Are full frame bodies all they're cracked up to be?

Hey Paul,

Can you be specific as to what you want to know? I have both full frame and cropped frame bodies. To me, both are fine. There are definitely trade-offs either way though.

James

I guess my main question is which will produce the sharpest images. Thinking mainly about far away wildlife, using super telephoto lenses. Going full frame and croping images in tighter in post computer work, or going with a croped format with more telephoto reach.

Hi Paul,

I am going to answer this question two different ways. At the basest level, 35mm lenses were all designed to go on a 35mm sensor. In my opinion, the full frame format is best met in this fashion as while there may be compromises, the system is just designed this way.

Having said that, it is not necessarily a perfect device and crop frame cameras have certain advantages. You specifically mentioned wanting to shoot wildlife and getting the most of a telephoto lens. Well, that is definitely the crop frame camera's reputation to fame...that the smaller sensor yields an alleged field of view difference that yields sharper photos that appear to have been taken with a longer focal length lens. This is achieved by using only the center of the lens. This may provide great adantages...allowing you to use smaller lenses to achieve the same result at the telephoto end.

James

...one thing I want to add. Photos taken with a 300mm lens has exactly the magnification, whether the camera be crop frame or full frame. The difference is that in a cropped frame camera the image circle is significantly smaller - so you don't get the light fall off and softness at the edges of the lens.

James

Thanks for your insite James!

In a world where people tout full frame like it is the cure to cancer, does it give you any advantage...is it better than DX?

My answer is that it is just a tool. It often comes down to feature sets. I can take a D800 and a D7000 with the right lenses and get similar results from the end picture. There will be reoslution diffrences and that truly IS useful (I print HUGE so D800 would be my choice ONLY because of that)

But take a look at my gallery. Everything in it is DX.

What I think this shows is that the best spent money is to invest in gear that allows you a budget to take a workshop or allows you to invest in your shooting skills some how.

I guarantee you that somone who invests in a D7000 and puts tome time an money into their shooting and post processing skills will far exceed a person who just buys a D600 or D800 (I know....I am talking in Nikon speak..but works the same for all makes).

Hope this helps.

Roman