Astral/H3X
Member
Yeah, sensor size is just the physical size of the "film" that it uses to take the image. It's important because ultimately, taking a photo is just a function of collecting light, and a larger sensor is a bigger bucket, if you will, with which to grab more of that light.
Phones generally have a very small sensor, not even the size of a thumbnail. For dedicated cameras, your main sensors are Micro Four Thirds (abbreviated either M4/3rds or MFT), larger than that is APSC (Which is considered the "sweet spot" size), going larger you'll find Full Frame (which matches what an old film camera would have), and beyond that you'll have Medium Format and Large Format (Which are probably bigger than some phones lol).
EDIT: oh, top of the page, uhm, I guess I can go over the more important camera terminology.
Body vs Lens -- With a dedicated camera, most of the time, the "Body" (the part you hold in your hands) is an altogether separate piece from the lens (the, you know, glass part). Changing lenses is what gives a camera its ability to take a wide variety of photos, better than say a phone. If you go on Ebay, or Amazon, or wherever, and see "Camera XYZ Body", then it's not going to come with a lens, so you'd have half of a camera. If you see "Camera XYZ Kit" or "Kit lens", then it'll come with the basic lens that'll get you started. Unless you really know what you're looking for, most would recommend getting this "Kit".
Lens characterstics -- There's a few important numbers on a lens, that tell you what it can do, but keep in mind that this is information you don't need right now. I'm telling you about this not because it's important for your first camera buying experience, but because it's important for your second purchase, which will invariably be a lens.
Focal length: Easiest way to explain this, is that this is a number that tells you how "zoomed" a lens is. In the case of a lens that zooms, this may be a range, such as a kit lens that goes from 16mm to 50mm (written as 16-50mm), meaning it'll go as wide out as 16mm, or as zoomed in as 50mm. If you see only ONE number (eg; 50mm), you're looking at a lens that does NOT zoom in or out at all, and is instead set to a single "zoom" level. These are called "Prime" lenses, and are valued for being optically very good lenses, that are sharp, lightweight, let in lots of light, and are generally cheaper. But, of course, you can't zoom -- it is what it is.
Aperture: This is the size of the "opening" of the lens, and determines how much light can get through to the sensor for your photo. It's sort of weird, because Aperture isn't specified by a size, but rather a mathematical relationship, so I'll just explain that smaller numbers let in more light. An f1.4 lens lets in a lot of light, compared to an f4 lens. You can see this written on a lens in several different ways -- usually written like "F1.4", but you may also see "f1.4", "f = 1.4", or even "1:1.4". These all mean the exact same thing. One thing to note, a lens can always close it's aperture and let less light in; for example, an f1.4 lens can close down to f4, though the opposite is not true. Why would you do this? Well, as you open up your aperture, more background becomes blurry (look at my avatar for example), but if you want the background to be clearly visible, you'd need to close down tighter to let it get in focus too. Many, many people like the blurry background look, referred to as "bokeh". Personally, I like so much bokeh, that I don't even like the entire subject to even be in focus, just the eyes or focal point.
Lens mount -- When you get a camera, it's going to have a specific "mount". This is the format that the lens uses to attach to the body, and *generally* these can pretty much be lined up by company. Short of using adapters, your lens must match the mount on your body. Sony cameras use E Mount lenses (And FE Mount, for their full frame, though the mount itself is technically the same), Canon uses EF or EF-S, Nikon is, I believe, DX or FX, and Fuji is... X? X mount? Not sure. There's also MFT or Micro Four Thirds mount, which is used by several companies. (The reason some companies have more than one mount, is usually APSC sized lenses, vs Full Frame sized lenses, but typically a full frame lens will work on their APSC mount, if a bit more cumbersome)
This all should help you start recognizing what a webpage is telling you about a camera, or at least help you recognize what the terminology means.
There's some other bullshit written on lenses, like "SSC" or "ASPH", things like that, but for most cases, these dictate coatings or other characteristics that are less immediately important to know -- they won't affect how you use the lens or what types of photos they'll give you, they'll just affect the quality.
Phones generally have a very small sensor, not even the size of a thumbnail. For dedicated cameras, your main sensors are Micro Four Thirds (abbreviated either M4/3rds or MFT), larger than that is APSC (Which is considered the "sweet spot" size), going larger you'll find Full Frame (which matches what an old film camera would have), and beyond that you'll have Medium Format and Large Format (Which are probably bigger than some phones lol).
EDIT: oh, top of the page, uhm, I guess I can go over the more important camera terminology.
Body vs Lens -- With a dedicated camera, most of the time, the "Body" (the part you hold in your hands) is an altogether separate piece from the lens (the, you know, glass part). Changing lenses is what gives a camera its ability to take a wide variety of photos, better than say a phone. If you go on Ebay, or Amazon, or wherever, and see "Camera XYZ Body", then it's not going to come with a lens, so you'd have half of a camera. If you see "Camera XYZ Kit" or "Kit lens", then it'll come with the basic lens that'll get you started. Unless you really know what you're looking for, most would recommend getting this "Kit".
Lens characterstics -- There's a few important numbers on a lens, that tell you what it can do, but keep in mind that this is information you don't need right now. I'm telling you about this not because it's important for your first camera buying experience, but because it's important for your second purchase, which will invariably be a lens.
Focal length: Easiest way to explain this, is that this is a number that tells you how "zoomed" a lens is. In the case of a lens that zooms, this may be a range, such as a kit lens that goes from 16mm to 50mm (written as 16-50mm), meaning it'll go as wide out as 16mm, or as zoomed in as 50mm. If you see only ONE number (eg; 50mm), you're looking at a lens that does NOT zoom in or out at all, and is instead set to a single "zoom" level. These are called "Prime" lenses, and are valued for being optically very good lenses, that are sharp, lightweight, let in lots of light, and are generally cheaper. But, of course, you can't zoom -- it is what it is.
Aperture: This is the size of the "opening" of the lens, and determines how much light can get through to the sensor for your photo. It's sort of weird, because Aperture isn't specified by a size, but rather a mathematical relationship, so I'll just explain that smaller numbers let in more light. An f1.4 lens lets in a lot of light, compared to an f4 lens. You can see this written on a lens in several different ways -- usually written like "F1.4", but you may also see "f1.4", "f = 1.4", or even "1:1.4". These all mean the exact same thing. One thing to note, a lens can always close it's aperture and let less light in; for example, an f1.4 lens can close down to f4, though the opposite is not true. Why would you do this? Well, as you open up your aperture, more background becomes blurry (look at my avatar for example), but if you want the background to be clearly visible, you'd need to close down tighter to let it get in focus too. Many, many people like the blurry background look, referred to as "bokeh". Personally, I like so much bokeh, that I don't even like the entire subject to even be in focus, just the eyes or focal point.
Lens mount -- When you get a camera, it's going to have a specific "mount". This is the format that the lens uses to attach to the body, and *generally* these can pretty much be lined up by company. Short of using adapters, your lens must match the mount on your body. Sony cameras use E Mount lenses (And FE Mount, for their full frame, though the mount itself is technically the same), Canon uses EF or EF-S, Nikon is, I believe, DX or FX, and Fuji is... X? X mount? Not sure. There's also MFT or Micro Four Thirds mount, which is used by several companies. (The reason some companies have more than one mount, is usually APSC sized lenses, vs Full Frame sized lenses, but typically a full frame lens will work on their APSC mount, if a bit more cumbersome)
This all should help you start recognizing what a webpage is telling you about a camera, or at least help you recognize what the terminology means.
There's some other bullshit written on lenses, like "SSC" or "ASPH", things like that, but for most cases, these dictate coatings or other characteristics that are less immediately important to know -- they won't affect how you use the lens or what types of photos they'll give you, they'll just affect the quality.
