Camera and Lens tests

[Lenny53]

In what way?  More surface area to absorb more light, right?

Going from 394 square mm (DX sensor) to a 864 square mm (FX sensor) surface area will not change the EV (Exposure Value).

[Lenny53]

Instead of just saying "false", some sort of a reference would have been nice.

I'll use an old school reference if I may.  You have a hand held light meter and take a reading.  The result for that reading will apply cameras using 35mm, 2 1/4 or 4x5 (given the same ASA aka ISO) equally.

[peteski]

I'll use an old school reference if I may.  You have a hand held light meter and take a reading.  The result for that reading will apply cameras using 35mm, 2 1/4 or 4x5 (given the same ASA aka ISO) equally.

Sure, that's given. But can't larger image sensors be used at higher ISO settings without introducing noise to the image?  So for example you will be able to still take quality photo with either smaller aperture, faster shutter speed (or both)?

[Lenny53]

Sure, that's given. But can't larger image sensors be used at higher ISO settings without introducing noise to the image?  So for example you will be able to still take quality photo with either smaller aperture, faster shutter speed (or both)?

This is a different question from the required amount of light needed to take an exposure.   Larger photo-sites have larger lenses in front of them and are more accurate and less prone to introduce noise than counter-parts with smaller photo-sites.  A caveat here is kind of a Moore's Law for camera sensors in that the technology to produce the photo-site lenses is steadily improving as the sensors increase in the number of pixels along the noise reduction getting better means today's smaller photo-sites will out perform larger ones from just a few years back. 

[tom mann]

I should be more clear: it's not the sensor size, but the light capturing attributes of larger pixels. A 24Mp full frame has larger pixels than a 24Mp crop sensor.

This page explains what I'm trying to say:

http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/digital-camera-sensor-size.htm

Furthermore, larger pixels receive a greater flux of photons during a given exposure time (at the same f-stop), so their light signal is much stronger.

[MK]

FX sensors will give you approximately a 1 f-stop advantage in speed (or ISO, however you want to express it) than DX sensors.  But with today's sensors, hi ISO is no longer that much of a crippling factor.