Are you wondering whether to go with FX or DX for wildlife ?

[Don Kondra]

Reading the numbers doesn't do it for me, I need to "see" it.

Using the new Nikon 80-400mm @ 400mm, same branch, same distance, different day but same sh*tty back light

The D800 @ iso 2000, no noise reduction/removal, quick edit.

Full frame.

My "normal" crop.

100% crop, no resize.

Crop area.

D7100 @ iso 1250 full frame, no noise reduction/removal, quick edit.

My model showed up and I didn't realize the iso was too low

My "normal" crop.

100% crop, no resize.

Crop area.

And finally side by each.

Cheers, Don

 

[CmazzJK]

This was interesting to me since I have no experience with full frame cameras, it shows the amount of difference the sensor really makes. Quality wise I'm not sure I see a huge difference in these examples with exception to the exposure.

 

[Derrel]

It looks to me like the cropped image from the DX camera has about, roughly, three times the degree of detail as the full-frame image shows...although it's hard to quantify that, that's just my own personal impression. Of course, none of this is scientific, but the degree of fine detail in the D7100 file is substantially higher than in the D800 file.

 

[coastalconn]

hmmm, well here's my chickadee at ISO 2200 on a D7100 from a few days ago. I don't have a fullframe to compare it too. But it was completely flat light in the snow..

Chickadee in the snow by krisinct- Thanks for 1 Million + views!, on Flickr
and 100% crop..

 

[coastalconn]

Looking back at your exif, the D800 was shot at F8 and the D7100 was shot at F6.3 and you still picked up more detail... Also why are you shooting at such a high shutter speed? 1/2000th and 1/2500th looks to be a bit overkill for a perched Chickadee... It's not really a fair test, but the D7100 clearly wins especially since it was underexposed which creates more noise... My 100% crop has 0 NR default sharpening in LR5

 

[Don Kondra]

My bad...

I should have said this "test" wasn't about image quality, it was simply about the difference in reach between a DX and FX body using a FX lens.

It's early days for me with both bodies but with recent studio shots on my screen it's hard to tell which body was used.

Zoom in though and it is easier to say

Cheers, Don

 

[randyphotoforum]

I shoot a D4,D800,D300 and a D7100.

The D7100's 24mp equates to approx a 58mp FX sensor so this is not a surprise.
The issues with the D7100 are not image quality or cropability, those are it's strengths.

It's weakness is it's AF, high ISO and to a lesser degree it's DR.

But it's a good body in good light. Try AFing BIF in poor light, it struggles

 

[Braineack]

When I was out shooting some deer the other day, I actually took it out of DX mode and then just cropped by hand.

I think I'd still prefer the 24MP of the D7100 when shooting telephoto vs the 24MP of my D600 and crop from there. If I crop to 1.5x, I've already gone down to a 16MP shot--think about how far in a DX shot you could "zoom" before doing the same. I HIGHLY crop most of my photos and have no issues doing so and still ended up with a great photo; not going to print it poster size, but it'll look very good on the screen.

Plus all the other benefits of a body that's more suited for wildlife photography (fps, buffer, focus points, etc.)


I need to post the non-cropped version of this shot:


Thirsty Squirrel by The Braineack, on Flickr

I'd say this was about 20% of the original.

This is something I debated when picking the D600 over the D7100. I do quite enjoy taking wildlife shots, but it's not really my main focus, and since I have no plans to print anything large, I figured I'd be fine cropping in shots.

Any now that the Tamron 150-600 is hitting the market at a decent price... Although a 2.0TC would be about $800 less and get me "close". pun intended.

 

[ruifo]

It's amazing to see the power of the D7100.

 

[matthewo]

Its a good sensor, but its "magic" is just the highest pixel density and no AA filter.

I cannot compare to a d800e as i only have the d800 with the aa filter. But i find the d7100 to give me more details in most all wildlife as i crop 99% of the time. D800 is great for full frame landscape style photos where best detail across the complete frame is needed.