Yep. I had the Canon IX which was an APS SLR. The 1.6 crop factor on modern D-SLRs reflects the fact that they have an APS-C sized sensor. All APS cameras suffered the same crop issue (indeed, they had it first).
The reason it was done was convenience.
In lots of ways, a smaller frame size works well - the APS cameras benefitted from the pros/cons of 1.6 crop D-SLRs, such as smaller, lighter lenses, smaller bodies, cheaper zooms, at the expense of wide angle. With film, there were a couple of other issues: small frame sizes equal smaller film and film canisters, enabling cameras to become yet smaller.
The big problem for APS was that it used film of the same quality as 35mm but less of it. Consequently, film noise on prints was much more significant - really at the boundary of acceptability. For people who care about convenience, features, and portability, APS worked well. For those who cared about print quality, 35mm or MF was always going to win out.
|
