Acquisition & Format Selector
Switch between different acquisition formats to see how the same lens performs across cameras, sensor modes, and recording codecs.
What is it?
Our Acquisition & Format Selector is one of the most technical and useful features we've added to the site. It's at the heart of how our test images are displayed.
It allows you to simulate different sensor sizes by cropping in and out, while also showing coverage beyond the standard full-frame area when we have captured a lens on a larger sensor.
In the future, we'll also be shooting lenses on the Sony Venice 65, allowing us to show the full extent of the image circle from lenses capable of covering these larger formats.
Purple border: You're looking at a target format. This means the image has been cropped, so you're not seeing the full extent of the source acquisition.
Cyan/blue border: You're seeing the largest possible extent of the image we captured from the lens.
At any point, you can click Match Source to switch to the full extent of the source acquisition. This setting persists across the site, allowing you to see the full coverage of a lens wherever you go.
If you refresh the page, you'll need to enable Match Source again.
Source acquisition > match source> target format
1. Source Acquisition
Source Acquisition determines which sensor was used to capture the lens.
Some lenses have multiple source acquisitions. This can happen because we:
- Captured the lens on different sensors
- Re-tested the lens to improve the test data
- Captured additional data at a later date
Each source acquisition tells you exactly which sensor was used to capture that particular lens.
By default, we select the largest sensor we captured the lens on.
Source acquisitions can be selected across pages that contain visual test data, including View & Compare, Browse Looks, and the Lens Detail page.
For most lenses, this option will be unavailable because we only captured the lens on a single source format.
2. Match Source
Match Source is the quickest way to see the maximum coverage we captured from a lens.
Think of it as: Match Source → Source Acquisition
When enabled, Match Source switches the display from your selected target format back to the full extent of the source acquisition.
This allows you to quickly compare the target format with the actual sensor area we used to capture the lens.
Where to Find It
The Acquisition & Format Selector is available anywhere we display visual test data.
You'll find it in the Controls section on:
- Lens Detail pages
- Compare pages
- Discovery pages
Your selected settings also persist across the site, so you can quickly preview every lens using the particular target format you're interested in.
Why do we use Target Formats?
You might wonder why we built this system in the first place.
Simply put, we want to show what lenses can do beyond their intended manufacturer image circle, but we don't want those extended areas to be the default view.
Showing every lens at its maximum possible coverage can make some lenses appear to perform poorly. You may see heavy vignetting, mechanical vignetting, or significant falloff towards the edges.
For someone unfamiliar with the lens, this can give the impression that the lens is performing badly when, in reality, they're simply seeing an area outside its intended image circle.
Instead, we want every lens that was captured full frame to be shown at full frame by default, while still giving you the option to explore how that lens performs on a larger sensor.
Super 35
The same principle applies to Super 35 lenses.
If a lens was captured in full frame but is designed for Super 35, we'll initially display it using a Super 35 target format. You can then switch to the source acquisition to see the complete area we captured.
The same methodology applies to Super 16:
A lens may have been captured on a larger format, but we'll initially show it using a Super 16 target format when that's the format the lens is intended for.
This gives you a more useful representation of how the lens is actually intended to be used, while still allowing you to explore the full extent of the captured image.
How it works and how it affects the data.
The way this allows you to work is you can select a target format that's applicable to you, but at any time you can click match source to then see the full extent of how it actually looks, for example, on a medium format sensor. So you can see just how bad the edges get and if it's going to be an issue for you or not.
Availability
Not every lens has multiple acquisitions, it depends on our testing schedule and the equipment available.
Every lens should be captured on a sensor larger than its image circle to show you exactly how bad things fall off.
Super 35 lenses are usually going to be captured in large format, while large format are usually going to be captured in medium format.