Is it better to get a low-end full frame or high-end crop sensor DSLR?

[NayLoMo6C]

I am considering on upgrading my 50D to either a low-end full frame (6D) or a high-end crop sensor (7D), but I don't know which one I should choose. The price difference currently will be around $700-800. I am mostly going to be doing more photography and less video, so the video aspect won't matter to me much.

 

[PhotoWrangler]

What is your reason for upgrading? How is your current camera limiting your creative output?

 

[Overread]

Also do you want a 35mm sensor or the crop sensor? There are differences and advantages between the two and often its the sensor that is the most important part in the choice as opposed to many peripheral factors (eg frames per second etc....).

 

[cgipson1]

How good are your lenses? Since crop sensor bodies only use the center of full frame lenses (the sweet spot), that is an advantage. If you have low grade lenses, a full frame body may show corner softness and other aberrations you don't currently see with your crop body. FF usually requires better glass!

 

[2WheelPhoto]

medium format > full frame > APS-C > 4/3 > cell phone sensor. <---"period" is bolded

 

[Dao]

First, I think you need to know more about the differences between the format and the result with 2 different formats. What lenses do you have and are you going to use with the camera? What type of photos you are planning to take most of the time. In general, I do not believe one format is better than the other. There are situations that the cropped body is better (Macro, wildlife) while the FF maybe better in other situations (Portrait).

 

[Dubaiian]

How good are your lenses? Since crop sensor bodies only use the center of full frame lenses (the sweet spot), that is an advantage. If you have low grade lenses, a full frame body may show corner softness and other aberrations you don't currently see with your crop body. FF usually requires better glass!

I am also very interested in this discussion. I primarily shoot wildlife and Sports with my 7d and have great Glass (almost exclusively "L"). Where I find my 7d lacking sometimes is Noise. If I take a big landscape or a distant bird and have to heavily crop, the noise appears alarmingly quickly due to the amount I have PP zoomed. In these situations I am normally manually focussing and the subjects are still so I don't need the fast shutter of the 7d. Would a full frame 6d or 5D3 help me? I would keep the 7d for times when I need the speed.

 

[fjrabon]

How good are your lenses? Since crop sensor bodies only use the center of full frame lenses (the sweet spot), that is an advantage. If you have low grade lenses, a full frame body may show corner softness and other aberrations you don't currently see with your crop body. FF usually requires better glass!

I am also very interested in this discussion. I primarily shoot wildlife and Sports with my 7d and have great Glass (almost exclusively "L"). Where I find my 7d lacking sometimes is Noise. If I take a big landscape or a distant bird and have to heavily crop, the noise appears alarmingly quickly due to the amount I have PP zoomed. In these situations I am normally manually focussing and the subjects are still so I don't need the fast shutter of the 7d. Would a full frame 6d or 5D3 help me? I would keep the 7d for times when I need the speed.

Well, the issue with a full frame at that point is going to be that if you use the same glass, with the same focal range, you're going ot have to 'zoom in' even more via cropping.

So let's say you're shooting a 7D at 200mm at ISO 6400. Let's say you then cropped that in to an effective 1.5X zoom in post. Because of the built in crop factor plus your post production 'zooming' via crop, that image is like the equivalent of shooting about 460mm give or take a bit. The resulting image will be very noisy.

Now let's say you took the same shot, with the same glass on a 6D. You're now shooting at a 'real' 200mm, and in order to get the same zoom, you'll have to crop to a 2.25X level. Which even though you're starting with less noise because of the low light capabilities of the 6D, the fact that you had to crop that much in post makes it much closer than you would think. In my experience, the full frame usually still results in less noise, even with that kind of crop, but it isn't as dramatic of a difference as you'd think. And I find with my D7000, its low light performance is so good on a crop body that it can actually beat out an 'equivalently cropped' image in noise from some full frames.

 

[2WheelPhoto]

Noise (iso performance) is yet another factor to consider indeed.

 

[molested_cow]

I am skipping the replies.

What makes a "low end" camera?
What makes a "high end" camera?

What do you need?

From what I can observe now, the difference between high end cropped and low end FF is really the usability. More buttons on the outside.
Sure you get higher burst rate and faster flash sync but some of that are due to the nature of the sensor size. So that's a sensor debate, not high/low end. If you want equal on both, you got to pay more.

So the question, again, is: What do you need?

 

[TheBiles]

Full-frame always wins, in my opinion.

Sent from my Galaxy S III

 

[MLeeK]

I've rolled through here very quickly... It depends on what you are using it for.
You said photography and not video, but you don't say what kind of photography: Portraits? Landscape? Sports? Weddings? There are major differences in the needs for different kinds of photography. If you are shooting portraits and weddings? I'd probably go for the 6D.
Landscape-it really depends on your glass and your need for extra reach and/or high ISO handling.
Sports you'll like the extra reach of crop sensor. The extra FPS on the 7D will be nice, but the sensor in the 6D would be great!

 

[Derrel]

This question, APS-C or FF, is really **THE** question that d-slr buyers need to ask themselves. Answering the question is up to each individual user. "Some" people find that BOTH types of cameras are useful to have at their disposal. Others are happy with one, or the other type of camera. Budget is a big issue; many cams are expensive! Lenses are expensive! Photography in the modern era is not a cheap hobby or profession. I honestly think that buying a good, clean USED camera is a viable strategy for the majority of shooters. That way, a better "class" of camera can be had, for less cash outlay, and the depreciation has already been suffered by the person who bought the camera showroom-new. For me, personally, I like the higher "class" of camera, but I hate to pay full retail for anything unless I absolutely MUST. SInce this is the CANON forum, I am assuming you mean, "How is the 6D, as a value proposition, versus the 7D or 60D?"

For the majority of "casual" shooting, and just "general photography", the APS-C cameras with good lenses are fine. There are scenarios though where the bigger format cameras have advantages. If you need to ask, I think honestly, the answer is APS-C is the better choice for the majority of "normal" photography, with most of one's money spent on lenses and accessories, like a top-grade electronic flash, a good polarizer, and some software products.