maintain the highest image quality while processing a bigger sensor requires a lot more processing power. The full-frame cinema cameras out today include the ALEXA LF and mini LF, Sony Venice and FX9, RED MONSTRO VV, and Canon C700 FF. We can take advantage of the bigger image capture in a number of ways.

Advantages of shooting full frame.

The biggest difference between standard super 35mm and full-frame is the field of view. With a 1.48 bigger canvas the full-frame field of view is wider. So to get an equivalence frame as super 35mm you need to use a longer lens. This means a 50mm on a full-frame sensor looks like a ~74mm on a super 35mm sensor. Full-frame allows you to use longer lenses with their characteristics to photograph the same field of view as traditional super 35mm. Think about a wide 24mm field of view with less visual distortion. Pretty cool! This is great for keeping any architecture looking as intended and avoiding unflattering distortion in faces.

The most noticeable difference is more depth of field. The bigger sensor allows for a more shallow depth of field. Given the same f-stop and focal length, the full-frame sensor is going to produce a shallower depth of field. This can be an amazing asset to filmmakers. Giving them more control over depth of field. A more shallow depth of field can be used to isolate the character in the frame or hide unwanted elements in the background.

Things to consider before using full-frame.

The first thing to consider is that full-frame is a bigger physical sensor not all of the super 35mm lenses will cover the full-frame sensor. You need to check beforehand if the lenses you plan on using will cover the sensor. When shooting with the Arri cameras, you can use the Frame Line & Lens Illumination Tool to see if the lenses you are going to use will cover the sensor.

The second consideration is having a more shallow depth of field isn't always desirable. Sometimes the full-frame at a low f-stop is too shallow. If that is the case then you will need to close down the aperture and let less light into the lens. This then makes the image darker. To compensate, you need to raise your ISO or your light level in the scene.

Full-frame cameras and lenses

Lenses: Leica Thalia primes, Cooke S7/i, Canon CN-E primes, ARRI Signature Primes, Sigma Cine FF Primes, Sigma FF Zooms, Schneider Primes, Tokina Cinema Vista Primes, Angenieux EZ and Optimo FF Zooms, Ziess Supreme Primes, and Rokinon Primes.

Cinema Cameras: ARRI ALEXA LF, ARRI ALEXA mini LF, Sony Venice, Sony FX9, Canon EOS C700 FF, and RED MONSTRO VV.