Going Big.

[Paul Dumm]

I have ben toying with getting a full frame DSRL. I would like to know if any of you out there in photoland use one and what you think of them. Are they worth the bigger bucks? Do you see any BIG changes in the photos that you took befor with the smaller sensors.

[cpasley]

Full frame? can someone explain this to me ,please

[Paul Dumm]

Full frame sensor. Your CCD in the camera, they call a full frame one that is the same size as an 35mm neg. (24mmx36mm) I think that the right size in mm's. When a lens designed for a full-frame camera, whether film or digital, is mounted on a DSLR with a smaller sensor size, only the center of the lens's image circle is captured. The edges are cropped off, which is equivalent to zooming in on the center section of the imaging area. The ratio of the size of the full-frame 35 mm format to the size of the smaller format is known as the "crop factor" or "focal-length multiplier″, and is typically in the range 1.3–2.0 for non-full-frame digital SLRs.

[F-16_fixer]

My only concerns about going full frame are the fact that my two biggest subjects which are aviation and wildlife require fast auto focus and framerate and all the reach you can get.  As you know when you go with the full frame you need even longer lenses to compensate and Canon really doesn't have a full frame with a fast frame rate or auto focus.  But that's just my two cents.   

[Paul Dumm]

Yep, lenes are the draw back, you almost most have to get new lenes as the camera will but it in crop mode if useing your "older" Digital lenes and nikon says you lose resolution too. so it's like buy new camera and toss out old lenes and buy new lenes???

[F-16_fixer]

I'm not sure about Nikon as I've never used any Nikon stuff but for Canon only EF lenses will work. 

[Paul Dumm]

It's kind of like that with Nikon, there FX do not get croped. But the DX do. The D700 is a Full frame and it's about $1000. more then the D300. but as I said it crops them. I was wondering if it is worth going for do you see a big change in how your photos look?

[Jay Beckman]

You'll see four major differences with FF Paul:

1) Reduction in FPS as nobody makes a FF camera that can bang through frames as fast as a smaller sensor-body.
2) Reduction in Depth of Field.  The physics of FF yield shallower DOF than croppers.
3) Reduction in Hard Drive space.  FF bodies yield much larger files!  Canon is now at 21Mp for the 1DsMkIII and 5DMkII with the rumor being 45Mp+ for the upcoming 1DsMkIV.
4) A result of #3 is the ability to crop more aggressively.  You can crop an image from the 1DsMkIII by 50% and still be at a file size on par with the 1DMkIII.

[cpasley]

Id say thats way to advanced for me at this point but id love to see what you comeup with Paul if you do decide to go with one

[Jay Beckman]

Clarifying my 2nd point above: You have the ability to shoot at shallower DOF with FF than with crop.

Didn't mean to make it sound like DOF is inherently shallower.