Is a full frame camera really worth it?

[Alexander J.E. Bradley]

Since I got my Nikon D7000 camera 6 years ago I’ve used it almost everyday. That is a lot of shutter clicks, 148,558 to be exact. So it looks like I will be in the market for a new camera soon as the D7000 is only factory tested to 150,000 clicks. My dilemma is should I go full frame, or stick with my cropped frame. I keep asking myself, is a full frame camera really worth it? I took a Nikon full frame D610 and a Nikon cropped frame D7100 on a test drive around Paris to see the real world differences. You can check out the results of my findings here... <Link Removed>

 

[SquarePeg]

You title is a bit misleading as I suspect your more interested in getting people to read your blog post than actually answer the question you pose.

 

[ronlane]

I think it depends on what you are shooting, but I think everyone at some time wants to go with a FF body. (I know I do) I will speak for me, I do see an IQ difference in the FF images. Now, before the Crop sensor army tries to hang me, I do get really good IQ out of my 7D mk II, it's just I feel the FF is better.

 

[Ysarex]

You title is a bit misleading as I suspect your more interested in getting people to read your blog post than actually answer the question you pose.

I got that same impression.

Joe

 

[KmH]

Reported for signature (spam?) and off-site article link.

 

[Alexander J.E. Bradley]

I just put in the leg work to see what I would come up with. I wanted to see if there was something I missed or overlooked. I still havn't gotten around to purchasing anything yet.

 

[tirediron]

OP: Please note that TPF does not permit click-bait posts. You're welcome to post the article (In its entirety) in the 'Articles for Interest' forum.

 

[Alexander J.E. Bradley]

Got it. I will transfer it over there in this case. Until then, how do I delete this one? I can't see where to do that.

 

[tirediron]

No worries, it will go away on its own.

 

[Alexander J.E. Bradley]

This has been moved over to the Articles page. So this thread will probably dissaper soon. Sorry for posting it in the wrong spot in the first place.

 

[astroNikon]

I had a d7000 a few years ago. I then moved up to a d600. To see my results read this off site click bait blog ==> REMOVED
haha

Anyways, it really comes down to exactly the type of photography that you would be doing.
My initial foray into it was to get a more correct FOV as I was moving into portraiture in my basement which has a fixed walls. ie, you can't move back to get someone in frame. And I was using FF lenses because they were cheaper to buy (using AF-D lenses).

I also did a lot of night shot that required as fast a shutter as possible to gather as much light as possible, and 2 stops was very significant. So the FF was quite a quantum leap up for me from the d7000. Plus for some stuff I found the excessive cropping on the d600 was better than cropping on the d7000.

I also found using very specific shutter and aperture for sports and the higher ISO ability compensated for non-perfect lighting, whether evening, indoors or poor daylight light.

If you are shooting in nice bright days then the d7000 is fine, as is the d7100/d7200.

Alternatively, I'm trying shots closing down my aperture and adding flash .. and that much better Dynamic Range is working against me in blacking out the background in some shots. Go figure ...

 

[robbins.photo]

I think it depends on what you are shooting, but I think everyone at some time wants to go with a FF body. (I know I do) I will speak for me, I do see an IQ difference in the FF images. Now, before the Crop sensor army tries to hang me, I do get really good IQ out of my 7D mk II, it's just I feel the FF is better.

General.. we must mobilize the crop sensor army immediately!

Lol.. seriously though, I do see a difference between the full frame images and the ones I shot with my crop sensor D7100, even the ones shot in good lighting. Of the two I prefer full frame. I wouldn't say the difference is huge, but it was noticeable, at least for me.

Of course the huge difference is when I'm shooting in low light with no flash, which I do a lot. Granted the switch to full frame did require me to update at least one of my lenses, but for me it was worth it.

 

[Solarflare]

So it looks like I will be in the market for a new camera soon as the D7000 is only factory tested to 150,000 clicks.

Thats just a rough and conservative estimate. Depending upon how much dust you managed to get into your camera, the actual shutter times might be much higher.