Affordable Full Frame Cameras

The best DSLR and mirrorless cameras for going full-frame while keeping your costs down

There are two big attractions in moving up from a crop-sensor camera to a full-frame system. First up, depth of field is more dependent on actual focal length, rather than the ‘effective’ focal length with a crop factor applied; the upshot is that you can get a tighter depth of field to blur backgrounds and make the main part of a scene stand out, ideal for portraiture and still lifes.

The other big bonus is that, if you stick to a modest megapixel count, the photosites (equating to pixels) on a full-frame image sensor are likely to be significantly larger than those on an APS-C or Micro Four Thirds sensor. This greater light-gathering potential generally equates to much cleaner image quality and far less image noise when you need to bump up your ISO. You also get greater retention of fine detail and texture, as there’s less need for the image processor to smooth out the appearance of image noise.

The downside is that full-frame cameras can be very expensive, even more so if you need to change all of your lenses as well. If you’re a Canon or Nikon user you might already have some compatible lenses, which can be used if you upgrade to a budget-friendly full-frame DSLR or mirrorless camera of the same make.

If you upgrade from a DSLR to a mirrorless camera, you’ll need a mount adapter. The budget-friendly Canon EOS RP isn’t available in the UK as a ‘body only’ item, and comes complete with either an EF-EOS R mount adaptor or a kit zoom lens.

Here, we compare affordable full-frame cameras from Nikon and Canon in DSLR and mirrorless form. Let’s take a closer look at the contenders...

FRONT

The pentaprism viewfinder is bright and clear, but unlike those of all of the other cameras in the group, it only gives 98% coverage of the image frame