Starting with an analog film camera capturing photos with standard 35mm film rolls, the technology used in a camera these days is way more complicated than it used to be. Analog film cameras haven't lost their charm yet, but digital has become a different beast. Manufacturers such as Nikon, Sony, Canon, Fuji, etc are rolling out new digital cameras with exciting features in every single quarter. In this post, we will focus on a bit of background about digital camera sensors and then dive deep into cropped sensor cameras. This would involve a comparison between Nikon APS-C vs Canon APS-C cameras.





What is an APS-C sensor format?

Ever bought a camera or lens online? There is always this term called "APS-C" mentioned in the camera catalog description or specification section. It can also be found easily in camera manuals. What is APS-C and what does it mean for a sensor? Both APS-C and APS-H are basically digital camera sensor formats evolved from APS(Advanced Photo System) film format. The APS film was introduced by multiple manufacturers in the year 1996 and had a film width of 24 mm. Being at 24 mm, the size of the APS film was 58% smaller than the standard 35mm film.

APS film basically had three print sizes on the basis of aspect ratios:

Classic (C): 3:2 aspect ratio and measurement of 25.1 mm x 16.7 mm.

High Definition (H): 16:9 aspect ratio and measurement of 30.2 mm x 16.7 mm.

Panoramic (P): 3:1 aspect ratio and measurement of 30.2 mm x 9.5 mm.

The APS-C sensors we hear about these days are approx equivalent to the size of the APS classic type. This is the reason these digital sensors are named as APS-C. APS-C sensors are also called as cropped frame sensors because they are smaller in size as compared to the full-frame camera sensors.









Canon APS-C camera shot





Canon APS-C vs Nikon APS-C

Coming to Nikon and Canon, both have a very similar line up of APS-C sensor cameras. In fact, both the manufacturers have a cut-throat competition with each other when it comes to capturing the digital camera market for both APS-C and full-frame cameras. One thing that can be difficult to digest between these two brands is the difference in the APS-C sensor size. Yes, both Canon and Nikon APS-C sensor cameras have a slightly different sensor dimension. An image sensor is like the soul of a digital camera, does this mean an APS-C camera from one manufacturer has an advantage over the other due to sensor size difference? Let's dive deep and see how much is the difference.





Canon APS-C: 22.2 x 14.8 mm

Nikon APS-C: 23.7 x 15.8 mm