I need a new camera body and the search has started. With regards to shooting primarily wildlife, are you preferring a full frame or crop sensor'ed camera?
I forget where I read the article, but read that crop sensor'ed cameras are often preferred because of the added reach. I would really like to get some additional thoughts on this.
Yes, a 100mm lens on your D60 will have the same "reach" as a 150mm lens on my D800. Said another way, if put a 400mm lens on your camera, it will "look" like a 600mm lens. So you get more reach with the same lens. That said, the same happens at the wide angle, where you need to "get to" 10mm in order to be the same as my 18mm, but that is not the issue with most wildlife. The other thing is the image size of the DX lens is smaller than the FX lenses, so the lens can be smaller and lighter (if you go with DX glass). The better and fast lenses are more likely FX, however.
Personally when my D300 gives up the ghost I will be going FX. The reason being is that since Nikon increased its MP count you have a ton more room for cropping if needed. As where when Nikon first released theD300, D700, and D3 they all had the same pixel count, so the cropping on the FX images were not as goo Image Quality wise. The D300 having the crop factor had advantages. And yes the FX/DX cameras do have about the same pixel counts, but since the counts are higher, the resolutions are greater. And you now have a very printable image in larger sizes as well.
There is no extra reach. That is a marketing fallacy. The only thing that the difference in sensor size does is change the apparent Field of View with a crop. So you have essentially cropped your image once not increased the reach.
As this little example shows what is really happening.
So you have to look at do you shoot mostly wildlife, and want the extra cropping ability? Or do you shoot some wildlife, and more general shooting where the extra field will benefit you? I do shoot wildlife a fair amount, but now do not care about the extra cropping ability with the new sensors. Now you have to ask, and think about whether you do as well.
Usually wildlife pros are using full frame with gigantic (expensive) lenses. The reason is to reduce noise in very low light , using very high ISO to get really fast shutter speeds. Just attended a presentation by
Ken Conger
at which he explained his reasoning. His site shows the gear he uses.
Since I don't have the big budget, I use a 70D with a 100-400L lens.
While I agree with Joves (and everyone else), you have to be careful. I compared my wife's 24MP DX D7100 to my 36MP FX D800. Yes, the extra crop factor of the DX vs the extra MP of the D800. Actually, her D7100 beat the D800 (could zoom in a bit more after accounting for the crop factor and extra pixels). However, it was really close. Obviously, I have an FX, so that is why I would go there (and the extra dynamic range and ISO, etc, as mentioned). But the question can get complicated. For the a given lens, DX has more "zoom," but there are tradeoffs.
Joves wrote: Personally when my D300 gives up the ghost I will be going FX. The reason being is that since Nikon increased its MP count you have a ton more room for cropping if needed. As where when Nikon first released theD300, D700, and D3 they all had the same pixel count, so the cropping on the FX images were not as goo Image Quality wise. The D300 having the crop factor had advantages. And yes the FX/DX cameras do have about the same pixel counts, but since the counts are higher, the resolutions are greater. And you now have a very printable image in larger sizes as well.
There is no extra reach. That is a marketing fallacy. The only thing that the difference in sensor size does is change the apparent Field of View with a crop. So you have essentially cropped your image once not increased the reach.
As this little example shows what is really happening.
So you have to look at do you shoot mostly wildlife, and want the extra cropping ability? Or do you shoot some wildlife, and more general shooting where the extra field will benefit you? I do shoot wildlife a fair amount, but now do not care about the extra cropping ability with the new sensors. Now you have to ask, and think about whether you do as well.
I have both formats. Both have the same mp so, as Gary said, the APS-C sensor's pixel density is greater and it does show more noise at higher ISO. I have not found noise to be a significant problem though and do use the crop body pretty much exclusively for wildlife shoots.
Not as often as I used to. But that is just because of where I am living now. There is not as much wildlife here as there was in northern Arizona that I want to shoot. But even if I was back home in Arizona I would be going over to FX for the reasons I stated above. The amount of cropping you can get away with now just make the FX format less appealing to me. I will even use my 3 DX lenses on an FX body.
I think my nephew's 1DX is a crop frame camera. From what I see his camera doing on wildlife I can't see much advantage in going full frame. Of course if your just looking for an excuse to get a full frame, go for it. Most likely which is better is going to be determined by how good you are!
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