WANNA KNOW HOW BIG YOUR SENSOR IS??

Not really, Scrungee. If I stick my 500mm lens onto the K5 then, because of the crop factor of 1.5, it becomes the equivalent of around 800mm on a Full Frame camera. Don't forget a smaller sized sensor sees less of the image so when you zoom you're actually only zooming a smaller proportion of the image against a Full Frame or even a bigger sensor.

 

That's reasonably simplistic to answer, Freddy........well, maybe. When Digital photography started out the market was smaller, technology was a lot more restricted. So manufacture and production of digital sensors was a lot more expensive for the manufacturers and the smaller the sensor the less the cost. A 35mm sized sensor would have been so expensive to produce that only the elite with deep pockets could have bought such a camera. But now, with a still increasing massive global market, mass manufacturing sensor production is a lot cheaper. Having said that people become fans, as you have seen, of certain types of cameras with their associated types of sensor and persuading a fickle market to change over needs lots of investment and nerve from manufacturers.
I'm pretty sure that within the next 24 months more and more manufacturers will bring out Full Frame sensors in cameras that are affordable to the ordinary photographer. Sony have just brought out the Alpha 7R CSC camera with a Full Frame sensor {36.4 million pixel} in order to keep up with the pressure of keeping ahead of the competition.......but it's around £1699 just for the camera body which still puts it out of the reach [although not the desire] of us normal folk.

 

No, it was decided by the manufacturers, once there was stability in the market and the ability to mass produce cheaply, to have a standard size for DSLR's which ended up as APS-C. Some sizes of sensors have only recently been introduced like the Micro Four Thirds System which came into being via Panasonic and Olympus in 2008. So like I say once the manufacturers decide it's financially viable you'll start to see mass manufacture of Full Frame cameras, taking us back in history to the old 35mm standard, that ordinary photographers can afford. Maybe when that happens other size sensors will disappear although I doubt that.

 

Well, it's not that prudent, Freddy, as I think it will be at least a couple of years, maybe more, before the mass manufacture of affordable Full Frame cameras appear in all the types of cameras from Compacts to DSLRs. What we're seeing now is the introduction of Full Frame into the high end of camera ranges as Manufacturers "test the waters". I'm pretty sure that my camera brand [Pentax] will introduce a high end full frame DSLR and possibly other types within 24 months, but I won't be able to afford it as it will probably be around the £2000 mark just for the camera body. But someone, some time, somewhere will take the plunge in investing in mass production of Full Frame sensors and the rest will follow.
To be honest, I'm more than happy with the results I get with the APS-C sensor so I don't see any reason to move up to Full Frame until I've learnt all I can from using what I've got. Why move to Full Frame just because it is Full Frame??!

 

Yes, I think you're right, Freddy. It's like a lot of things, when they first appear they're usually highly priced and, because of the new technology, highly desirable to the consumer. But after awhile they become common place and the market price falls as manufacture becomes easier and newer technology introduces more desirable products.
You'll probably see the first Full Format DSLRs come in with 60-90 million pixels sensors to please the high end buyers. Then the natural evolution of increasing improvements and higher pixel levels will reduce the original 60-90 million pixels to common place and mass manufacture.

Yep, probably why I keep adding different lenses to my collection!!

 

Is that useful when taking photos of crop circles?

 

That would depend if you were taking a crop of them or just one, Shiney

You're actually close to the technical truth though. Shiney, as the image falling on the sensor is circular but of course the sensor only sees what it's sensor shape sees, i.e. oblong or square in the circular shape

 

I knew that!