Settings differences are clear on any camera if you teach it competently.

It is not that they are clear, but whether they are as easily observable. And I think the best lens to start with would be the ubiquitous 50/1.4. It is cheap, it is available, and there is no brand that does not have it.

Just concentrate on basics, and do not worry what it is like on the other formats.

The basics are the same on other formats.

Well, kind of. Just think about it, most standard mFT lenses are in f/3.5 to f/5.6 range. There are also f/6.3 and f/8, but let's forget about those. Now we have a standard lens on a camera that is equivalent to f/7.1 to f/11. Stop it down further, what difference does it make? Open it up more, it does not do it. And so how do you go about explaining those basics without showing them.

I just hope that the course was artistic and not technical, so that the OP did not waste his money.

Either way with FF dSLR is easier to see what means what, as it can do everything the cropped formats can. It is not the other way around unfortunately.

But still: the point is that it is a lazy teacher who wants to teach what is "easier to see" and does not show and explain also what different settings mean for the pupil's system of choice.

I would not call it "lazy". Asking each student what format he or she has, and then explaining their settings individually is rather unfair to the rest of the class.

When I took basic photography course, there were people shooting 35mm and 120. When the teacher assigned us to experement with DoF, didn't didn't differentiate who was shooting which. Just that we had to figure out with our own equipment how to get shallow and deep DoF and make good photos using each. There was never anything stating that we had to have a certain FL or required max aperture. It was understood that people shooting different gear would have different limitations.

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