Wildlife Photography across the Water: Full Frame or Cropped sensor

Sunday 22 March 2009

Full Frame or Cropped sensor

I read a mag yesterday and it confirmed things that I have been saying for the last couple of years, since Full Frame cameras came out and namely the Canon 5D people on forums see them as a holy grail-something to aim for whilst having to 'put up' with a camera body with a cropped sensor. I have always believed that a cropped sensor with the correct amount of pixels (I will come to that bit in a minute) will give as good an image as a full frame sensor. When the full frame bodies came out people were over joyed at being able to get good wide angle shots-great for landscapers, but the camera manufacturers soon dealt with that by bringing out super wide and lenses like Canons 10-22 and Sigma's 12-24 so that advantage was gone, with the new bodies using the latest technologies in processing, noise isn't so much of an issue either until you hit a certain amount of pixel density and here's the rub. The magazine tested the Nikon D700 Full Frame against the D300 and found image quality on both to be excellent and quite evenly matched up to ISO 1600, they also tested the Canon 40D and 50D and noted that the 50D with 15 MP against the 40D'S 10MP lost on image quality due to too many pixels as that was producing lots of noise as I believe Martin mentioned a few weeks ago when he borrowed one, so it seems that with the cropped sensors we have reached the plateau of around 12 mp for optimum IQ and after that IQ starts to drop off, I am sure in the future new processors will somehow remove grain and allow higher and higher ISO's to be used. So now we see an advantage with Full Frame sensors where you can still get good IQ at ISO 1600 and above but how many of us actually use extreme ISO, the price difference between a Full Frame body and cropped sensor body is substantial, the lenses needed for the Full Frames a have to be the best and are extremely expensive, this goes for the 50D as well, the high pixel count does not take kindly to cheaper lenses, the cropped sensors give you the reach advantage as well-its like having a 1.5x extender on which for people like myself can be a real boon, yes I do have a Full Frame camera but I also have a Cropped one as well and I find myself reaching for the D300 more times than the D3. So it was summerised as saying that very few (normal i.e. not pro's that need high MP bodies for agency work) people would see an advantage when using a Full Frame body to a cropped body as few people use extreme ISO and very few people print over A3 which a 10-12mp body can do nicely, dont get caught up in all the snobbery of Full Frame unless you need to and can afford the lenses.

Dave

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Bio's

David Courtenay, a self taught wildlife and nature photographer, has been capturing images for over 30 years. He has had a passion for wildlife since early childhood and remembers being glued to the television whenever Survival, Wildlife on One and other natural history documentaries were shown. In the 2006 he swapped his established career for the life of a wildlife photographer, such a move demands a measure of uncompromising passion and commitment.

David has travelled extensively throughout Europe as well as spending more than 7 months in India working with local guides and trackers in search of Bengal Tiger, Asian One horned Rhino and Asian Elephant. He has also photographed Wildlife in Australia, Malaysia, Thailand, Sumatra, Africa, Canada and America. Working closely with Conservation companies he tries to raise funds to help Wildlife that has been put on the endangered list by poaching and habitation loss

Martin Dyer has had a passion for avian wildlife since childhood, particularly raptors. Photography was also another keen interest and it was with the specific availability and control of the whole process that digital offers that Martin was then able to combine the two in 2003. Based in the UK, Martin is a regular visitor to Scotland, specifically the Isle of Mull to watch the Eagles resident there. Other trips to Europe and around the UK are usually part of Martin’s agenda in a typical year.

However, as a firm believer on making the most of the local patch, Martin has spent a lot of time and hard work creating a wildlife garden which is reaping the rewards with many new species and varieties of wildlife. A keen member of a number of wildlife photographic groups, Martin is keen to expand his portfolio into other areas of wildlife, and has already established a wide portfolio of images of fungi.